Day by day, we should keep an eye on the trouble spots of European banking
‘1914: Day by Day’, the Radio 4 series by the historian Margaret MacMillan, is a gripping reminder that significant global…
Gold-fixing was never like match-fixing but its days must surely be numbered
In a season obsessed with sport and personal misbehaviour — separately or in combination — the word ‘fixing’ immediately brings…
Killarney
Here’s a question for a Guinness-sponsored pub quiz: who or what is a ‘jarvie’? The answer is the gypsy driver…
North star
There are festivals of everything, everywhere. So why get excited about the Ryedale Festival (11–27 July) apart from the fact…
North star
There are festivals of everything, everywhere. So why get excited about the Ryedale Festival (11–27 July) apart from the fact…
North star
There are festivals of everything, everywhere. So why get excited about the Ryedale Festival (11–27 July) apart from the fact…
Here we go again: bankers taking liberties in pools full of sharks
It was at the Mansion House dinner last year that a City gent two seats away announced himself to be…
Osborne’s northern ‘super-city’ looks like a cynical vote-grab – but I’m all for it
When John Prescott used to wax garrulous about a ‘superhighway’ from Hull to Liverpool, everyone assumed it was a wheeze…
This oil price rise is a blip, not a spike – but it’s still a timely reminder to get fracking
‘Iraq turmoil sends crude oil prices to nine-month high’ is the sort of headline that used to send shivers down…
It’ll be game over for all of us if the cyber crimewave continues to advance
‘The internet is broken,’ a corporate chieftain told me last week. It was an arresting remark, but he did not…
The pessimism of youth can save Scotland from the penury of independence
It’s a constant theme of this column that today’s young need to stop whingeing about their prospects and get on…
Why picking holes in Piketty might help stop Miliband’s mansion tax
The postman at the door is stooped by his burden like an allegorical statue of Labour Oppressed by Capital. His…
Pfizer may have retreated but big pharma’s urge to merge hasn’t gone away
Readers in all sorts of places — at the club bar, over a birthday lunch, even along the church pew…
Are investment bankers being kicked to death? And should we care – or cheer?
Do we really mean to kill investment banking, or are we trampling it by accident in a fit of righteous…
Pfizer’s boss is winning the spin game while Miliband is losing all credibility
Pfizer will almost certainly have to offer more than its second bid of £50 a share for rival drug giant…
Patience is exhausted with bankers and their bonuses: this debate won’t go away
A bouquet to Alison Kennedy, ‘governance and stewardship director’ at the Edinburgh-based pensions provider Standard Life, for leading the rebellion…
Osborne is entitled to look smug but would be wise to wear a bag over his head
The popular pastime for financial commentators this season is sticking pins in George Osborne. To those on the left who…
The ungovernable Co-op could become the last customer of its own funeral service
‘Care, respect, clarity and reassurance’ are what the Co-operative funeral service says it offers the bereaved, and the parent Co-op…
The moral of Royal Mail: markets are capricious and bankers aren’t worth their fees
Vince Cable and Michael Fallon, ministers responsible for the Royal Mail sell-off, have been summoned for another select committee grilling…
Is full employment another of Osborne’s political squibs or an achievable target?
‘Full employment’ usually means the lowest achievable rate of unemployment — somewhere south of 5 per cent compared with 7.2 per…
Why I’ll be joining the silver stampede to cash in my stakeholder pension
At the beginning of the last decade, a young man who claimed to be my ‘premier banker’ paid me a…
Lines on the map are easy to rub out: HS2’s boss is right to push for progress
I’m sure HS2 chairman Sir David Higgins is right to argue that if we’re serious about building a new north-south…
Turn down those token directorships, girls, and tell them you want to be chairman
Last Saturday was International Women’s Day, but we celebrated early in Helmsley when my Yorkshire home town was featured in…
A reminder of the UK energy gap as Putin prepares to put another knot in his pipeline
To have written last month that the headline ‘Kiev in flames’ looked like a black swan on the economic horizon…
Why a trillion dollars of dividends is a milestone worth celebrating
Dividends paid by listed companies around the world passed $1 trillion for the first time last year, we learn from…
