Just in time, Osborne answers Labour’s 50p tax trick with a bumper monthly surplus
Last week’s public borrowing and tax-receipt figures, headlined ‘Chancellor hails biggest monthly surplus in seven years’, received considerably less attention…
Put the water cannons on standby and your money on a swift Grexit
‘Will Greece exit the eurozone in 2015?’ Paddy Power was pricing ‘yes’ at 3-to-1 on Tuesday, with 5-to-2 on another…
Green must answer for HSBC’s faults — but he’s another victim of big banking’s perils
Stephen Green — the former trade minister Lord Green of Hurstpier-point, who became this week’s political punchbag— was always a…
Unwanted consequences: will cheap oil lead to a Labour election victory?
BP’s profits are down, and the oil giant is slashing up to $6 billion out of its investment plan for…
Muck and brass
The whole idea of capitalism, according to Enlightenment philosophers, was that it created a positive spiral of moral behaviour. ‘Concern…
Austerity really is a virtue, whatever the Greeks think
The only question I remember from my Oxford moral philosophy paper was ‘What is integrity and is it a virtue?’…
Cuckoo clocks, Chinese dragons and magic needles: the pros and cons of currency pegs
The Swiss National Bank usually ticks away as quietly as one of its nation’s more expensive timepieces, but when the…
Prizes for Mick Cash of RMT and Dave Lewis of Tesco – but praise for Jon Moulton too
Mixed results for the Brits at the Golden Globes, but I’m pleased to announce that my Golden Monkey Wrench for…
This time round, the eurozone looks robust enough to get rid of its Greek problem
Ever since European Central Bank president Mario Draghi declared himself ready, in July 2012, ‘to do whatever it takes to…
Will 2015 witness the Triumph of Probity and Prudence? I’m not betting on it
You might recall a column I once wrote about a party at the Wallace Collection. It took place in late…
Can’t afford Pesto or Boris? Or even Ant and Dec? Try the bloke from The Spectator
To Brighton, to address a conference of property investors. Unusually, I find myself programmed alongside both Gerard Lyons, City economist…
Is that a black swan I see before me? Cheap oil has strange consequences
This oil price slump is turning into a ‘black swan’: one of those economic events that seem to come from…
How to keep your corporate reputation: forget the CSR, just get the basics right
A theme of this autumn has been conversations about corporate reputation and how it is guarded or lost. To name…
Qatar’s bid for Canary Wharf fills me with foreboding, even if they deserve each other
I’ve written before of a ‘curse of Qatar’ that might explain misfortunes attending the Gulf state’s UK investments, of which…
Hotels for dogs
The first time I checked in to a French hotel with a golden retriever — his name was Gregory, predecessor…
What happens in Vegas… and why I’m happy it doesn’t happen at home
I didn’t realise that the Rialto Bridge has a moving walkway and muzak, that the gondolas beneath it float on…
Our prosperity is rising, but our start-up entrepreneurs need much more fertiliser
This issue includes the new Spectator Money supplement, in which I hope you’ll find a bouquet of stimulating ideas. The…
Italy takes the stress-test booby prize as the old Spanish fox emerges the winner
Continuing last week’s theme, it was the Italian banks — with nine fails, four still requiring capital injections — that…
Remember the Negroni Index? At last I’ve found a market that never stops rising
This dispatch comes to you from Venice — where I arrived at sunset on the Orient Express. More of that…
Stormy October: Germany stumbles, shares fall and bankers take another bashing
October is always a turbulent month, and I’m feeling uneasy about this one. The FTSE100 index, which looked set to…
Wonga lent too easily at shocking rates, but it was often the borrowers who lied
‘Payday Lady is not trading at this time,’ says her website, sounding a little like La Dame aux camélias. Indeed (since…
Will Osborne’s tilt against Double Dutch tax dodgers play into Farage’s hands?
George Osborne’s promise to crack down on multinational companies’ avoidance of UK taxes by the use of impenetrable devices such…
Is the US using bank fines to bring allies into line against Russia?
Here’s one for all you conspiracy nuts out there, prompted by readers’ comments on my recent item about whether BP…
Botín’s not-so-dark secret of banking success: simple rules, smart technology and team spirit
Four years ago, I wrote that I knew no dark rumours about Santander, the rising force in UK high street…
BP has been punished enough for Macondo, but is US justice really anti-British?
I should declare two connections before I start offering opinions about the latest US judgment against BP relating to the ‘Macondo’…
