Jon Snow
A sorry landscape as Britain emerges from recession
There is a disconnect among members of the public in this country which represents a very serious challenge to what we understand as democracy, blogs Jon Snow.
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Jon Snow
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Faisal Islam
Does the end of the recession change anything?
Faisal Islam blogs on the difference to the election battle the end of the recession could make.
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Gary Gibbon
Poll shows little sign voters will reward Brown for ending recession
A Channel 4 News/ICM poll shows little sign voters will credit Gordon Brown with getting the country out of recession when it comes to the general election.
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Faisal Islam
Amid the looming dark clouds a jobless ‘miracle’
The Bank of England and the Treasury celebrate as figures show a shock improvement in the labour market.
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Room for healthcare in the American dream?
As American workers struggle to accept their country’s new place in the economic world order, how will China really be viewed and will Obama get his way on heathcare reforms?
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Faisal Islam
The Greatest Recession
I was returning from holiday this morning through Miami airport expecting to report on the end of the British recession. In the US, the economic situation is now commonly referred to as “The Great Recession”. I think on that basis, following today’s third quarter GDP numbers our own quagnmire can confidently be termed “The Greatest…
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Jon Snow
Hold your breath and hope the governor is wrong
Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow says he is not surprised to read the Bank of England governor Mervyn King and Gordon Brown have different views about breaking up the mega-banks.
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Jon Snow
Recession messages from Italy remind me of home
This comes to you from the Pontignano conference which brings together British and Italian politicians, business, media, and the rest to debate the issues of the day. We are gathered in the amazing British Embassy residence – a positively palace like establishment with palm strewn lawns, a first century aqua duct, English roses, a butler,…
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Faisal Islam
Chicago defends itself against Keynesian attacks
So in the battle for the soul of economics, Nobel prize-winner Paul Krugman declares victory for the New Keynesians. In a 6,700 word article for the New York Times magazine, Krugman uses the experience of the last two crisis-ridden years not just to pin some of the blame on the Chicago school of free market…
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Faisal Islam
How Britain could have saved Lehman Brothers
Lehman’s bankruptcy changed the world. It sent world economy into a precipitous decline that’s matched the Great Depression. It arguably changed the course of the US election. It was a violent economic event that will be debated for decades. Much of the mystery surrounds the events of the weekend of the 13th/ 14th September 2008,…
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Faisal Islam
Mervyn’s money mania means Cameron need not worry – yet
Forget the voices suggesting interest rates might creep up in the near future. This morning revealed the reality that the Bank of England nearly voted for even more creation of its funny money.
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Faisal Islam
Paulson and Goldman Sachs: the plot thickens…
The film on the backlash against Goldman Sachs is top of our most-viewed charts. To catch-up on the backstory read here, and it’s well worth seeing the film here, if only to see lightning burst out of the sky above Goldman’s new HQ in Manhattan. But the plot has thickened over the connections between the…
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Faisal Islam
Can pump-priming choke off US unemployment?
A crisis of the motor industry; a crisis of the home industry; a credit crisis; and high petrol prices. Every expressway of the American Great Recession passes through Elkhart Indiana, capital of RV manufacturing (recreational vehicle: basically motorhomes and trailers). It’s totally devastating for places like Elkhart that we have just visited at the same…
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Faisal Islam
Where next for the wizards of Goldman Sachs?
Rising out of the carnage of the credit storm is the new gleaming headquarters of the titan of post crisis American banking. Goldman Sachs has emerged richer and more powerful than ever, but the Goldman glow is being replaced by a Goldman glare. It has without doubt been the most significant shift I have noticed…
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Jon Snow
The credit card cancer
I awaken to find a note in my inbox declaring that the government is to lay out plans for dealing with Britain’s credit card disaster. It is in many ways the least mentioned and most unaddressed financial cancer at the heart of the present financial crisis. UK resident currently owe over £230bn on their credit…