Damian Reece



Profile:
Full name: Damian Reece

Area of interest: Business and Finance, Economics

Journals/Organisation: The Daily Telegraph

Email: [mailto:damian.reece@telegraph.co.uk damian.reece@telegraph.co.uk]

Personal website:

Website: Telegraph.co / Damian Reece

Blog:

Representation:

Networks: https://twitter.com/#!/damianreece | http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/damian-reece/1a/aa4/aaa



Biography:
About:

Education:

Career: The Independent: City Editor 2003/2005; joined the Daily Telegraph (see: Telegraph hires Indy's City editor) in November 2005: moving from Deputy City Editor to City Editor to Head of Business in 2007

Current position/role: Head of Business


 * also writes/written for:

Other roles/Main role:

Other activities:

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight:

Broadcast media:

Video:

Controversy/Criticism:

Awards/Honours:

Scoops:

Other:



Books & Debate:


Latest work:

Speaking/Appearances:

Debate: 

The Daily Telegraph:
Column name: City Editor's comment

Remit/Info: Business and Finance: "a punchy and compelling commentary on the key business and economic issues of the day"

Section: City / Comment

Role: Head of Business

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:damian.reece@telegraph.co.uk damian.reece@telegraph.co.uk]

Website: Telegraph.co / Damian Reece

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Most days of the week

Regularity: Frequent contributions

Column format: Most often, three topics

Average length: 800/850 words



Articles: 2012
Selected articles
 * The UK's global success story is already evident, if politicians would only look - David Cameron has heard from business leaders dismayed at Westminster's anti-business rhetoric. On Tuesday that rhetoric will ratchet up once more when MPs are invited to vent their ire over pay and bonuses in banking - 7th February
 * Commons vote on bank pay is a watershed for shareholders as well as bankers - The House of Commons will vote this Tuesday on a Labour motion that pay at British banks is out of control and curbs should be imposed - 4th February
 * If it proves itself to be a stayer, odds on Facebook's float will be a winner - Zynga, an online gaming business spawned on Facebook, has had a dull start to life as a public company. Its shares are up 4.3pc since its December debut, having underperformed the market by eight percentage points - 2nd February
 * Hester bonus row will release a flood of Labour hypocrisy - There are more important things than money, even for bankers. Stephen Hester’s decision to forego his bonus reveals the, not unsurprising fact, that even thick-skinned businessmen like him know when they are beaten - 31st January
 * A minimum wage can be beneficial ... as long as it's set at the right level - So is Tidjane Thiam right about minimum wage rules? The chief executive of the Prudential was outspoken in his criticism of minimum wage legislation at a high profile debate at the World Economic Forum in Davo - 27th January
 * Britain needn't rely on China for its future financing - China's acquisition of an 8.68pc stake in Thames Water highlights the insatiable nature of Beijing's state capitalism - 21st January
 * Coalition's demonisation of UK firms won't help them as they look East - One of the noticeable achievements of the Coalition has been its championing of trade. From the start, British exports have been high on the agenda, along with efforts to attract overseas investment into the UK - 18th January
 * After a brief seasonal break, the euro crisis is back in full force - There's no such thing as a good downgrade. No matter how brave a face the French put on Standard & Poor's cut to its credit worthiness, they cannot brush off the loss of their AAA rating - 14th January
 * The missing link in the high-speed rail argument is that I'd rather fly to China - At a time when the economy needs a kick start, the Government's announcement to press ahead with a high speed rail network is positive - 11th January
 * US tax cutting is the spur for employment that Britain needs too - Two currency unions and two pieces of news. In the US, 200,000 non-farm jobs added and an unemployment rate down to 8.5pc from 9.4pc a year ago - 7th January
 * 2012 will be another year of crisis, bail outs and emergency summits in Europe - First, in the interests of transparency, let's see how my 2011 predictions turned out - 2nd January



