Articles:
- Running scared with nowhere to turn - It’s traditional when a financial crisis gets particularly feverish to wheel out President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s comforting dictum: “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself” - 6th August 2011
- In the shadow of the eurozone - Like all banks, Barclays faces serious headwinds from adverse new capital rules and is at the mercy of the wider economy: if growth continues to slow or turn negative, those bad debt provisions will start to pick up again - 3rd August 2011
- Inquiry into failure at HBOS is long overdue - It is almost three years since the HBOS collapse, but it is only now that we learn for certain that regulators are formally investigating potential wrongdoing at the bank - 23rd July 2011
- This investment can fly because it’s transparent - Even the most naive investor has to be sceptical about much of the innovation in the City of London. Too often, new products turn out to be wheezes whose brain-boiling complexity seems designed to befuddle - 15th July 2011
- Nearly 2,000 years on and still a good idea - The banks have seen sense. The cheque has been reprieved. The death sentence pencilled in for 2018 has now been indefinitely postponed - 13th July 2011
- There is no shame in flying the flag - It’s time that ministers became a bit less starry-eyed about the benefits of inward investment - 12th July 2011
- Beware giving too much power to Ernie’s elbow - Using National Savings & Investments to borrow money is a no-brainer for ministers - 8th July 2011
- Portugal must shrug off Moody’s blues - Portugal is not Greece. Its debts as a proportion of national output are smaller. It has a stable Government committed to pushing through austerity measures. It didn’t fiddle its figures to get into the euro in the first place. And a comparatively high proportion of its people routinely pay their taxes - 7th July 2011
- Investors don’t always bank on big returns - High returns from British banks are a modern phenomenon - a reliable, pedestrian reward from bank shares sounds positively delicious - 6th July 2011
- Remember when Rank made comedy films? - Rank’s gong-bashing he-man launched many a quirky black and white comedy in his time. But few of its sagas were half as risible as the company’s own antics in the past few weeks in the face of a cheekily cheap takeover bid from the Malaysian billionaire Quek Leng Chan - 5th July 2011
- Rush for the exit leaves Aviva short of options - And then there was one. The decision by Mark Hodges, the head of Aviva’s huge UK insurance division, to jump ship to Towergate means that three of the four key lieutenants to group chief executive Andrew Moss have left in the space of six months - 3rd June 2011
- Gunning for a big investment beast - It hasn’t been a great week for Exchange Traded Funds. These are those clever listed investment products that are promoted as a way of tracking an index at low cost and are sold in huge quantities to institutional investors and private punters - 25th May 2011
- Boost for savers but not the industry - Mervyn King should be on commission. Twenty four hours after the Bank of England governor warned that inflation will hit 5 per cent this year, National Savings & Investments announced plans to resume the sale of inflation-protected savings certificates - 13th May 2011
- Only way is up — for inflation, not growth - Now we have it from the Governor of the Bank of England. Inflation is likely to hit 5 per cent this year, Mervyn King has conceded. That’s Consumer Price Inflation, mind. Retail Price Inflation, a better measure of the cost of living for many, tends to be a bit higher. So 6 per cent seems all too probable - 12th May 2011
- Motivation in store for the troops — via video - How do you lead and inspire half a million people? It’s not just a question for politicians - 11th May 2011
- Banks admit defeat but will lessons be learnt? - The banks have rightly abandoned their fight over payment protection insurance - 10th May 2011
- Britain is a member of a very exclusive club - The roll call of nations starting to lift their interest rates, in some cases aggressively, is becoming longer by the week - 4th May 2011
- A code of conduct on its own is not enough - We know of Warren Buffett as investment genius. We know of him as billionaire philanthropist. We know him as a wry and sagacious commentator on Western capitalism. But the notion of the Sage of Omaha as naive dupe is a new one - 29th April 2011
- Let’s tax the irksome - George Osborne is reported to be poised to push up duty on super-strength lagers in the Budget this week - 21st March 2011
