Can the Treasury blame borrowing figures on North Sea platform?
Faisal Islam questions Chloe Smith’s claim that shocking borrowing figures from the government were down to the closure of a single platform in the North Sea.
Faisal Islam has left Channel 4 News. This is an archive of his blogs.
Faisal Islam questions Chloe Smith’s claim that shocking borrowing figures from the government were down to the closure of a single platform in the North Sea.
If Sir Richard Branson is right about First’s “unsustainable” west coast mainline bid, then this Department of Transport decision is a gamble way in to the future for a new fat controller and for the government.
Economics Editor Faisal Islam blogs on the economic hangover of the Olympic Games.
Economics Editor Faisal Islam blogs on his meeting with George Osborne – and the five key areas where the chancellor has ‘refined’ his views on the economy.
“We’ve got a big job to do in getting this economy back on its feet,” — Osborne.
There were various disgraces in the way the banks treated consumer and businesses with contempt over purchase insurance and interest rate swaps. But the Libor scandal seemed to be a quite incredible.
If Sir Mervyn King can arrange for Bob Diamond’s demise at Barclays, even though he was cleared of personal wrongdoing over Libor, why not exercise a little more coercive power over banks lending money into the real economy?
Today’s cache of Paul tucker emails released by the Bank of England puts the Libor scandal in a rather different context. The big picture here: the post-07 Libor “scandal” is the tree. The concerning financial health of Barclays Bank in October 2998 is the woods. The now Deputy Governor of the Bank of England is shown to be exchanging emails about Barclays’ financial position from a full week before the famous conversation that some have depicted as a Labour plot to illegally to manipulate Libor.
Treasury Select Committee chair Andrew Tyrie drops a bombshell, Faisal Islam at the hearing looks at revelations so far.
On a day when it’s pretty clear that the authorities asserted dominion over our banking system, I was invited atop the Canary Wharf tower that houses Barclays to speak to its now un-resigned executive chairman Marcus Agius. He is not prone to lengthy answers, but I think much of what he does and does not say is rather telling.
We have entered a new world. Politicians now appear sovereign over our banking system. Many in Britain will welcome that. For many, it will be a profound shock. And this is just the beginning, writes Faisal Islam.
Faisal Islam blogs on how Barclays started to try and make money from changing its rates – and why ‘Lie-bor’ London should be afraid.
Faisal Islam blogs on the economics – at home and abroad – behind the chancellor’s decision not to raise the tax on fuel duty.
Sir Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, today used the continuing IT meltdown at RBS and NatWest to criticise the structure of the bailed-out banking group. He had stern words for RBS’s management, saying that the FSA should carry out a “full investigation” of the week-long computer problems.
Faisal Islam blogs from Athens on the implications of a dramatic Greek election.