Banking
Can John Lewis and Waitrose really remain partners?
Historians of unforeseen crises talk about ‘chaos theory’ and the ‘butterfly effect’, in which a small perturbation far away —…
The Co-op Bank isn't worthy of its name
We’ve heard a lot this week about infrastructure spending, and how much more will be needed if the UK is…
What’s the point of trying to break up ‘big tech’?
The ‘antitrust’ law suit launched by US authorities against Google has been reported as a potential turning point in the…
Internet scammers can fool anyone – including me
Please don’t suppose I’m unaware I’ve been an idiot. I recount what happened to me last week without expecting your…
Is now a good time to talk about Jews and money?
Is now a good time to talk about Jews and money? The Jewish Museum in London thinks so, and perhaps…
An amoral money world needs ethical campaigners more than ever
When I first visited Canary Wharf in the early 1990s, I was struck by a set of black-and-white posters in…
Don’t believe the Tory grumbling: HS2 is on the way
There’s a lot of negativity around HS2, and I sniff a Brexit connection. You might think Leave campaigners whose aim…
Scrapping RBS’s brand is a start. Now break it up
Royal Bank of Scotland is at last about to dump the ‘RBS’ logotype promoted by its fallen chieftain Fred Goodwin,…
The death of investment banking as we know it? Bring it on
Oh woe. Investment bank profits are evaporating after a disastrous contraction of trading revenues reflecting zero-to-negative interest rates, weak commodity…
Warning: the FTSE100 isn’t out of the woods just yet
When the FTSE100 fell close to 5,500 in February, we all said ‘Mr Bear is back’. On Tuesday the index…
Sell the London Stock Exchange if you must. But not to Frankfurt!
The London Stock Exchange is no longer the red-hot crucible it once was, given the multifarious ways by which shares,…
The City’s real players may be voting ‘out’ in the EU referendum
‘The City is in no doubt that staying in Europe is the only way ahead,’ declared Mark Boleat for the…
If there’s a crash now, the markets will have done it to themselves
All this talk of a new financial apocalypse, so soon after the last one, is starting to annoy me. Partly…
Sorry, George: Britain’s economy is still a tale of two nations
Upbeat or downbeat? I asked last month whether the mood where you live is energised by enterprise or demoralised by…
France can’t build its own new nuclear power stations, let alone ours
Amid all the turmoil in global energy markets, we should not lose sight of the UK power programme that we’re…
We don’t need research to change banking culture. We need jail sentences
Was the Financial Conduct Authority leaned on by the Chancellor to scrap its ‘review of banking culture’? Or did it…
After the Black Friday flop, shops can get back to what they do best
The high street flopperoo that was ‘Black Friday’ may have something to do with terrorism fears, or even the downturn…
We must play the blame game over HBOS. How else will bankers learn?
‘Everyone remembers the names of Applegarth of Northern Rock and Goodwin of RBS, but history may judge the HBOS men…
Letters: Why politicians should leave doctors’ pay and hours alone
The NHS and politicians Sir: The NHS is indeed in need of fundamental reform, but Max Pemberton’s excellent article (‘The…
If the world economy crashes again, blame the central bankers
Like the Christmas pudding sampled by Hercule Poirot at Kings Lacey — but six weeks early — our Spectator Money…
Maybe bitcoin isn’t the work of the devil, after all
I confess to being an out-and-out Luddite when it comes to bitcoin and other so-called crypto-currencies. To the extent that…
The good economic news that we forgot in the China panic
Home from the hot Aegean, huddled by the fire as rain ruins the bank holiday weekend, I’m thinking: what gloom…
This time we really are getting tough on dodgy bankers (just don’t expect it to reach the boardroom)
Fourteen years is a long stretch. The punishment imposed on former UBS and Citigroup trader Tom Hayes for his role…
A broad farce about banking’s dirty secrets in post-Celtic-Tiger Dublin
It’s not Paul Murray’s settings or themes — decadent aristocrats, clerical sex abuse, the financial crisis — that mark him…
Why the City might yet miss stroppy regulator Martin Wheatley
A City insider at last month’s Mansion House dinner told me the Financial Conduct Authority had become ‘a bit of…
