Editor's letters
M&S Plan A shows going green pays dividends
Environmental issues show no signs of slipping down the list of concerns of UK consumers, despite ongoing economic uncertainty. A ComRes survey, found...
To bonus or not to bonus, that is the question?
News that RBS chief Stephen Hester has decided to forego his £1.6m bonus will not come as a huge surprise to many, not least in anticipation of ...
Enron legacy leaves finance flailing
If ever you needed evidence that good solid financial management had hit the business [and entertainment] mainstream, then the latest reviews for wes...
Beware of Greeks bearing pigs!
The US economy is expanding, the Chinese economy is booming and European economies are just about pulling themselves out of the mire. Even the UK's ma...
Davos and the après ski on skid row
Fun in snowy Davos last week as the good, the great and the 'frankly-lucky-to-have-got-away-with-it' of the finance world gathered to give one another...
The US war that Labour doesn't want to fight
So that's that then. We're out of recession according to the latest figures. Been a funny couple of years, eh? Still, we're out of recession they say,...
Outsourced arithmetic doesn't always add up
Outsourcing - good thing or a bad thing? Well of course it would really rather depend on which side of the fence you're sitting on. If you're the...
Slushy thinking as frozen Britain thaws
Short-term gloom and mid-term hesitancy – the 2010 outlook for the financial sector continues to prove uncertain.
This week’s quarterly re...
Sticks and stones can break your bones, but names can break the economy...
So here we are - January 2010. Or as an alternative dating might put it: five months to the General Election and counting!
That's assuming of cou...
The UK's Secret Santa
It was late coming... some might say blessedly so, but it’s been a bumper Christmas on the high street and November saw a sharp drop in unemploy...
Never was so much owed
Never was so much owed by so few to so many.
...
A date with Darling
Except for the bankers, it was forgettable and nondescript.
...
Not a perfect storm
A desert not a perfect storm.
Well, not yet.
Markets hate uncertainty but the onus is on them not to panic.
Nakheel, the property developer ...
Shifting sands
Dubai dreams were built on shifting sands.
It wasn’t a great Thanksgiving for the trading hub of the Middle East but was yesterday’s night...
The fat lady ain’t singing yet
Lloyds' £13.5bn fundraiser is the UK's biggest ever rights issue but it won't be the last.
That finale has yet to be sung.
The fascination with ...
We’re not amused
And neither, we imagine, is the Queen. Her speech today is populist electioneering masquerading as reform of the banking system.
The Financial Se...
Heard the one about bankers?
They demanded to see Adair Turner, insisting they were entitled to bigger and better bonuses. How, asked the socially-useful regulator, can you j...
Banks don't have the right to win
RBoS is shedding 3,700 jobs. It is another deposit for a sizeable chunk of 30bn taxpayers’ pounds to break-up its ill-begotten banking empi...
Well, hallelujah!
The EU and UK government have had an attack of commonsense. They’ve decided to flog off parts of Lloyds, RboS and Northern Rock to create n...
Recession, recovery and reforms
We are still in recession and recovery is uncertain. News that the UK economy contracted by 0.4% between July and September means that GDP has been sh...
The Bottom Line: Britain still great for business
Political strategy needed to show that Britain is still great for business, says Richard Thomas
"Out of one side of his mouth, Gordon Brown is saying he will make Britain an attractive place to invest, but out of the other he is clobbering higher earners with 50%, which sends out the opposite message.