Tag Archives: banking
Goodhart’s cry of despair
Five years after the international banking system fell into the arms of the central banks and governments, there is still a paralysing uncertainty about the extent and cost of regulation, the viability of banking models and the monetary policy regime. More about financial regulation and banking models in future columns. Now let us look…
» Continue Reading
My New Year wishes
The world economic recovery remains fragile and could easily be derailed by renewed financial turmoil. My first wish is a terminological one – please, can we find a more useful word or phrase to describe what has happened? The word “crisis” and the phrases “financial crisis” , “great financial crisis”, “Global Financial Crisis” ,…
» Continue Reading
What Osborne should have said
George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, made an autumn statement in the House of Commons yesterday. This is what he should have said. Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, Successive governments have allowed the problems related to and in part caused by the operations of banks in this country to drag on. No solution is in…
» Continue Reading
Carney’s likely priorities
Understanding markets and power leads to one conclusion Those who are familiar with his thinking report that he will be keen to emphasise that responsibility for managing risks lies with the firms themselves. So he will be big on reforming governance of financial institutions. He will insist that bank boards live up to their duty…
» Continue Reading
Some nuanced views of Mr Carney
The UK media have been gushing in their welcome. It is right to welcome central banking’s “rock star”. But not everybody has been carried away by the euphoria…you only have to scan the Canadian press today: Andrew Coyne at the Montreal Gazette That our banking system was not so badly mauled by the crisis as…
» Continue Reading
The governor stakes revisited
I have mentioned the familiar names – Tucker, Vickers, Turner, Burns. Of these Paul Tucker has the deepest grasp of the issues the new governor will confront, and he is getting encouragingly more radical on bank reform – like everybody else. Even Lord Turner has been asking questions about the whole viability of fractional…
» Continue Reading
Why gold is back
In investment terms, we face a scenario that says neither bonds nor equities are likely to rise. The ‘uncertainty’ is greater than ever. And it is ‘uncertainty’ that drives people into gold, not relative values in paper currencies. We have to think that gold is the central thing around which everything else moves….
» Continue Reading
The Sun King and The Money Trap
The knives are out for Sir Mervyn (“The Sun” ) King. Commentators who once stood in awe now rush to condemn him.This is not a pretty sight. It is also unfair to someone who, while not being the right man to manage the UK’s biggest financial crisis ever, has made important contributions to re-thinking…
» Continue Reading
Is it to be a Burns-Vickers double-act?
Recent suggestions that Lord (Terry) Burns may be appointed chairman of a revitalised Court (Board of Directors) with greater powers of surveillance than the present Court make a lot of sense. That means the choice of governor, who will serve one term of eight years, may be between Paul Tucker, deputy governor, and Sir John…
» Continue Reading
Cato Journal review of The Money Trap
This is indeed a red-letter day for RP’s Diary. A grand review of the book has been published in a prestigious US journal. It states that The Money Trap “provides a superb explanation of how we got into this mess” – and a way out and “what we need to understand in order to properly…
» Continue Reading