Econoblog
Why I’m worried about Mark Carney’s Governorship
Mr Carney has aggressively attacked the US “Volcker Rule”, which will prevent American investment banks playing the global capital market casino, in strikingly similar terms to the banking lobby. And radical structural reform of the sector looks likely to be anathema to the next Governor.
By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye, Econoblog | Monday, 3 December 2012 at 1:59 pm
George Osborne speaks the language of the banking lobby
How confident do you feel that the Chancellor’s proposed ring-fencing of retail banks will prove robust and protect the public from the need to pick up the future gambling debts of investment bankers?
By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye, Econoblog | Friday, 23 November 2012 at 3:38 pm
Osborne bullies and misleads the Banking Standards Commission
Despite what the Chancellor implied, the Vickers report never did a rigorous cost-benefit analysis of a full separation of retail and investment banking. It was like Hamlet without royalty
By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye, Econoblog | Friday, 23 November 2012 at 2:55 pm
Worry about the zombie economy, not zombie companies
One might describe the problem not as zombie companies, but a zombie economy. Demand has one foot in the grave. If spending across the economy picked up, one would expect many of those struggling companies to return from the living dead.
By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye, Econoblog | Tuesday, 20 November 2012 at 12:13 pm
Reasons to doubt official economic forecasts
Readers should cut it out and keep this chart and brandish it the next time they hear someone argue that things are going to turn out OK because the IMF says so.
By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye, Econoblog | Friday, 16 November 2012 at 5:30 pm
Sorry Dominic Lawson, but you haven’t shown the rich are paying their fair share
It is possible on the basis of the facts to argue that the UK tax and benefit system is progressive; that top earners are paying their “share”; and that there are significant potential disadvantages to wealth and property taxes. But to argue any of these on the basis simply of the share of income tax paid by top earners is at best disingenuous, particularly when the numbers giving the broader picture are so easily available.
By Jonathan Portes | Eagle Eye, Econoblog | Tuesday, 2 October 2012 at 9:29 am
Crisis, what banking crisis? The rise of ethical banking in Britain
As far as the UK’s ethical banking sector is concerned the steady stream of headlines from the interest-rate fixing Libor scandal to the HSBC money laundering for drug barons has proved to be a marketing campaign from heaven.
By Simon Birch | Econoblog, Notebook, Opinion | Monday, 3 September 2012 at 11:15 am
Why exactly is it so expensive for us to own a home?
An average three-bed house cost £2,000 in 1952. In 2012 it costs £162,000. That’s an inflation of 8,000%. Have you ever wondered – I mean really wondered – why this is the case?
By Lee Williams | Econoblog, Notebook, Opinion | Tuesday, 28 August 2012 at 10:00 am
How Quantitative Easing made the wealthy wealthier
The fact that QE made the asset rich wealthier is no great surprise given that one of the main objectives of the progamme has been to boost asset prices. But it’s no bad thing to attempt to see how monetary policy impacts on different sections of the population -nor to make clear what huge disaparities in wealth already existed in Britain.
By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye, Econoblog | Friday, 24 August 2012 at 1:32 pm
Why George Osborne should give everyone in Britain a new credit card
The basic problem is that fear is causing many households and firms in the private sector who could spend to cut back on their spending, while others who would be glad to spend more cannot get access to credit.
By Miles Kimball | Eagle Eye, Econoblog, Notebook, Opinion | Friday, 24 August 2012 at 10:43 am
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