- Bankers acting in the national interest? - One closely guarded secret in the City is how many — or how few — of the big hitters and big earners employed in the largest investment banks are actually British - 12th March 2011
- Banker-bashing over? Not likely - There are two corpses on the motorway — a dead cat and a dead banker. What’s the difference? There are skid marks in front of the cat - 29th January 2011
- Amid the jargon, a template for reform - Sir John Vickers is no great orator. The Independent Banking Commission chairman’s keynote speech at the weekend — theoretical, dense, heavy with jargon and footnotes — was more of an economics essay than a piece of rhetoric - 25th January 2011
- Hola! Fasten your seat belts - The vote by cabin staff yesterday for more strikes sounded a discordant note as British Airways attempted to celebrate the consummation of its merger with Iberia of Spain - 22nd January 2011
- Inflation lies on the road to Wigan, it appears - As Mervyn King ponders yesterday’s dire inflation numbers, he might do worse than look at recent events at the Heinz baked bean factory in Wigan - 19th January 2011
- Now we can cut to the Chase - Until now, every number in all the acres of coverage about imminent City bonuses has been speculation and educated guesswork. Now, with figures from JP Morgan Chase, the first serious investment banking player to report 2010 results, we at last have something concrete to go on - 15th January 2011
- Day of sound and fury signifies nothing - Bob Diamond dutifully received his spanking from MPs yesterday - 12th January 2011
- Back to front about bonuses - It looks like the Government’s attempts to curb City bonuses have been a complete bust. That should surprise no one - 8th January 2011
- Ten good reasons to be cheerful in 2011 - A view seems to have taken hold in the past few weeks that 2011 is going to be a stinker - 1st January 2011
- London charm offensive pays off - 21st December 2010
- Another fine snap decision - John Varley’s decision to step down early leaves him with at least one less headache. By leaving on Barclays on January 1, he won’t have to deal with the explosion of public anger over City bonuses almost certain to erupt in the early weeks of next year as the loot gets paid out - 18th December 2010
- Time we all knew story behind bailed bank - Pressure for the Financial Services Authority to publish its report on the collapse of Royal Bank of Scotland is intensifying - 15th December 2010
- Property will keep its attraction - Ask bankers what they plan to do with their annual cash bonuses this January and a lot will admit to looking at bricks and mortar. Again - 11th December 2010
- Happy shares? I’ll buy into that! - "David Cameron will today announce plans for a “happiness index” as he asks the national statistician to devise ways of gauging the quality of life in Britain" - 27th November 2010
- A Bank Holiday? Bah, humbug! - You don’t have to be a rampant republican to be riled by David Cameron’s remark this week that there should be a public holiday to mark the Royal wedding - 20th November 2010
- Plain answer calms Rolls nerves - The rogue engine on that Qantas flight eight days ago was reduced to a shattered, charred remnant. Finding out what went wrong looked hard. Yet Rolls-Royce yesterday was certain it had the answer. Its statement could not have been plainer - 13th November 2010
- Eastern froth and asset bubbles - Stuart Gulliver, the soon-to-be-elevated chief executive of HSBC, is right to raise concerns about overheating in emerging markets - 6th November 2010
- Maybe Pru chief was right after all - Tidjane Thiam could be forgiven for howling: “I told you so.” Prudential’s chief executive was berated by many of his shareholders this year for wanting to pay $35.5 billion for AIA, the pan-Asian insurer - 30th October 2010
- Loyalty brings broader reward - There’s a novel idea kicking around that receives hoots and snorts from institutional investors and companies whenever it is mentioned, yet surely deserves much more serious consideration: loyalty dividends - 23rd October 2010
- Packaged up and set to unravel - The big, largely unreported, financial story this week was not the planned privatisation of Royal Mail but the planned nationalisation of its enormous pension scheme - 16th October 2010
- It’s up a cliff and the Bank won’t look down - You’re walking along a ledge halfway up a mountain. The cliff wall towers above you on your left. To your right is a sheer drop. The path is a metre or so wide. Do you keep to the centre of the path? - 9th October 2010
