Faisal Islam
Election battleground boils down to bulk
The word bulk is now key to the election economics. It is the root of what difference exists between Labour and Conservatives in terms of their spending cuts and tax rises.
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Faisal Islam
A bank tax will almost certainly happen
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.
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Faisal Islam
Have economists witnessed the birth of ‘Osbornism’?
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’.
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Gary Gibbon
Denis Healey and the man behind Britain’s IMF bail-out
Interviewing Denis Healey and former IMF chief Johannes Witteveen about the day Britain had to be bailed out by the IMF.
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Gary Gibbon
How other countries have managed to cut their deficits
The Treasury’s in-house assessment of how “fiscal consolidations” have worked in other countries has been revealed after a freedom of information request.
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Faisal Islam
Happy Days for beleaguered Brown could mean a March poll
On the day Gordon Brown appears to have headed off a leadership challenge, Faisal Islam predicts that a batch of good economic statistics could mean a 25 March general electioni
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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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Gary Gibbon
Straightforward approach through raid on bankers’ bonuses
I get the impression that going after bankers’ bonuses through national insurance is not the option the Treasury is going for in the PBR. The approach will be a more straightforward though unprecedented raid on one group of workers – employees of banks trading in the UK who get chunky bonuses.
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Gary Gibbon
RBS tells Treasury: no mass resignations. But the row isn’t over
The RBS Chairman Philip Hampton has been in contact with the Treasury and reassured it that there is no threat of mass resignation by the board. The Treasury says it has also been reassured that “no legal advice has been taken” by the RBS board. Peace in our time? Not yet. I understand from a…
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Faisal Islam
Government bailout 3.0: Lloyds and RBS
Following on from Bailout 1.0 (the banking system) and Bailout 2.0 (the economy), Bailout 3.0 focuses on the RBS and Lloyds, two banks in which the government has acquired a significant stake.
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Jon Snow
Guarding against banking greed?
So today we get a squint at the new regulations that MAY be brought in to guard against the greed, ignorance and arrogance that brought about the banking melt down and consequent financial crisis last year. Sir David Walker’s interim report lands on the chancellor’s desk today. It is said to reveal the unbelievable lack…
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Faisal Islam
UK banking needs more than hard self-regulation
‘Hockney-esque’ is how the City minister, Lord Myners last week described today’s government effort to reboot Britain’s banking system. It’s a high-brow reference to the fact that today’s government proposals will be a mix of white and green paper. Many of the more radical decisions will be delayed for more consultation. Some angry taxpayers could…
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Faisal Islam
We still need to ask the big credit crunch questions
Playing the ‘blame game’ is mostly viewed as a contemptuous pursuit. But a credible version of Credit Crunch Cluedo will be vital to our long-term prospects. After the dotcom boom, instead of watching the banking system’s ever more elaborate risk-multiplication ruses, the DTI and Treasury pumped out reports about how to copy the enterprising success…
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Jon Snow
Where the US leads, could others follow?
AIG, the US insurer which got through $170bn of taxpayers’ money in order to survive and then had the cheek to pay $165m of it to dozens of senior executives, is up before a congressional committee today.
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Jon Snow
MPs must stop this 'conspiracy of silence'
I blogged earlier this week about the possibility that our disgraced bank bosses had signed “gagging orders” as part of their severance deals, stopping them from talking about what happened to the banks on their watch (earlier this week we asked RBS and Lloyds TSB to confirm or deny this, but they have yet to…