Business
The City still leads the financial world but faces a fight on all fronts
Should we place faith in a survey, conducted in June but published this week, that says London is still the…
Hollande equals Thatcher? If only
Have you ever tried discussing the merits of gun control with a Texan, or of deregulated labour markets with a…
Why it makes sense to buy your banker lunch
We recently moved -offices from Canary Wharf to Blackfriars bridge. When you move after a long time in one place,…
Why Ratan Tata is still Britain’s greatest inward investor
If asked to pick the UK’s inward investor of the century so far I would, without hesitation, name Ratan Tata,…
Don’t believe the recession hype – or this commodities boom
All in all, this is an odd moment for an outburst of high spirits: not from me — I’m as…
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…
The bears are here to stay – but we’ll survive
Like Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant, we’ve just been savaged by a bear but we’ll probably survive. Leading UK-listed stocks…
How contactless cards will change the world (much more than you think)
I am one of those annoying, mildly claustrophobic people who sit at the end of a row in cinemas. There…
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…
Any Other Business
Last year was a bumper year for mergers and acquisitions. Recovering prospects and relatively low price-earnings ratios made the takeover…
A Christmas parable from the Spectator’s business editor
I thought you might enjoy a little parable for Christmas, so here goes… The boardroom clock said twelve minutes…
The micro-businesses that give me hope for Belfast
At Stormont on Saturday, we observed a minute’s silence for the dead of Paris. Our conference group of Brits and…
Perfectionism isn’t the same as integrity – as VW has shown
Not that I was much of a boy racer, but the sexiest car I ever owned was a 1982 Volkswagen…
Our terrified central bankers have sat on interest rates long enough
When news broke last Thursday evening that the US Federal Reserve had decided to keep interest rates on hold, I…
Don’t weep for Costa – but the Living Wage punishes small businesses that need our support
What is George Osborne’s Living Wage? Is it a ploy to shift cost from the taxpayer to the employer by…
How Britain still gets boardrooms wrong
Sir Adrian Cadbury, who has died aged 86, is remembered as the author in 1992 of a first stab at…
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…
Forget Greece: China's economic slowdown is the biggest story of the year
China’s long boom may finally be ending. The consequences for the world will be profound
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…
God’s management consultants: the Church of England turns to bankers for salvation
Justin Welby wants the C of E to focus on growth – and he’s enlisting bankers to help
The only certain winner in the Greek stand-off: cliché
The clear winner in the Greek crisis is the author of The Little Book of Negotiating Clichés, whose royalties must…
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…
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…