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’…
Applause for the Beeb’s new leading lady – but did the male runner-up deserve such a kicking?
Hats off to Rona Fairhead, the former Financial Times executive who will succeed Lord Patten as chairman of the BBC…
Europe hopes for magic from Draghi but should listen more carefully to his words
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi secured a place in history by his demonstration, on 26 July 2012, of the…
You don’t have to be a left-wing think tank to believe the bosses’ pay boom is unhealthy
The FTSE100 index stands precisely where it did in the first week of December 1999. Whichever way you look at…
My summer advice for graduate job-seekers: try the City last, and steer well clear of PR
August is the season for conversation about career choices. Every holiday party seems to include new graduates or next year’s…
A challenge for Centrica’s new boss: persuade the public we need to get fracking
Iain Conn, who will succeed Sam Laidlaw as chief executive of Centrica, would have been a dead cert for the…
Sanctions rarely work, but they might make oligarchs whisper in Putin’s ear
‘Sanctions,’ said Kofi Annan, ‘are a necessary middle ground between war and words.’ Neither the EU nor the US will…
I’m celebrating Glasgow’s Games as my forecast comes true at last
‘Perhaps I should shift my prediction to 23 July 2014,’ I wrote in April 2012. ‘That’s the opening of the…
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…