- A case of Monte Carlo and bust - Daytime TV is awash with commercials from ambulance-chasing lawyers urging people to seek compensation for any mishap - 2nd October 2010
- The safe, and correct, option for HSBCm - Mike Geoghegan, who is being defenestrated noisily from the top floor of HSBC, is a talented man - 25th September 2010
- Inflation set to inflict more pain - The decision by the BBC this week to freeze the licence fee next year will save most households £3. The penny-a-litre rise in fuel duty due next month will cost them an average of £13 a year - 18th September 2010
- One cloud or a storm brewing? - It’s a wobble at the very least. Yesterday’s UK services sector figures were disappointingly weak. The main driver of the economy has slowed. Orders and employment in the sector have contracted - 4th September 2010
- Float the right move after all - Web-based businesses have a horrible habit of disappointing when they come to the stock market. Sometimes the sense of anti-climax takes time, sometimes the gloom descends even before the business has formally floated - 28th August 2010
- Spending spree fails to deter the doubters - Anyone expecting consumers to start spending more liberally any time soon must be living on a different planet - 27th August 2010
- Trouble on the hamster wheel - Paul Polman is starting to earn a reputation as the Mr Awkward of Britain’s blue-chip chiefs. The chief executive of Unilever has already blasted hedge funds as opportunists who would sell their own grandmothers to make money - 7th August 2010
- The death of the payout has been greatly exaggerated - There is more joy in Mammon over one company that resumes paying dividends after a lapse than over 99 righteous companies that never falter in the first place - 31st July 2010
- A shabby, retrospective reform - Business leaders haven’t fully woken up to it yet but they have just had bestowed on them the mother of all gifts - 10th July 2010
- Putting the stress on credibility - The planned stress-testing of European banks is in danger of descending into farce. Hopes that the successful American experience last year could be a template for Europe this year now look naive - 8th July 2010
- BBC struggle is one to watch -Fresh clues as to how public sector organisations may go about cutting their gigantic pension costs emerged this week. It wasn’t pretty - 3rd July 2010
- Hair shirt today, gone tomorrow - When asked to predict the path of the UK economy these days, I’m reduced to a rather lame, We’ll Muddle Through Somehow - 27th June 2010
- A ploy from realms of fantasy - In a parallel universe similar to our own, a private memo finds its way from Whitehall to Wapping - 19th June 2010
- Time for BP to make a gesture - BP’s first-quarter dividend of £1.7 billion has not yet been paid - nor should it be. The oil company should suspend it - 12th June 2010
- Prudential shareholders in rebellion? All power to their elbow - The importance of events at the Pru is hard to exaggerate - 3rd June 2010
- The least worst option for American taxpayers - BP’s struggles in the Gulf of Mexico and Prudential’s attempt to negotiate a price cut for AIA are denting Brtain’s reputation - 29th May 2010
- The journey back from brink is proving slow - Unpalatable realities of economics are having to be faced in the eurozone and in Britain but where is the urgency? - 15th May 2010
- The perils of prolonged horse trading - A hung Parliament may not only delay tackling the deficit, but also paralyse decision-making by private enterprise - 8th May 2010
- The three main party leaders? Lock ’em up - Precision may be impossible but it is fair to expect those chasing our votes to outline areas where they would cut - 1st May 2010
- Time to sort out the bad eggs in banking - Bankers rightly say that a regulatory crackdown is unlikely to improve things much. A revolution from within is needed - 3rd April 2010
- Black Horse rides to the Chancellor's rescue - Lloyds Banking Group’s forecast of a return to profits has given Alistair Darling some room for manoeuvre in his Budget - 20th March 2010
- Rewritten history spoils good story - Standard Chartered has had a great financial crisis, so why has the bank mucked about in the presentation of its dividends? - 6th March 2010
- Bewildering flights of fancy - Every second in 2009, Lloyds was writing off another £760 as clients queued up to say they could not honour their debts - 27th February 2010
- The bitter taste of bid politics - Takeover Panel should investigate how Kraft's takeover campaign created unfounded hope for Cadbury's Somerdale plant - 13th February 2010
