Banking
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…
Lord Green must answer for HSBC’s sins – but maybe it was always too big to manage
Stephen Green — the former trade minister Lord Green of Hurstpier-point, who became this week’s political punchbag— was always a…
Why Switzerland should have listened to Hong Kong on currency pegs
The Swiss National Bank usually ticks away as quietly as one of its nation’s more expensive timepieces, but when the…
The eurozone is strong enough to kick out Greece if Syriza wins
Ever since European Central Bank president Mario Draghi declared himself ready, in July 2012, ‘to do whatever it takes to…
What to expect in business in 2015 (probably not the Triumph of Probity, Honour and Prudence)
You might recall a column I once wrote about a party at the Wallace Collection. It took place in late…
Thank heavens for Justin Welby!
For decades, interventions of the Archbishop of Canterbury in national debate were like a sporadic bombardment of small pebbles against…
The subversive wonders of Kilkenomics – where economics meets stand-up
‘What is a Minsky moment, anyway?’ asks Gerry Stembridge, an Irish satirist. ‘I’ve been reading about them in the papers…
How Italy failed the stress test (and Emilio Botín didn’t)
Continuing last week’s theme, it was the Italian banks — with nine fails, four still requiring capital injections — that…
Storm warning: the world economy’s October troubles aren’t over yet
October is always a turbulent month, and I’m feeling uneasy about this one. The FTSE100 index, which looked set to…
Why the real winner from George Osborne’s ‘Google tax’ could be Nigel Farage
George Osborne’s promise to crack down on multinational companies’ avoidance of UK taxes by the use of impenetrable devices such…
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…
