Banking
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…
Would the return of the drachma mean a bonanza for banknote printers?
Bank job Should we buy shares in companies which print banknotes in expectation of one getting to print millions of…
Osborne’s false prophet: why Jim O’Neill will never deliver a ‘northern powerhouse’
Why Jim O’Neill isn’t fit to run the Northern Powerhouse
The dinner where laissez-faire banking died
Last week’s deadline did not allow me to report from ringside at the Mansion House dinner, but there was so…
From surfing to takeovers: the story behind the richest man in Brazil
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?
Which is worse, morally and reputationally — to be Thomas Cook, shamed by its refusal to show proper human concern,…
‘The problem isn’t that we’ve been slaves to free markets’: Joseph Stiglitz interview
Joseph Stiglitz, the left’s favourite economist,on making the free market work
Why David Cameron is best placed to win the crucial Ikea vote
If Ikea were a constituency, it would be a three-way marginal. That was my thought one morning last week as…
Why so many bankers secretly like Labour’s non-dom proposal
The interesting thing about Labour’s pledge to abolish non-dom tax status — a squib designed to trap Tories into expressing…
So the FTSE100 has finally broken its record – it’s still not doing nearly as well as executive pay
The FTSE100 index has at last breached 7,000, surpassing its peak of 30 December 1999 and provoking moderate celebration among…
Here’s what a real reform of business rates would look like
Of all the measures talked up ahead of the Budget, the reannouncement of a ‘radical’ review of the business rates…
Won’t someone please unleash the challenger banks?
In my Yorkshire town of Helmsley the NatWest branch, originally an outpost of Beckett & Co of Leeds, has closed…
Watch out: Standard Chartered is even trickier to manage than credit default swaps
One day you’re an elder statesman, chairing top committees and pontificating on Question Time, and the next you’re out in…
Paul Mason’s diary: My Greek TV drama
It’ll be a Skype interview, says the producer from Greek television, and not live. In TV-speak that usually means not…
How Labour’s 50p tax trick has ended up helping George Osborne
Last week’s public borrowing and tax-receipt figures, headlined ‘Chancellor hails biggest monthly surplus in seven years’, received considerably less attention…
