Is Lord Oakeshott right that RBS should be split up into a retail and investment bank? June 26, 2012 YES Richard Lloyd The RBS failure has highlighted just how critical basic banking services are to consumers and small businesses. It is crucial that high street banking is protected from instability. Our Future of Banking campaign recommended that essential retail banking services should be ring-fenced to help protect depositors from risk-taking elsewhere within the bank. [...]
Impact of immigration on the labour market is exaggerated June 25, 2012 IMMIGRANTS are better-educated than their UK counterparts and less likely to be in social housing, research from the London School of Economics revealed yesterday. The study from the Centre for Economic Performance follows a speech from Labour leader Ed Miliband last week in which he argued that worrying about immigration should inform policy more. The [...]
Irish minister says Ryanair’s bid for Aer Lingus is too low June 21, 2012 SHARES in Aer Lingus dipped 3.2 per cent yesterday after the firm’s board and the Irish government dismissed Ryanair’s takeover bid for the former flag carrier. Aer Lingus stock closed at €1.05, below Ryanair’s €1.30 per share offer price, as investors and analysts looked at the next steps for the firm.” The Irish government, which [...]
Greece jumps out of the fire and straight into the frying pan June 18, 2012 IT was the kind of giant kicking sound that always warms the financial markets’ hearts. And no, I wasn’t referring to football, but to Greece’s nail-biting election finish, which saw the euro granted a stay of execution. Pro-bailout parties eked out a small victory, avoiding an immediate and explosive Eurozone crisis, albeit at the cost [...]
Clive Maxwell to take top job at the new competition regulator June 14, 2012 THE MERGER of the Competition Commission and parts of the Office for Fair Trading (OFT) into the new Competition and Markets Authority will be managed by senior OFT official Clive Maxwell, the government said yesterday. The career civil servant has spent the last three years at the regulator, where he worked on deals including the [...]
Tucker: Liquidity rules are damaging the recovery June 12, 2012 REGULATORS should lower banks’ liquidity requirements to help them fight the current crisis, top Bank of England official Paul Tucker said last night, arguing that tight constraints are damaging the sector and the wider economy. The very public intervention shows that Tucker would be a more flexible regulator than outgoing Bank governor Sir Mervyn King. [...]
Our fatally conceited elites are being confronted with reality June 7, 2012 IT was FA Hayek, an economics Nobel prize winner of immeasurably greater distinction than Paul Krugman, who put it best. In his book the Fatal Conceit, he launched a devastating attack on those who believe that elites can mould and control humanity’s destiny. Central direction is impossible, a limitation those in authority never accept. Past [...]
Forget the Brics: Breakout nations will be the next countries to watch May 27, 2012 NO IDEA has done more to dull thinking about the world economy than the acronym Bric. It lumps together Brazil, Russia, India and China, all with little in common other than that they are the largest economies in their regions. The Bric idea has spawned endless copycats in the last decade, because it was an [...]
Britain’s solitary stance on energy policy is foolish May 24, 2012 THE government’s draft Energy Bill is an utter disaster. It reverses the course of UK energy deregulation, which cut prices, and will lead to confusion for companies and added costs for consumers. Lord (Nigel) Lawson, who as energy secretary was the architect of Britain’s energy market deregulation in the 1980s, has warned that the Bill [...]
Enterprise Bill promises to cut tribunal costs May 23, 2012 BUSINESS secretary Vince Cable yesterday unveiled the government’s Enterprise and Regulatory Reform bill and claimed that it will “make Britain one of the most enterprise-friendly countries in the world”. Measures in the bill, announced as part of this month’s Queen’s Speech, include changes to the employment tribunal system, introducing a new Competition and Markets Authority and giving [...]