Clik here to view.
Why I’m worried about Mark Carney’s Governorship
Mr Carney has aggressively attacked the US “Volcker Rule”, which will prevent American investment banks playing the global capital market casino, in strikingly similar terms to the banking lobby. And...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Make bankers wait longer for the bonuses
The justification for deferring bonuses is to incentivise bankers to take more care over the risks they take. What this research shows is that a three-year delay just isn't long enough to perform this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Autumn Statement: Osborne’s deficit dissembling
George Osborne had a surprise for us all in his Autumn Statement today
View ArticleClik here to view.
How the Chancellor did NOT shrink the deficit
What the Institute For Fiscal Studies found is that the public finances really have deteriorated and that underlying borrowing, on the OBR's own forecasts, should be £131.9bn this financial year,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The incredible shrinking capital budget
The OBR thinks departments will underspend their capital budgets in both 2013-14 and 2014-15 by £1.5bn, thus effectively cancelling out 60% of the Chancellor's stimulus.
View ArticleClik here to view.
George Osborne’s tax haven
We have a Chancellor who complains about tax shopping by multinationals while at the same time slashing UK corporation tax to encourage multinationals to shop around and choose Britain.
View ArticleClik here to view.
David Cameron was wrong and misleading
Including everything the Government has done will leave a couple with children and 1 earner worse off by 2015-16 by £65 a week, or around £3,300 a year
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Europhobes trade on misinformation
I’m not sure why anyone would talk about the value of UK exports to the EU as a share of GDP (rather than as a share of total exports) unless the purpose is to obscure the importance of the EU as an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Martin Weale: NGDP target is playing with fire
Here’s the transcript of my interview with Martin Weale of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee. The write-up will be published in The Independent tomorrow morning. Highlights: 1) Warns that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The reason Italians voted for Berlusconi
Don't they know that it was the heroic Monti that saved Italy from a bond market revolt in 2011 with his austerity and structural reforms? Don't they know that it was Berlusconi that led Italy into the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The causes of Italy’s recession
Italy needs to overhaul its crony labour markets which penalise the young and inhibit long-term growth. But trying to claim that the present deep recession is a consequence of that long-standing macro...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The myth that bonuses make banks safer
Even in the biggest banking crisis in a century staff costs barely budged. A bank's staff take home a more or less fixed proportion of its revenues come hell or high water.
View ArticleClik here to view.
The bankers bonuses that George Osborne didn’t want you to see
Perhaps the Chancellor didn't want us to see what a small number of grotesquely over-paid individuals he was batting for in Brussels this week.
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why did the Office for Budget Responsibility get its forecasts wrong?
It's possible that the massive shortfall in domestic business investment was a response to weak aggregate demand, as the Government's deep capital expenditure cuts had a greater than expected impact on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cyprus? There but for the grace of God goes Britain
Cyrpus' banking sector is grossly inflated with assets and liabilities at around €126bn, or 700% of the island's GDP. Yet our own banking sector still has assets and liabilities equal to 450% of our GDP.
View ArticleClik here to view.
Is austerity now “in the past”?
We're £53bn through, with £52bn more spending cuts to come by 2015/16. What's more, this is just the start of it. Because the UK's growth prospects are so dismal there are going to be more cuts (or tax...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The hedge fund con explained
In 2008 the hedge fund industry lost more money than all the profits it had generated during the prior 10 years. If you don't think that's a con, by all means ring up your pension manager and tell him...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why the Treasury thinks the deficit rose last year
The Chancellor only managed to get the deficit to fall between 2011/12 and 2012/13 by ordering departments to underspend their budgets before the end of the financial year and other desperate measures...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Gibberish, distortions and reporting on the Office for Budget Responsibility...
From some media outlets – which have an anti-public spending/small state ideological agenda – this kind of misleading journalism is to be expected. Others should do really better.
View ArticleClik here to view.
Good Times, bad Times and bank capital
It’s somewhat baffling that so many journalists – who don’t stand to benefit materially from a thinly capitalised banking system ‑ have lined up behind the financial lobby and its fallacious arguments...
View Article
