Tag Archives: George Osborne
Recycling the rewards of equity finance
There is an urgent need to reintegrate society with its productive side through broadening share ownership. This is the theme of a new book, “Debtonator”. (Elliott and Thompson, £9.99), by Andrew McNally, an experienced institutional investor. In a lively account, McNally shows how equity finance benefits society, companies and individuals. Equity should form the basis…
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The epiphany of central banking
Having listened to the three witches, and acted accordingly, only to be betrayed ‘in depest consequence’, our hero ‘Macbeth’ reaches his ascendancy, which marks the start of his downfall. He has a moment of realisation… Have central banks also reached an epiphany? Central banks have been instructed to keep their eyes not only on…
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Hypocritical protests at depositor bail-in proposal
Am I the only person to feel that the howls of moral outrage, protests and scathing editorials that greeted the first plan to “solve” the Cyprus banking crisis were somewhat overdone?. I myself joined in the criticism of the proposal to tax all deposits, and recommended the example of Iceland – while pointing out that Cyprus…
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Bury inflation targets and get a real monetary framework
To wean central banks from inflation targeting you’ll have to snatch it from them by force; they are clutching it ever more tightly to their breasts. But they must bid it a tearful goodbye. The big question is what will replace it. Mark Carney has said that: “Flexible inflation targeting is the most successful…
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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…
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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…
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Is global financial reform possible?
Paul Volcker, one of the few universally-esteemed central bankers of the 20th century, has summed up in a few words the messages of The Money Trap. Maybe I should have saved myself the trouble of writing the 340 page book. At least, that was my immediate thought on reading his article. A colleague called to…
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