Any other business
Abolish stamp duty? Not if the next step is a wealth tax
On the Wednesday in early July when Rishi Sunak announced a temporary increase from £125,000 to £500,000 in the stamp…
Why Tesla has to be a better bet than bitcoin
Which is madder, bitcoin at $41,500 — oops, make that $31,000 on Monday — or Tesla shares at $880 apiece?…
The Brexit deal has left the City to fight for its own future
‘This Article shall not apply with respect to financial services.’ That’s what it says on page 92 of the EU-UK…
Avoiding the punch at the Governor’s Christmas party
Tidings of comfort as the vaccination programme advances, but shortage of joy. That’s my summary of a season in which…
Green will be remembered only as a nasty stain on capitalism
There really isn’t much left to be said about Sir Philip Green as his Arcadia fashion empire collapses into administration,…
Pension funds need a push to invest in the green revolution
We’ve heard a lot this week about infrastructure spending, and how much more will be needed if the UK is…
If taxes must rise, Sunak should pick on private equity
It’s not axiomatic that taxes must rise to pay for the pandemic, if you seriously believe the surge in growth,…
Beyond the new euphoria, the Irish question still looms
FTSE indices soared as the Biden Bounce met vaccine euphoria, underpinned by the Bank of England’s announcement of another £150…
Searching for points of light in the darkest of weeks
Aviation, nuclear power and public transport — along with good restaurants, golden retrievers and hand-knitted bed socks — are, as…
What’s the point of trying to break up ‘big tech’?
The ‘antitrust’ law suit launched by US authorities against Google has been reported as a potential turning point in the…
Who’d want the job of vaccinating the nation?
Is that a light at the end of the tunnel — or a second lockdown thundering unstoppably towards us? News…
What would negative rates mean for personal savers?
The Bank of England has told commercial banks to prepare for the possibility of negative interest rates. This last hypothetical…
The Blackburn brothers who are bringing Asda home
What a triumph of entrepreneurial empire-building — if that’s still an acceptable phrase — is the £6.8 billion acquisition of…
This dead-bat business minister should plead to be reshuffled
What advice can I offer Alok Sharma, who took a pasting in the weekend press for his lacklustre performance as…
Covid has ended the rail franchise fiasco at last
Good riddance to the passenger rail franchise system which has finally been killed off by Covid, though a majority of…
This deal with Japan is little more than cheese and biscuits
A small cheer for Liz Truss’s treaty with Japan. It is, says the official press release, ‘the UK’s first major…
Wrecking final Brexit talks won’t help our fishermen
‘Every country has a political problem with its fishermen,’ wrote Peter Walker, the Conservative minister who negotiated the first effective…
Are the wheels coming off Rolls-Royce?
Along, cold weekend brought a haul of business news more bad than good. The worst was from aero-engine maker Rolls-Royce,…
A bid battle for BT won’t bring better broadband
A takeover battle for BT would bring much-needed excitement to the City — as well as a major political row.…
The true cost of the 14-day quarantine
Doing the math, as the Americans say, became this column’s theme after I abandoned another planned trip to France. Seven…
At last, boardroom pay starts to swing away from blatant excess
At a low moment in late March, I suggested that all large companies should consider temporary cuts in executive salaries…
BP, Amazon and airlines light different paths to survival
We should take heart from BP’s £5.1 billion second-quarter loss, accompanied by a halving of its dividend. What’s good about…
The vulgarity of easy money: lessons from Malaysia’s mega-scandal
When I worked in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur long ago, my office looked across Jalan Tun Razak, a…
Is it too late to jump on the gold bandwagon?
The price of gold has been rising since the earliest virus reports from China in December. Adherents regard it as…
Banning Huawei is right, but late – and bad for productivity
This column has been banging on about the peculiar nature of Huawei, the Chinese telecoms giant, ever since its expanded…
