A Tobin tax would destroy London without making the world safer November 8, 2009 It is imperative that Gordon Brown’s proposals to levy a Tobin tax on financial transactions be defeated. Such a tax would be a disaster: it would endanger Britain’s economic interests and do nothing for ordinary taxpayers or the stability of the financial system. Championing such a scheme reflects a failure to engage with the real [...]
Personal insolvency on the rise November 5, 2009 The Insolvency Service is today expected to reveal that the number of people filing for personal insolvency in the third quarter of the year topped 30,000 for the second successive quarter as rising unemployment takes its toll on individuals’ bank accounts. Louise Brittain, a partner at Deloitte, said: “This figure is staggering, and unfortunately the [...]
Car sales get a boost from scrap scheme November 5, 2009 THE government’s “cash-for-bangers” sweetener scheme helped boost new car sales by nearly a third last month, compared to the same time last year. The incentive programme contributed to a 32 per cent rise in new car sales to 168,942 in October against 128,352 a year ago – the fourth monthly increase in a row and [...]
The long arm of US litigation is reaching over the Atlantic October 27, 2009 A COURT case launched in New York this month by shareholders from England, France and the Netherlands against French media company Vivendi, alleging fraud, has struck fear into European executives worried that they too might find themselves on the receiving end of US litigation. It is rare for the American courts to allow foreign shareholders [...]
Personal insolvency levels to break records in 2009 October 27, 2009 PERSONAL insolvencies will jump to the highest figure on record today, according to new figures from insolvency specialist Tenon Recovery. On average there have been 300 personal insolvencies every day in 2009 – with an estimated 107,014 personal insolvencies so far this year. Tenon Recovery’s national head of bankruptcy Mark Sands is predicting that the [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 21, 2009 HeartwoodThe wealth manager has appointed Kirsty MacArthur as a relationship director for new clients, a role based in London. MacArthur joins from UBS, where she was responsible for advising ultra high net worth clients across the sport, media and private equity sectors. Prior to that, she worked at Coutts & Co, where she was an [...]
Insolvencies for Q3 are falling October 20, 2009 THE number of companies with significant and critical financial problems has fallen both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter, figures from the rescue, recovery and restructuring specialists Begbies Traynor showed yesterday. The figures show how HMRC’s Business Payment Support Service, which has seen more than 215,000 companies defer payment of £3.79bn in tax liabilities, are helping, it said. [...]
A new Glass-Steagall Act wouldn’t work October 20, 2009 WHEN the Governor of the Bank of England – and if the Tories are elected, the next chief financial regulator – calls for investment banks to be separated from retail banks, everybody should sit up and listen carefully. King seems deadly serious, and George Osborne said last night that he agreed with much of the [...]
Windfall taxes cannot be the answer October 18, 2009 IF TAX policy were determined by referenda, London’s financial institutions would be in even greater trouble than they already are. I was a guest on James Max’s LBC radio show yesterday and it was soon clear that the overwhelming majority of callers hate banks with a passion. My own position, which is that it would [...]
We need more facts and less emotion October 15, 2009 RAGE against bankers is reaching yet another crescendo, especially as many of the main players are once again making bumper profits. In large part, the anger is visceral and emotional, fuelled by a staggeringly simplistic analysis of the causes of the crisis peddled by much of the media; but plenty of intellectually powerful arguments are [...]