Any other business
Is the US using bank fines to bring allies into line against Russia?
Here’s one for all you conspiracy nuts out there, prompted by readers’ comments on my recent item about whether BP…
Santander’s secret: to conquer the world, stay like a small-town bank
Four years ago, I wrote that I knew no dark rumours about Santander, the rising force in UK high street…
BP's been punished enough – but not because Americans hate the Brits
I should declare two connections before I start offering opinions about the latest US judgment against BP relating to the ‘Macondo’…
Rona Fairhead will be good for the BBC – but who was so keen to nobble her rival?
Hats off to Rona Fairhead, the former Financial Times executive who will succeed Lord Patten as chairman of the BBC…
Europe's leaders worship Mario Draghi. They should listen to him instead
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi secured a place in history by his demonstration, on 26 July 2012, of the…
It’s not just left-wingers who think the bosses’ pay boom is unhealthy
The FTSE100 index stands precisely where it did in the first week of December 1999. Whichever way you look at…
Why a City job should be graduates’ last resort
August is the season for conversation about career choices. Every holiday party seems to include new graduates or next year’s…
The man who could sell the British public on fracking
Iain Conn, who will succeed Sam Laidlaw as chief executive of Centrica, would have been a dead cert for the…
I know how ineffective sanctions are – but these ones just might work
‘Sanctions,’ said Kofi Annan, ‘are a necessary middle ground between war and words.’ Neither the EU nor the US will…
Forecasting is a mug’s game – but I was right about the economic revival
‘Perhaps I should shift my prediction to 23 July 2014,’ I wrote in April 2012. ‘That’s the opening of the…
Any other business: trouble spots in European banking
‘1914: Day by Day’, the Radio 4 series by the historian Margaret MacMillan, is a gripping reminder that significant global…
Gold-fixing is the last ghost of the old City. It won't be around much longer
In a season obsessed with sport and personal misbehaviour — separately or in combination — the word ‘fixing’ immediately brings…
‘Dark pools’ are just another conspiracy of bankers against the public
It was at the Mansion House dinner last year that a City gent two seats away announced himself to be…
George Osborne’s cynical grab for northern votes (and why I’m for it)
When John Prescott used to wax garrulous about a ‘superhighway’ from Hull to Liverpool, everyone assumed it was a wheeze…
The return of oil price anxiety is a timely reminder to get fracking
‘Iraq turmoil sends crude oil prices to nine-month high’ is the sort of headline that used to send shivers down…
The internet is broken – and we can no longer do without it
‘The internet is broken,’ a corporate chieftain told me last week. It was an arresting remark, but he did not…
I salute the wisdom of young Scots on independence (they’re voting No, by the way)
It’s a constant theme of this column that today’s young need to stop whingeing about their prospects and get on…
Fight Thomas Piketty or face a mansion tax
The postman at the door is stooped by his burden like an allegorical statue of Labour Oppressed by Capital. His…
Forget about saving British big pharma – it's little pharma we should be helping
Readers in all sorts of places — at the club bar, over a birthday lunch, even along the church pew…
Are we killing investment banking? And if we are, should we care?
Do we really mean to kill investment banking, or are we trampling it by accident in a fit of righteous…
Pfizer’s already beaten Ed Miliband. Now it just needs to offer the right price
Pfizer will almost certainly have to offer more than its second bid of £50 a share for rival drug giant…
Why the bankers’ bonus debate is not going away
A bouquet to Alison Kennedy, ‘governance and stewardship director’ at the Edinburgh-based pensions provider Standard Life, for leading the rebellion…
George Osborne is entitled to look smug
The popular pastime for financial commentators this season is sticking pins in George Osborne. To those on the left who…
Should the Co-op be preparing for its own funeral?
‘Care, respect, clarity and reassurance’ are what the Co-operative funeral service says it offers the bereaved, and the parent Co-op…
Don’t blame ministers for the Royal Mail sell-off. Beat up the bankers!
Vince Cable and Michael Fallon, ministers responsible for the Royal Mail sell-off, have been summoned for another select committee grilling…
