Labour’s ‘double-flip’ as election phoney war begins
Labour is claiming the Tories would endanger the public sector, while squirreling away a £34 billion fiscal expansion, blogs economics editor Faisal Islam.
Faisal Islam has left Channel 4 News. This is an archive of his blogs.
Labour is claiming the Tories would endanger the public sector, while squirreling away a £34 billion fiscal expansion, blogs economics editor Faisal Islam.
Faisal Islam blogs on bank charges and what it means for the government.
The Bank of England and the Treasury celebrate as figures show a shock improvement in the labour market.
Alistair Darling’s pre-budget-report: there are some remarkable facts in the maths, blogs economics correspondent Faisal Islam for Channel 4 News.
Faisal Islam tweets his reaction to the Chancellor’s pre-budget report.
It was during New Labour’s first budget back in 1997 that Gordon Brown’s special advisers gathered around a Reuters terminal, fearful of the market reaction to the first Labour budget in two decades. It barely registered a flicker, and that was seen as the great success of the “prawn sandwich” offensive on the City. Well…
On the eve of the chancellor’s pre-budget report, the three main credit ratings agencies are raising concerns about the UK’s AAA status, blogs Faisal Islam.
In March we ran a lengthy extract of an interview with financier Jim Rogers, who described the perceived G20 wisdom on running huge deficits to boost world growth as “ludicrous and insane”. It is one of our most downloaded videos of the year.
Faisal Islam blogs on the day the Supreme Court bank charges ruling. Is this it then?
Channel 4 News Economics correspondent Faisal Islam examines the news that the Bank of England loand more than £60bn to RBS and HBoS in secret.
In the not-very-funny economics joke, the IMF stands for “it’s mostly fiscal”. That’s a reference to its long-held ideology of forcing developing countries to cut spending and budget deficits in response to almost any financial crisis. It was a sort of cosmic chastity belt on fiscal profligacy. So what better ally for the prospective iron…
It’s tough for a fourth child out of five to take seriously the idea that he should never have been born. But the effect of society’s choices over family size is undoubtedly worth considering in terms of the effect on climate change. Some close to the Copenhagen negotiations feel that its the elephant in the…
Today’s inflation number may contain a clue as to the next populist backlash initiated by desperate politicians. Speculators must surely be next in line for the pre-election chopping block. Oil traders in particular can surely not be spared from growing public anger over petrol prices. There is, I’m told, a glut of oil and petrol…
Faisal Islam blogs on how Brompton bikes have become the new Lara Croft.
A windswept beach. A university town. And a few hundred protesters dressed as finance ministers symbolically burying their heads sand. It’s a lot harder to protest against the G7 rich man’s club, now that it’s the G20. The agenda is somewhat more murky when it is China refusing to discuss climate finance, rather than the…