Sarkozy calls for Tobin tax
26 Jan 2011 [1 Comment | 29 views]
Nicholas Sarkozy’s rise to power seems to have reached a new peak, for now our Nick is the most powerful man in the world – or sort of, anyway. He is the chairman of the G20. And he has a cunning plan to curb the power of banks. Nearly headless Nick Sarkozy wants to see [...]
Bankers bonuses: they are not fair, but are they in the public interest?
11 Jan 2011 [0 Comments | 357 views]
And so the government has given up. It doesn’t like bank bonuses, but it doesn’t seem to be able to stop them and pretty much threw in the towel yesterday. But what’s really going on here? So the Chief Executive of RBS, Stephen Hester, is going to get his £9m bonus for 2010. It is [...]
Bank bonuses and the impotent UK government
21 Dec 2010 [1 Comment | 379 views]
The row, or is that outright war, over bank bonuses rumbles on. Vince Cable has never been shy in spouting forth his anti-bank rhetoric, but now even the man who is normally the bank’s friend, Boris Johnson, has made a speech criticising bank bonuses. And yet still the threat remains: You stop our bonuses, then [...]
Banks slammed again for their business lending
15 Nov 2010 [0 Comments | 398 views]
“Banks are letting down business,” says a new report. “No they are not,” says the bankers’ very own association. Banks, eh? At the best of times most of us moan about them, but when the national mood has become anti bank, blaming them for our troubles is all too easy. Now a survey from eBay [...]
Buffett makes a mint from Goldman Sachs stake
22 Oct 2010 [2 Comments | 1,044 views]
“My favourite timeframe for holding an investment is forever,” said Warren Buffett once. Well, it doesn’t look like his stake in Goldman Sachs, bought in September 2008, will last so long. Even so, our Warren has pocketed himself a tidy fortune. Maybe the government should take a leaf out of Mr Buffett’s book. Lest we [...]
Warren Buffett says let the bankers go bust
6 Oct 2010 [1 Comment | 651 views]
Actually, Warren did not just call for letting bankers go bust, he wants to see their wives go under, too. This is what he said: “People have a propensity to gamble, and it gets made easier and easier for them.” He added: “One of the problems we still have is we have unbalanced incentives for [...]
Print money, or it’s the end of democracy, says Bank of England man; stop printing money, or it’s trade war, says Brazil
29 Sep 2010 [1 Comment | 999 views]
It is hard to envisage two more diverse views. Adam Posen, member of the Bank of England MPC has said that unless the Bank of England prints more money, the UK will be torn apart by political instability. Meanwhile, Brazil’s finance minister has warned of an impending currency war, and he blames the policy of [...]
ICB in bank break up threat
24 Sep 2010 [0 Comments | 376 views]
Today the ICB spoke – that’s the Independent Commission on Banking. It seems a break up of the banks is still on the cards. The Chairman of the Commission, Sir John Vickers, put it like this: “Questions about the structure of banking need to be debated in an open, rational way, and we would like [...]
Another Investment Banker Set For Top UK Banking Job
24 Sep 2010 [0 Comments | 401 views]
Gulliver travels to the top What’s up at HSBC? It all started innocuously enough, with HSBC Chairman Stephen Green announcing his intention to step down and take up the role of trade minister. No one had a problem with that. Mr Green is widely considered to be a good bloke. He penned the book ‘Good [...]
Bank of England drops in new quantitative easing hint
23 Sep 2010 [0 Comments | 409 views]
You could say quantitative easing (QE) is not very popular with some people, but then you could say the Devil is not much liked around here. For some, the two opinions mean pretty much the same thing. Even so, the latest minutes from the Bank of England revealed more QE could be on the cards. [...]