Articles: 2011
Selected articles
 * Eurozone zombies follow Mario Draghi's cheap money - Mario Draghi donned his plague suit on Wednesday and urged European banks to "Bring out your dead". But rather than financial corpses it was €489bn (£408bn) of zombie debt from zombie banks that emerged blinking into the daylight - 22nd December
 * Euro at risk if countries fail to play game of carrot and stick - More bad news for Christian Noyer, the governor of the French central bank who's been fuming over Britain's AAA credit status - 17th December
 * Christian Noyer is wrong - what France lacks is credibility - French central bank governor Christian Noyer has lashed out against credit rating agencies for threatening to axe the country’s AAA status, claiming if any nation should be downgraded it’s the UK - 16th December
 * Peter Marks needs a copy of the FSA report under his Christmas tree - In the week one banking takeover was revealed to be the complete and utter disaster many of us said it would be, another hoves into view - 15th December
 * Taxpayers have the right to see the RBS collapse fully investigated - One of the most jaw-dropping injustices of the Royal Bank of Scotland affair has been the lack of accountability for what happened - 14th December
 * Cameron has put his faith in the City and now it must repay him - David Cameron made much of the importance to the UK of its financial services industry when justifying his decision to reject the new euro treaty in Brussels on Thursday night - 10th December
 * What Hong Kong can teach David Cameron when dealing with Europe - David Cameron will join his fellow European leaders in Brussels today, determined to defend the UK's interests as the future of the euro, and greater fiscal and political union, are negotiated - 8th December
 * Lifting lid on bankers' pay may benefit us all by bringing in capital - It doesn't matter if bankers are well paid. What does matter is that they are paid well - 7th December
 * The fog on the Rhine's all mein, all mein, the fog on the Rhine's all mein - Late last month I predicted a German credit downgrade would be the next logical step in the euro crisis. That took a dramatic step closer on Monday after S&P placed Germany, and a host of others, on "creditwatch negative" - 6th December
 * British Triumph that reveals a weakness - Here's something for all of you readers who think we only ever report bad news - 3rd December
 * Can the euro be saved? - European Union politicians are moving too slowly for the financial markets – they can, at best, buy time for their dangerous adventure - 2nd December
 * Central bank deal should remind eurozone leaders of looming disaster - So much for moral hazard. Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, has decided he can't wait any longer for dithering eurozone politicians to sort out their problems - 1st November
 * Autumn Statement 2011: the funds are there but is the confidence? - Damage limitation was top of George Osborne's agenda on Tuesday. Any finance minister opening their mouth in this environment risks inserting their foot in said aperture, creating untold havoc - 30th November
 * Why a German downgrade is the next logical step in the euro crisis - If someone suddenly says "Grunderkrach" to you today in an animated state, they're not hurling abuse with an obscure Germanism, no matter what it might sound like - 26th November
 * Fall in gilt yields no invitation for a new borrowing spree - Early this morning, dawn traders in the capital markets gave their most resounding vote yet as to the state of the UK economy and the coalition’s policies to deliver deficit reduction and some hope of economic recovery - 24th November
 * Investors turning their backs on Germany is bad news for rest of eurozone - Germany felt the euro crisis on Wednesday as investors deserted its attempt to issue new debt - 24th November
 * Rock deal not enough for Richard Branson to muscle in on the Big Four banks'' - Private equity swooped and picked up the good Northern Rock business on Thursday - 18th November
 * Political fires are alight across Europe as currency debate burns again - The widening spreads of eurozone bond yields over Berlin's anchor rate are consistent with a currency system breaking apart - 17th November
 * End of an era for EMI as Sony and Universal take over the show - The music's finally over for EMI. Expect a weekend of teary-eyed ageing rockers lamenting the final act for the famous music company - 12th November
 * Why the MPC may yet plump for more quantitative easing - Last month's decision by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to restart quantitative easing (money printing) to the tune of £75bn, took many by surprise - 9th November
 * I've seen the future for Royal Bank of Scotland and it's called NatWest - A month ago I asked: "Will someone please explain the point of the Royal Bank of Scotland?" - 5th November
 * The clock is ticking, Europe - Amid the game of mutually assured destruction that the eurozone members are playing, and which we are all exposed to, George Papandreou's brinkmanship on Thursday manoeuvred Greece towards a political consensus around last week's bail-out package - 4th November
 * Greek George is crazy but his madness still reveals an ugly truth - The madness of George Papandreou, Greece's prime minister, has thrown the eurozone into disarray once more - 2nd November
 * The FTSE fat cats are purring over their pay but that's good for the UK - The pay of people running large companies is once again in the news. Income Data Services (IDS) has announced that FTSE 100 chief executives have enjoyed a 43pc "hike" in total earnings - 29th October
