Monthly Archives: December 2010

          Mr Hammond said in his defence of HS2 that the only people who disagree with the business case are people living along the line of route who have reasons to dislike the project. My reading of some of the literature tells me that is not quite true. There  are numerous people who live [...]

            The latest figures show imports rising more quickly than exports and state borrowing at record levels. Public spending has been growing at more than 5% in cash terms during  April to November compared to the same period last year.           This matters more than the well justified   reduction in Dr Cable’s responsibilities following his [...]

             Mr Hammond the Transport Secretary has asked for advice on whether with all this global warming we are told about we should expect more regular colder winters. So far since global warming was declared proven we have had a run of colder winters and wetter and cooler summers. At the same time Mr [...]

             Today’s figures for public borrowing reinforce the need to control spending. Public sector borrowing is up from £16.79 bn last year in November to a stunning £22.774billion this November. Tax revenues are up as well.            Professor Tim Congdon has recently pointed out that over the last year our financial service exports are [...]

            The Coalition is right to want to bring the budget deficit down, and right that to do so it needs to cut Labour’s spending plans. The surprise has been that it has failed to cut some of the most obvious items that many people would like to see cut.            Top of the list [...]

           I was no fan of the Irish bail out. I thought it would be bad for Ireland as well as for the rest of the EU. So far the markets have come to the same judgement.          Last week Irish debt suffered a hefty downgrade to baa1 – a long way below AAA [...]

                The EU has been busy. Whatever they may say – and they say plenty of risky and unhelpful things as well – they are worried about further banking losses, asset write downs, and sovereign debt problems.  On 16 December they announced the establishment of the European Systemic Risk Board  to undertake “macro-prudential oversight  [...]

              The EU’s press release says the change to the Treaty of European Union is an amendment to Article 136, adding: “The Member states whose currency is the Euro may establish a stability mechanism to be activated if indispensable to safeguard the stability of the Euro area as a whole. The granting of any [...]

                  It’s good  news that the UK will play no part in any Euro bail out under the new system from 2013 onwards. What most of us want to know is who will bail out and how will they bail out any member state in the Euro that gets into trouble in 2011 and [...]

                   I agree with the Bank’s warning that if government bond prices fall there will be problems for some EU banks. The curious thing is why have the Bank and other EU financial regulators supported the idea that government bonds are very low risk? Why did they make them core assets for banks, if [...]