- It’s all a matter of timing — just ask investors at Icap - So the founder of the broker sells shares that go on to plunge in value. Outside shareholders hate this kind of thing - 6th February 2010
- All hail the grumpy old men - It has taken the 82-year-old Paul Volcker to put bankers in their place. If only Britain had some wise owls of its own - 23rd January 2010
- It’s bonus season. Cue impotent public wailing - We bailed them out, yet bankers are still rewarding themselves lavishly. What can be done to curb their excesses? - 21st January 2010
- Google beards Chinese tiger - In pursuit of their laudable aims, the internet group’s co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are burning dollar bills - 16th January 2010
- Put paid to pay consultants - ‘Socially useless’ fits advisers on board remuneration like a glove. What do they achieve except hoodwinking investors? - 9th January 2010
- Buyer beware or be fleeced - The story of 21st-century consumption is not so much about shopping as about shopping around. Any consumer unable or unwilling to spend hours doing just that risks being mercilessly plucked - 2nd January 2010
- In which Pooh learns that honey isn’t everything - The bonus culture has even taken root in the Hundred Acre Wood, as Tigger bounces with pleasure for more extract-of-malt - 26th December 2009
- When bamboozling spins out of control - Our banks have grown too big and their so-called financial innovation too complex. If some want to quit Britain, let them - 19th December 2009
- A tax on bankers’ bonuses may prove too difficult in practice - It is likely the ingenious City people will find a way round any attempt to make them give up this perk - 7th December 2009
- To buy or not to buy, that is the question - These are high-risk, high-return odds, and attractive ones so long as you can afford to lose everything - 5th December 2009
- Battle for the nation’s savings - National Savings & Investments was luring savers away from the private sector - it certainly wasn't a level playing field - 21st November 2009
- If only they had sobered up - The First Quench board should have seen the writing on the wall when it bought casualties from the supermarket booze wars - 31st October 2009
- Big bank bullies v new boys: no contest - Just think – Virgin or Tesco could produce a new kind of customer-friendly bank. Think again - 29th October 2009
- Hit when we dared to hope - Economic statistics do not just reflect the past; they can also help to influence the future - 24th October
- The silence of the pension funds - The institution whose members were hit hardest by the financial crisis is too philosophical by half about reckless banks - 10th October 2009
- The magnetic pull of China - The banking chief executive's move from London will send out a strong signal that HSBC is serious about emerging markets - 26th September 2009
- Sweet dreams, but not for us - Cadbury, a brand from childhood, has a grip on the popular imagination quite unlike that of most large companies - 12th September 2009
- Of banks and vampire squid - The original remark by Lord Turner that some banking was socially useless, is on the face of it incontestable - 5th September 2009
- Too big for their own good - A tentative threat by regulators this week to slap a tax on City trading has triggered a furious response in the Square Mile - 29th August 2009
- It's time to take responsibility - It needs greedy, gullible, incurious lenders as well as dishonest developers and surveyors to make mortgage scams work - 22nd August 2009
- Bank on King to pull no punches. But his critics may hit harder - The pregnant pause of a former deputy, when asked if the Bank of England Governor was too mighty, has added to City doubts - 21st August 2009
- Inflation is dead — car hire apart - We might be staring at deflation but car hire prices are rocketing because rental companies are unable to secure finance - 15th August 2009
- My 20 reasons to be cheerful about the economy - So the UK growth figures were 'awful' ... Never mind, look on the bright side of life: things aren't as bad as they seem - 25th July 2009
- Oh to have a pension at RBS - The near-basket case that has had to tap taxpayers for £500 billion runs Britain’s most generous staff pension scheme - 18th July 2009
- Is Barclays above its station? - Barclays has grand ambitions in high-risk investment banking, wanting to displace Goldman Sachs as the pre-eminent player - 11th July 2009
