Alistair Darling’s pothole budget
What has happened to the giant pothole in the public finances? The answer is that some of it, more than expected, has been filled in, but not by Mr Darling, writes Faisal Islam.
Faisal Islam has left Channel 4 News. This is an archive of his blogs.
What has happened to the giant pothole in the public finances? The answer is that some of it, more than expected, has been filled in, but not by Mr Darling, writes Faisal Islam.
Ahead of the budget, we already have the start of a Dutch auction between the main parties on bank taxes that seeks to tap into enduring public anger for electoral purposes, writes Faisal Islam.
David Cameron says he would definitely introduce a levy on banks to fund their debt to the taxpayer and create a rainy day fund for future bank crises. The Treasury is in a similar place, but is waiting on international agreements.
This is the big dilemma that will decide the election. Spend the shock £5- £10bn undershoot on the deficit, or bank it and pay down the national debt. Darling would spend it all, and Osborne would save it all, right? Wrong. The day that February public borrowing was shown to have reached a record seems…
Faisal Islam blogs on what he hopes will be asked in the Chancellors’ debate, which will be broadcast on Channel 4 on Monday 29th March.
Nick Clegg may have blown open the key debate on the deficit in this election. In or out of government, he says, he will not back the “economic masochism” of starting fiscal retrenchment this year. This happens to be one of the few areas of clear blue water between Labour and Conservatives going in to…
The FSA has issued a remarkable detailed account of a phone call by Tim Geithner, then head of the US Federal Reserve, to the FSA chairman about an embryonic attempt by Barclays to buy pre-bankruptcy Lehman Brothers, writes Faisal Islam.
The really concerning aspect of today’s trade figures is that this figure has occurred over two years after the pound depreciated by 25 per cent, writes Faisal Islam
At the moment both parties are conniving in exaggerating their differences like two weary boxers clinging on to each other in the closing stages of a long fight, writes Faisal Islam.
Faisal Islam blogs on why RBS aren’t saying how many of its bankers are getting bonuses of mroe than a million pounds, and why its bosses are playing today’s results low-key.
Faisal Islam blogs on shadow chancellor George Osborne’s Mais lecture, and speculates whether it could signal the start of an economic approach that may in the future be dubbed ‘Osbornism’.
As george Osborne prepares to make a keynote speech tomorrow, Faisal Islam blogs on whether it’s time for a re-think on Britain’s 13 year long target to keep inflation at two per cent.
The Falklands oil rig row is a stroy of “historical, diplomatic and potentially huge economic significance”, blogs Faisal Islam.
This political dance around Greece’s financial mess is oddly reminiscent of the days preceding the Lehman Brothers’ debacle, writes Faisal Islam.
Faisal Islam considers the options available to European leaders as they work to bail out Greece from its debt crisis.