 * The motives to join the eurozone have all but disappeared for good - Given recent experience, Wednesday night's Brussels accord on fixing the eurozone will fizzle out through inaction and disagreement just like the July 21 agreement did - 28th October
 * We should worry about what they haven’t discussed in Brussels - It hardly seemed the day for it, but Europe's political leaders enjoyed the red carpet treatment on Wednesday as they arrived for yet another crisis summit - 27th October
 * Bank of England finds its voice in time of crisis - The Bank of England has certainly found its voice as the crisis has dragged on and it approaches its own regulatory destiny as the country's principle financial regulator - 26th October
 * Europe remains ill but the drugs aren't working - As Germany and France fight it out the eurozone moves rapidly towards epic policy mistakes - 21st October
 * Mervyn King is right on Europe but eurozone isn't listening - Two weeks after telling us we face "...the most serious financial crisis we've seen, at least since the 1930s, if not ever" Sir Mervyn King followed it up on Thursday night by telling us that "time is running out" - 19th October
 * Will Finland be the mouse that roars and be the first to leave the euro? - Markets rallied today on the hope that Europe was edging closer to paying the appalling cost of underwriting its debtor nations and recapitalising its banks to allow a Greek default. Strange times - 13th October
 * We can all see the economic black hole, but how do we stop falling into it? - Authors of surveys seem to be competing for who can be the gloomiest - 11th October
 * We know we're in trouble, Sir Mervyn, now we need government action - The Bank of England began pumping cash into the economy in March 2009. The policy was aimed at unfreezing markets and ending a severe bear run - 7th October
 * Steve Jobs will follow Henry Ford and Thomas Edison in the history of change and invention - Rarely does the death of a businessman reverberate in the way that Steve Jobs' passing has done - 6th October
 * Forget personal debt, the Coalition hasn't even begun to deal with ours as a country - David Cameron had to change his conference speech after initial drafts gave the impression he thought households should stop spending and pay off their credit cards in order to help economic recovery - 6th October
 * RBS is our bank, so we should change what we do with it - Here we are on the verge of a new, eurozone banking crisis and still we own 83pc of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). Why? - 5th October
 * Chancellor George Osborne raises two cheers, but 'game changer’ on growth still needed - Manchester's trendy cinema, the Cornerhouse, is showing the movie Melancholia at the moment, but the mood in the city after George Osborne's speech here on Monday was anything but that - 4th October
 * Germany's vote simply kicks the euro can down the road to Cannes - Congratulations to Germany. On Thursday the Bundestag voted in favour of extended powers for the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), ratifying a proposal put forward by European leaders on July 21 - 30th September
 * This is a German banking crisis - and they must lead the clean-up - Berlin needs to build a new wall. A firewall around the burning building that is the Greek financial system - 29th September
 * Ed Miliband will remain a hypocrite until he comes up with specific policies - Ed Miliband named Sir John Rose, the former Rolls-Royce chief executive, in his Conference speech on Tuesday as the "true face of British business" - 28th September
 * FedEx delivered the bad news and we've got the weekend to sort it out - It's famous for delivering good news in its anxiously awaited packages but on Thursday FedEx Corporation delivered the bad news we've all been dreading - 23rd September
 * The eurozone’s destiny is slipping further to the East - Peter Altmaier, a close ally of Angela Merkel, appeared on the BBC on Wednesday evening to provide analysis of Europe's existential crisis - 15th September
 * ICB will likely pass into history as a white elephant - A bit of perspective is useful when making sense of the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) and, given banking's global nature, a bit of international perspective doubly so - 13th September
 * Switzerland's offensive in the foreign exchange wars could backfire spectacularly - Zurich launched the biggest offensive yet in the world's escalating currency wars on Tuesday - 7th September
 * Banks need some more careful regulation, not another Cable tirade - Vince Cable's love of playing to the gallery became obvious last September at the Lib Dem conference when the Business Secretary launched a tirade against business, including an attack on the corporate world which he dismissed as "murky" - 1st September
 * Exxon's Arctic coup leaves BP in the cold - Exxon Mobil's success in Russia, where BP failed, reopens the case against the British oil major and its chief executive, Bob Dudley - 31st August
 * Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke fires a warning shot at Congress'' - Safe in his mountain hideout in Wyoming, sheriff Ben tipped his hat back, sucked on the cheroot hanging from the side of his mouth and raised his trusted Winchester to his shoulder - 27th August
 * taxation and relax the rules to boost UK business investment'' - British companies are full of cash but their investment spending seems to be draining away, undermining hopes for a sustainable recovery - 24th August
