Monthly Archives: August 2011

                Amidst all the talk of billions and trillions the truth is often a casualty. Few in the public debate seem to grasp the overall numbers, or see how the adjustment to lower borrowing will in due course be made by forecast higher tax revenue. It might be helpful to set out the Uk [...]

                     The world awaits the word of Ben. Will it be helicopter Ben Bernanke, commanding another drop of dollar bills on a slow growth country? Or will it be inflation fighting Ben, newly steeled for the fight by tea party poopers and the growing demand for public austerity?                 I suspect this year’s Jackson [...]

         There is an email in circulation that sums up in scatalogical language the current tensions of UK politics. In polite summary, it says the people who work hard and earn the money are against having to pay more taxes. The people who rely on the state think these people are all rich and [...]

                    The battle for Tripoli will produce more deaths. In a civil war with many protagonists not in uniform brother finds it difficult  even to rely on brother and to distinguish enemy from friend. The tribal society of Libya was held together by the authority and brutality of the Gaddafi regime. The Transitional Council [...]

            I saw the last performance of Anne Boleyn at the Globe on Sunday. It was a great performance of a brilliant new play. It captured the power games of the court of King Henry, and shed an interesting light on the mind of  James I and VI, who looks back on Elizabeth and Anne. [...]

 England’s magnificent cricket means they won all four Test matches against the team that was Number One in the world when they arrived. They won them by resounding margins. I have heard much comment on how disappointing the Indian team was. I think there should be more recognition of just how good the England team [...]

               I was asked to come a preliminary assessment of this question.  The Uk economy has lost around 6% of output. This will cost us £90 billion or  £1500 per person  every year for the forseeable future. Taxpayers so far have lost £40 billion on their RBS and Lloyds shares, or £670 per person. I suspect [...]

                The Guardian has diverted me from the big story. Just as feared on this site, the bungling Euromantics have shaken the financial world with their clumsy scheme.                They have rejected the least bad answer – asking the most heavily indebted countries who broke their sensible rules on debts and deficits to leave [...]

               The country has been briefed against the bankers for many months. There is an almost universal view that the bankers behaved badly, are paid too much, and should by punished in some way. Most politicians forget we are all bankers now, as collectively we own the largest UK banking group, and have various [...]

               The country has been briefed against the bankers for many months. There is an almost universal view that the bankers behaved badly, are paid too much, and should by punished in some way. Most politicians forget we are all bankers now, as collectively we own the largest UK banking group, and have various [...]