- Housing is turning the corner - Financial gloom is the fashion. No one can publicly admit to seeing the bright side without inviting ridicule - 4th July 2009
- King of Shaves would make Sweeney Tod blush - King of Shaves has positioned itself as the small but superior product doing daily battle in the world’s bathrooms - 27th June 2009
- The foundation of a recovery - A surprisingly chipper Pete Redfern, the chief executive of Taylor Wimpey, is calling the bottom for British house prices - 20th June 2009
- Rio Tinto: show some Agincourt spirit - All that is needed is for fund manager A to pick up the phone to B and C and together determine to show grit and tenacity - 6th June (See also: Mining: summary)
- Quick-fix culture has to end - The secret of successful investment - and governance - is to select only a few baskets for your eggs and watch them like a hawk - 30th May 2009
- British Airways must change direction - In more than two decades, the fruits of the airline's success, such as they are, have entirely accrued to the management and staff - 23rd May 2009
- Is investment plan structured or perplexing? - A new structured product by Barclays at first glance does appear enticing, but at second glance it becomes apparently less generous - 16th May 2009
- Pssst! RBS bill might vanish - The actual cost of the bank's bailout for taxpayers could well turn out to be a fraction of the said £500bn, and could vanish completely - 9th May 2009
- The case for Chrysler rebels - While some may be unsympathetic hedge funds, others are mainstream fund managers trying to protect the interests of Americans - 2nd May 2009
- A week in the life of G. Osborne - 'I have to find some deep spending cuts or massive tax rises - and quick, so we can attribute them to Labour’s imprudence' - 25th April 2009
- It needs welding - not just a pot of touch-up paint - The dire figures for UK car production yesterday helped to explain the Budget decision to offer £1,000 bungs to people trading in old bangers for new vehicles - 25th April 2009
- Bailing out charities and councils: rewarding incompetence? - Like so many bankers, regulators and fund managers in this financial crisis, charities too may be rewarded for their ineptitude - 4th April 2009
- BP: do us all a favour, Sir Tom McKillop - BP seems to have mysteriously lost the plot. The company is recommending that Sir Tom McKillop be re-elected to its board - 28th March 2009
- A penny saved is a penny not in circulation - The reason we in the UK are now saving more is not because we have our eyes on a Tuscan castle but because we are scared - 28th March 2009
- Time to stop pussy-footing over banks - Banks pose difficult problems and every instinct in Whitehall and Westminster seems to have been to keep them at arm's length - 21st March 2009
- Your starter for 10, Lord Myners - The City Minister was in contact with RBS directors over Sir Fred's severance terms the weekend that taxpayers were tapped for £20bn - 14th March 2009
- Rolls-Royce must rise to the challenge - Rolls enjoys a tremendous reputation for engineering excellence and safety, but the verdict from the US air safety watchdog is explosive - 14th March 2009
- It's all about fairness, Mr Mervyn King - We now need officials and new bank chiefs - terriers who are prepared to get down and dirty to fight on behalf of the Exchequer - 28th February 2009
- Eric Daniels must keep his eye on the bailout ball - The last thing Eric Daniels needs at present is a scandal over the severance terms offered to the rats leaving the sinking HBOS - 28th February 2009
- No one pays back a bonus - The unpalatable truth is that much of 'the talent' in banks has turned out not to be talented. The system is rotten and flawed - 7th February 2009
- No more running for cover - The intriguing thing about institutional investors' evidence to MPs this week was not that they demanded Sir Fred Goodwin's head on a plate in early 2008. It was that they did precisely nothing when for the following six months or more the platter failed to arrive - 31st January 2009
- The case against Gordon Brown - The PM has to bear responsibility for past policies that amplified the credit crunch and made Britain particularly vulnerable - 24th January 2009
- Heroic handling needed to save economy - 17th January 2009
- Barclays shares battered in short order - 17th January 2009
- Hard times demand desperate measures - 10th January 2009
- Psst! Want to pay a lot for cheap shares? - 10th January 2009
- A win-win view of the blame game - 3rd January 2009
- High time to speed up fundraising process - 3rd January 2009
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