Banks
Selling RBS
The state owning banks is not a good thing. It is, as the annual row over bonuses at RBS demonstrates, very difficult to keep politics out of the running of… Continue reading
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Mervyn King vs. Goldman Sachs
What did the Governor of the Bank of England think of Goldman Sachs’ plan to wait until the 50p rate is cut in April to pay bonuses? At this morning’s… Continue reading
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Don’t ban Frosties: teach children the life skills they need to make choices
What a very sensible idea from a group of more than 200 MPs in today’s FT: teach children about personal finance. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Financial Education for Young… Continue reading
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Will Osborne have the luck of the Irish with his 4G auction?
Could George Osborne be in line for a genuine windfall? The Chancellor is getting quite good at conjuring fake ones (Post Office pensions, raiding £35 billion from the Bank of… Continue reading
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The Great Reckoning
In my Observer column today, I talk about the scourging of Britain’s failed elite. To give readers an idea of how many institutions are in the dock, I quote an… Continue reading
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It isn’t Miliband’s anti-austerity message that should worry the Tories but his pitch for small business support
Ed Miliband’s speech to the anti-cuts rally today was well-pitched. The lines about how any government would have to make cuts guaranteed him the jeers that he needed to show… Continue reading
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A nice new row for the coalition
When Nick Clegg announced he was giving up the struggle on House of Lords reform, he named a number of policy areas that could fill the huge legislative void left… Continue reading
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Shelf Life: Anne Enright
Winner of the 2007 Man Booker Prize, Anne Enright is on this week’s Shelf Life. She tells us which book qualifies as the first satisfying satire on the Irish boom,… Continue reading
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More smoke from the Libor fire
A new cache of emails released today by the Bank of England reveal its deputy governor Paul Tucker was warned that it was ‘plausible’ that Libor rates were being ‘influenced by commercial… Continue reading
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We need a minister to defend the City of London
Is the City of London worth defending? Not many in the government seem to think so. Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, calls it a ‘cesspit’. George Osborne blames the financial… Continue reading
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City retribution
When City AM editor Allister Heath was leaving the BBC’s Westminster studios on Friday, the last thing he would have expected was to be ‘arrested’. Out popped an overexcited viewer… Continue reading
11 CommentsThe Libor mud-slinging makes things murkier
As the inquiry into Libor-fixing by the Treasury Select Committee rolls on, two things become apparent – one, as the muck spreads across the financial community it actually becomes harder… Continue reading
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MPs should move their money from big banks
by Stephen Williams MP The Libor scandal has shown the UK’s banking sector in its worst light. The public has lost trust in the big banks and are concerned that… Continue reading
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Diamond’s ‘complete lack of candour’
Bob Diamond could be rather too busy in the next few weeks to enjoy the £2 million salary and pension entitlement that he will still collect from Barclays despite waiving… Continue reading
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The Osborne/Balls stalemate
George Osborne and Ed Balls are now locked into something of a staring match over the Libor scandal, with one waiting for the other to flinch. After Paul Tucker’s evidence… Continue reading
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Tucker denies Labour leant on Bank over Libor
So Labour ministers did not ‘lean on’ the Bank of England to encourage lowballing of Libor rates, according to Paul Tucker. The Deputy Governor of the Bank told the Treasury… Continue reading
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What Labour did next on banking
When Ed Miliband gave his speech to Labour’s autumn conference last year, he rather tied himself in knots about how to end predatory capitalism. The Labour leader was trying to… Continue reading
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Inquiry debate leaves acrimonious atmosphere
Following the vote just now, there will be a parliamentary inquiry into the Libor scandal. Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury select committee, will chair it because Ed Balls has… Continue reading
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Osborne and Balls are playing high stakes on Libor
The exchanges between Balls and Osborne just now are some of the most heated and most personal in parliamentary memory. I suspect that Balls would now not offer to cook… Continue reading
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QCs could be the solution to the banking inquiry row
There are, though partisans don’t want to admit it, problems with both a judicial inquiry and a parliamentary inquiry into the Libor scandal and the wider culture it has revealed.… Continue reading
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