Banking

Angry, funny, timely

1 August 2015 9:00 am

It’s not Paul Murray’s settings or themes — decadent aristocrats, clerical sex abuse, the financial crisis — that mark him…

Farewell to the City’s stroppy regulator: a modest sop for the new bank tax

25 July 2015 9:00 am

A City insider at last month’s Mansion House dinner told me the Financial Conduct Authority had become ‘a bit of…

Barometer

4 July 2015 9:00 am

Bank job Should we buy shares in companies which print banknotes in expectation of one getting to print millions of…

The wrong man

4 July 2015 9:00 am

Why Jim O’Neill isn’t fit to run the Northern Powerhouse

Late news: what was really served at the Mansion House banquet

20 June 2015 9:00 am

Last week’s deadline did not allow me to report from ringside at the Mansion House dinner, but there was so…

The surfer, the sailor and the horseman: prosperity is all about personal stories

13 June 2015 9:00 am

The tectonic plates of economic life rumble and shift. As ever, market watchers are obsessed by big themes — and…

Which behaved worse: callous Thomas Cook or cynical Barclays?

30 May 2015 9:00 am

Which is worse, morally and reputationally — to be Thomas Cook, shamed by its refusal to show proper human concern,…

Unequal struggle

30 May 2015 9:00 am

Joseph Stiglitz, the left’s favourite economist,on making the free market work

Only the Tories can meet the aspirations of Ikea’s hard-working families

2 May 2015 9:00 am

If Ikea were a constituency, it would be a three-way marginal. That was my thought one morning last week as…

Cheap shots and uncosted bribes are drowning out vision, wisdom and optimism

25 April 2015 9:00 am

The interesting thing about Labour’s pledge to abolish non-dom tax status — a squib designed to trap Tories into expressing…

Why this long-awaited FTSE100 peak deserves only a small cheer

28 March 2015 9:00 am

The FTSE100 index has at last breached 7,000, surpassing its peak of 30 December 1999 and provoking moderate celebration among…

A truly radical review of business rates is worth more than all the Budget spin

21 March 2015 9:00 am

Of all the measures talked up ahead of the Budget, the reannouncement of a ‘radical’ review of the business rates…

Something useful for your Budget, George: fast-track approval for challenger banks

14 March 2015 9:00 am

In my Yorkshire town of Helmsley the NatWest branch, originally an outpost of Beckett & Co of Leeds, has closed…

Advice to StanChart’s new chief: reputation is even tougher to manage than financial risk

7 March 2015 9:00 am

One day you’re an elder statesman, chairing top committees and pontificating on Question Time, and the next you’re out in…

Diary

28 February 2015 9:00 am

It’ll be a Skype interview, says the producer from Greek television, and not live. In TV-speak that usually means not…

Just in time, Osborne answers Labour’s 50p tax trick with a bumper monthly surplus

28 February 2015 9:00 am

Last week’s public borrowing and tax-receipt figures, headlined ‘Chancellor hails biggest monthly surplus in seven years’, received considerably less attention…

Green must answer for HSBC’s faults — but he’s another victim of big banking’s perils

14 February 2015 9:00 am

Stephen Green — the former trade minister Lord Green of Hurstpier-point, who became this week’s political punchbag— was always a…

Cuckoo clocks, Chinese dragons and magic needles: the pros and cons of currency pegs

24 January 2015 9:00 am

The Swiss National Bank usually ticks away as quietly as one of its nation’s more expensive timepieces, but when the…

This time round, the eurozone looks robust enough to get rid of its Greek problem

10 January 2015 9:00 am

Ever since European Central Bank president Mario Draghi declared himself ready, in July 2012, ‘to do whatever it takes to…

Will 2015 witness the Triumph of Probity and Prudence? I’m not betting on it

3 January 2015 9:00 am

You might recall a column I once wrote about a party at the Wallace Collection. It took place in late…

Thank heavens for Welby!

15 November 2014 9:00 am

For decades, interventions of the Archbishop of Canterbury in national debate were like a sporadic bombardment of small pebbles against…

Kilkenny Notebook

15 November 2014 9:00 am

‘What is a Minsky moment, anyway?’ asks Gerry Stembridge, an Irish satirist. ‘I’ve been reading about them in the papers…

Italy takes the stress-test booby prize as the old Spanish fox emerges the winner

1 November 2014 9:00 am

Continuing last week’s theme, it was the Italian banks — with nine fails, four still requiring capital injections — that…

Stormy October: Germany stumbles, shares fall and bankers take another bashing

18 October 2014 9:00 am

October is always a turbulent month, and I’m feeling uneasy about this one. The FTSE100 index, which looked set to…

Will Osborne’s tilt against Double Dutch tax dodgers play into Farage’s hands?

4 October 2014 9:00 am

George Osborne’s promise to crack down on multinational companies’ avoidance of UK taxes by the use of impenetrable devices such…