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 [...]
How will Francois Hollande’s victory in the French presidential election affect the City? May 8, 2012 WELL Syed Kamall His greatest enemy is finance and his strategy for defeating it is taxing it to death. Francois Hollande has made quite clear how he detests bankers. He has also been shouting loudly about his plans to introduce a 75 per cent tax rate on all income above €1m and a unilateral financial [...]
Court in Germany rules against Microsoft in tech patent fight May 2, 2012 A COURT in Mannheim ruled yesterday that Microsoft had infringed Motorola Mobility’s patents, and ordered Microsoft to remove its popular Xbox 360 gaming consoles and Windows 7 operating system software from the German market. However, Microsoft said that the ruling did not mean that its products would be taken off retailers’ shelves because a US [...]
Abu Dhabi ruling family and Li Ka-Shing vie for airports stake April 29, 2012 TWO of the wealthiest investors from Abu Dhabi and China are competing to back Manchester Airports Group’s bid for Stansted Airport. The group, which owns East Midlands, Bournemouth and Humberside airports, is looking to raise approximately £1bn to bid for the London airport should BAA place it on the market later this year. Li Ka-Shing, [...]
BAA offloads Edinburgh for shock £800m April 23, 2012 THE dismantling of BAA’s British interests moved forward yesterday when it agreed to sell Edinburgh airport to City airport owner Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for a surprise £807m. GIP, an investment fund founded by Credit Suisse and General Electric, beat a consortium led by JP Morgan Asset Management’s infrastructure fund. The price dwarfs the £500m [...]