Michael Wolff said the US needed a market-charming president: now it has one
I once commissioned Michael Wolff —currently the world’s most talked-about journalist as the author of the White House exposé Fire…
In defence of that £110 million bonus for the boss of Persimmon builders
New Year’s Eve was certainly a day for celebration in the household of 53-year-old Jeff Fairburn, chief executive of the…
Instead of schmoozing at City parties, this year I’m Sarah the Cook in panto
Last Christmas I offered you a cruel satire about a boardroom big-shot whose career went so awry that he ended…
The skulking assassins of the London Stock Exchange
The revenge tragedy at the London Stock Exchange whose plot I outlined last month has reached its third act, but…
A sensible Budget and stronger banks – what could go wrong?
One week you’re fighting to survive the dance-off amid vicious backstage rivalries, the next you’re scoring a perfect ten from…
Dear Chancellor, we can’t make the bricks to build your homes
The Chancellor sounded purposeful when he declared that he’ll do ‘whatever it takes’ to boost the rate of housebuilding —…
Armageddon is coming – how real-life employers are preparing for life under Corbyn
Numerous readers told me they liked my recent tale — offered as an antidote to ‘media sniping at corporate capitalism’…
Yes, Jay Powell is the compromise candidate for the Federal Reserve – but not a bad one at that
Perhaps we should be relieved that Donald Trump has made a dull appointment to succeed Janet Yellen as chairman of…
The City needs to make new friends but is becoming pals with Putin a step too far?
In connection with the receding possibility of a London Stock Exchange listing for Saudi Aramco, I wrote that the City…
Up the Zambezi: why Rio Tinto’s colossal coal cock-up is going to court
Another week, another blue-chip in the dock. The US Securities and Exchange Commission has brought fraud charges against London-based mining…
Are we really half a trillion poorer? No, but we’re not pulling in investors like we used to
How did we mislay half a trillion pounds? Revised data from the Office for National Statistics has just reduced the…
Bombardier says more about aircraft makers’ dirty tricks than the future of UK-US trade
‘Bombardier exposes post-Brexit realities’ was the FT’s headline after the Trump administration imposed a 300 per cent tariff on sales…
Monarch was an airline from an earlier era – but were its owners to blame for its demise?
Monarch Airlines was the ghost of an earlier age of holiday travel. When I used to see its planes lined…
Uber was the ugly snowplough that cleared the path but its dominance is bound to fade
An Uber insider tells me not to write off the ride-hailing giant too soon, because it’s a very smart company…
A rate rise in November? After years of dithering, don’t bet on it
It is more than three years since Bank of England governor Mark Carney was accused by Labour MP and Treasury…
The City still leads the financial world but faces a fight on all fronts
Should we place faith in a survey, conducted in June but published this week, that says London is still the…
Ten years after the banking crisis began, the unfairness of its aftermath still stings
Arguably it was Robert Peston’s breathless reporting of trouble at Northern Rock on the evening of 13 September 2007 that…
Hurricane Harvey is bigger news than the bankers at Jackson Hole
In Houston last November I spent an evening at the city’s industrial-scale food bank, where I heard a presentation on…
The truth about Brexit? One professor’s guess is no better than another’s
Removing all trade and tariff barriers as part of a hard Brexit would generate ‘a £135 billion annual boost to…
Forget London’s ramshackle Garden Bridge: bring on Nine Elms-to-Pimlico instead
I can’t work up much indignation at the collapse of London’s Garden Bridge project, which has been strangled by the…
Why is your holiday exchange rate so awful? Because investors see hope for the eurozone
As usual for August, I’m in France, where the news in brief is ‘Euro up, Macron down’. The youthful French…
Fudging Ireland’s border issue can only mean Troubles ahead
The question of what kind of border after Brexit will exist between Northern Ireland and the Republic will, I predict,…
Fudging Ireland’s border issue can only mean Troubles ahead
The question of what kind of border after Brexit will exist between Northern Ireland and the Republic will, I predict,…
Cheating German car-makers are good news for Brexiteers
It came as no great surprise to learn that the EU competition authorities are crawling all over the three major…
Bending London’s listing rules to win Saudi favour smacks of desperation
Now here’s a tricky question. The world’s largest oil company, potentially worth six times as much as ExxonMobil and ten…
