All three parties are failing UK business: Digby Jones lays out his policy challenge October 9, 2011 NOW that all the nonsense of party conference season is over, as Westminster heads back to work and the rest of us continue to try and earn an honest living, what did we hear from the mouths of our political masters? Did any of the three main parties show the UK business community that they [...]
Why Mervyn King is wrong about QE October 7, 2011 IT was strange for Mervyn King to claim yesterday that the financial crisis may yet turn out to be worse than the Great Depression. The world faces monumental challenges. But the mass unemployment, protectionism and rise of fascism of the 1930s has so far been avoided and many emerging markets are still buoyant. Over-using apocalyptic [...]
Why Mervyn King is wrong about QE October 6, 2011 IT was strange for Mervyn King to claim yesterday that the financial crisis may yet turn out to be worse than the Great Depression. The world faces monumental challenges. But the mass unemployment, protectionism and rise of fascism of the 1930s has so far been avoided and many emerging markets are still buoyant. Over-using apocalyptic [...]
MADE IN CHELSEA LINK IRKS TOPSHOP TYCOON September 15, 2011 A NIGHT in is inked in the diary for Sir Philip Green next Monday, when the first episode of the new season of Made In Chelsea airs, starring his 20-year-old daughter Chloe. “I will be watching it on Monday night, of course,” he told The Capitalist. The conversation took a turn for the worse, however, [...]
Stepping into the property market of the new world order August 11, 2011 WITH debt and financial turmoil gripping the economies of Europe, North America and Japan, it’s not hard to look at the rise of India, China and Singapore and sense a coming shift in global power. Recent headlines have been staggering: last year, David Cameron led the largest British trade delegation to India in living memory, [...]
Chancellor right that banks must be allowed to fail June 15, 2011 IT is a shame that much of the City will be focused on the crisis in Greece and its repercussions on global markets this morning, for there were some surprisingly good ideas on banking regulation at Mansion House last night. There was a clear shift in attitude on display: the chancellor’s pronouncements were by far the [...]
Euro versus dollar: a scrappy fight May 10, 2011 OVER the last fortnight, the euro-dollar pairing has turned into a bit of an ugly dog contest, with both sides competing to see who carries the fewest fleas. However, the euro came out second best in this challenge last week, hit with attacks from all sides. The tipping point for the pairing came when the [...]
Bank to face questioning over inflation May 8, 2011 THE BANK of England releases its latest Inflation Report on Wednesday, with economists increasingly divided over the outlook for price pressures in the UK. Consumer price inflation unexpectedly slowed to four per cent in March, yet official figures released next week could show a rebound for April. Input costs for manufacturers accelerated to 17.6 per [...]
Let us hope we get the right reforms April 10, 2011 It was spun by George Osborne as an attempt to take the politics out of banking. Yet the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) has achieved the opposite: its interim report, out this morning, will merely kick-start the bitter row over how banks should be regulated. Banker-bashing, which had subsided in recent weeks, will rear its [...]
NO CASH FOR LIB DEM INTERNS AS CENTRAL OFFICE PASSES THE BUCK April 7, 2011 JUST days after Nick Clegg made an earnest pledge to improve expenses for the Liberal Democrats’ army of unpaid interns, The Capitalist was amused to see three job ads for internships at the party on the Work for an MP (w4mp) website offering barely a cup of tea. The “short volunteer opportunity” to work in [...]