 * are centre stage in this latest act of the financial crisis'' - Michael O'Keefe, the tennis pro at the South Beach Racquet Club on Hilton Head island, South Carolina, surveyed his neat and tidy courts last Friday - 23rd August
 * Murdoch's future is touch and go, but there should be no doubts'' - Today is when BSkyB's non-executives earn their corn. They must decide if James Murdoch is the most appropriate man to chair the company - 27th July
 * recovery will continue to stutter until ministers work together'' - If Atlas had been an economic titan, the world would be a much heavier weight on his shoulders these days - 27th July
 * were two tasks this Government was required to deliver - deficit reduction and growth'' - It took Labour 13 years of focused effort to lose Britain its status as a country in growth with a public sector surplus - 26th July
 * many more times can eurozone visit 'last chance saloon'?'' - How many more times can Europe go to the brink? - 23rd July
 * has liquidity - and that should buy us some time'' - Few disasters have been so well trailed, or firmly predicted, as Europe’s sovereign debt blow-up - 21st July
 * hacking: It's not just Rupert Murdoch's credibility that's at stake at select committee'' - Credibility. That's the name of the game on Tuesday at the Commons Culture, Media and Sport select committee - 19th July
 * hacking scandal: An unthinkable question must be asked - is Murdoch still the right man?'' -How did this happen? That’s the question shareholders and the non-executives of NewsCorp should be asking. How did its planned acquisition of BSkyB fail and what lessons should the company learn? - 14th July
 * eurozone solution must be reached before Germans' summer break'' - It's time to drag your eyes away from Rupert Murdoch's blow-up here, just for a moment, to a rather more serious blow-up over the channel that threatens to engulf us in solid stuff of an entirely different calibre - 12th July
 * prize remains only just in reach'' - It's not often that a company intending to mount a takeover bid hopes to see the shares of its intended target go up. But if shares in BSkyB were to rise this morning, there would be a ripple of relief among executives at News Corporation - 8th July
 * opinion and time are against Rupert Murdoch's News Corp'' - Among the calls for public enquiries and police investigations, one court has already been judge and jury in the News of the World phone hacking scandal - the court of public opinion - 7th July
 * Corp should put its BSkyB bid on hold during hacking investigation'' - Ed Miliband, still short of political stature, drew himself up to his full political height yesterday and demanded that News Corporation's proposed bid for BSkyB be referred to the Competition Commission in the wake of the latest phone-hacking allegations at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World - 7th July
 * is Europe's rotten apple - and it only takes one to spoil the barrel'' - By itself Greece is a small country worth 0.5pc of global GDP and as the chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Jim O'Neill, pointed out in The Sunday Telegraph, China has foreign currency reserves large enough to buy Greece's $450bn of debt five times over - 30th June
 * Sugar should be sweet on engineers'' - Lord Sugar's comments on The Apprentice do reflect the depressing truth that engineers and engineering are undervalued in the UK - 19th June
 * let a knee-jerk response to rising energy prices turn the lights out'' - Iberdrola, the Spanish owner of Scottish Power, is perfectly at liberty to move financial resources around its group operations. Britishmultinationals do it all the time - 14th June
 * Opec’s Viennese whirl, the dollar is what determines oil prices'' - Seldom has Vienna witnessed such a tense opening to a meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) - 8th June
 * voted for Plan A - and now we must have patience'' - The IMF's verdict is that the Coalition need not change its economic policies – yet - 7th June
 * Blatter's re-election is an own goal - Fifa must start acting like a business'' - Sepp Blatter's unopposed re-election as Fifa president is an affront for several reasons - 2nd June
 * will guard the guardians at the Bank of England?'' - Our recent three-day examination of the Bank of England was an in-depth assessment of the fundamental changes to the way in which banks and, more broadly, the City will be regulated - 1st June
 * see how first Lloyds sell-off worked before embarking on another'' - Sir John Vickers, chairman of the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB), is overseeing a valuable piece of work for the Coalition government -
 * bank lending to the shareholder test'' - Banks came within a whisker of lending targets agreed with the Government's project Merlin - 24th May
 * Why it's time for change at the British Bankers Association'' - Finally the British Bankers Association (BBA) has done something right, but it may be the last thing that Angela Knight does as the trade body's chief executive - 10th May
 * a culture of success could be a major challenge for Glencore'' - Give or take the odd million, Ivan Glasenberg's wealth as chief executive of Glencore is touching £6bn - 5th May
 * Bank of England policymakers don't want to raise interest rates'' - New data from the economy has once again fuelled the debate on monetary policy - 4th
 * should look to Anglo-Dutch rival Shell to help refine the way forward'' - One of the most striking features of the oil industry in recent times has been the divergent fortunes of Royal Dutch Shell and BP - 29th April
 * Sentance has a point about the need for rate rises to counter inflation'' - Andrew Sentance gave a clear assessment of the inflationary pressures facing the UK on Tuesday – including the prospect of oil at $150 - 27th April 2011
 * to raise interest rates now and avoid the panic rush later'' - Although numerous loud voices of late have been insisting that an increase in interest rates would be a mistake, a rise remains inevitable - 21st April
 * ratings warning is a small step, but a giant leap in every other sense'' - The decision of a Toronto-based analyst with Standard & Poor's to change the outlook for America's AAA credit rating from "stable" to "negative" is a small step in ratings terms, but a giant leap in almost every other sense - 19th April
 * calm and collected in the face of disaster shows markets' madness'' - Europe has stumbled into its next crisis but markets on Thursday remained calm, sanguine even, as the eurozone express continued to plough off the tracks. Only the peculiar autism of finance could produce such an odd reaction - 8th April
 * economic medicine is the price we must pay for healthier growth'' - Britain's economy has weaknesses, but it also has strengths - 6th April
 * fashion for profit warnings is no reason to waver from plan A'' - Retailers are into the new season with gusto - the profits warning season that is - 1st April
 * Darroch may benefit from Murdoch switch'' - When the $5bn bid battle for Dow Jones was at its height, Rupert Murdoch famously arranged a meeting with the Bancroft clan to try and reassure the family that Murdoch ownership of their prized asset would be good ownership - 31st March
 * results are not a vindication of US economic policy'' - Regular readers will know that Wolseley, the FTSE 100 distributer of heating and plumbing products, has been a Telegraph bellwether for general economic conditions since November 2006 - 30th March
 * should be angry at the cause of this mess, not attempts to fix it'' - The families marching in London on Saturday have legitimate concerns. People who rely on tax-funded government spending for their livelihoods face an uncertain future - 29th March
 * 2011: George Osborne unveiled a business Budget to repair UK's reputation'' - Let's start with a bit of context. This was George Osborne's second Budget in less than a year. The first was an emergency to stabilise dangerously out of control public finances - 25th March
 * 2011: George Osborne's message and growth may hinge on this 'interim' report'' - Wednesday's Budget doesn't present George Osborne with too many opportunities to shine but doing all he can to boost growth is one of them - 22nd March
 * East turmoil is threat to recovery'' - HSBC and Standard Chartered closed all their branches in Bahrain on Wednesday where between them they employ more than 800 people - 17th March
 * BP could make a tempting target for Royal Dutch Shell'' - Two years on from the biggest shareholder revolt on pay the London market has seen and things are getting back to normal at Royal Dutch Shell - 17th March
 * economy can return to normal but what about its society?'' - When trying to make sense of the incomprehensible it is tempting to take refuge in facts and figures - 15th March
 * cannot afford its permanently compromised management'' - Prudential's results are impressive and management has pulled off a remarkable escape after the debacle of its failed $35.5bn (£21.8bn) takeover bid for Asian insurer AIA - 10th March
 * Barclays' shareholders, Bob Diamond is worth every penny of his £6.5m bonus'' - Finally, the wait is over. After much guessing and speculation the number the whole nation has been waiting for is out. Bob Diamond's bonus for 2010 is £6.5m - 8th March
 * regulation is helping to push HSBC and its global HQ to the East'' - Never mind the numbers, feel the message. That was the story of HSBC's annual results on Monday - 1st March
 * exit draws a line under the great banking crisis'' - 27th February
 * Stock Exchange stoppage is more than a 'glitch', it's an embarrassment'' - Share trading on the London Stock Exchange was suspended all morning because of an as yet undiagnosed problem with the exchange’s prices data - 25th February
 * David Cameron's Coalition wants the savings, it needs to get on with the reforms'' - David Cameron, writing in The Daily Telegraph on Monday, set out how the state's monopoly on the provision of public services was to be swept away - 25th February
 * crisis: Are we witnessing the start of a new oil price shock?'' - The events in North Africa and the Middle East so far this year are reminiscent of the Iranian revolution in 1979 and, before that, the Yom Kippur war of October 1973 - 22nd February
 * Paris: Sarkozy dares to dream in a G-Zero world'' - Today’a G20 meeting for finance ministers and central bankers is the first since Nicolas Sarkozy appeared in Davos last month to give a spirited defence of the international talking shop which he now chairs - 19th February
 * the structure of regulation is fine but it's the culture that must change'' - The Treasury's latest consultation document on the future of our regulatory system is a welcome development - 18th February
 * for the Government to deliver a national strategy for growth'' - Mervyn King, a natural dove, was keen to cool market expectations of an imminent rate rise yesterday - 17th February
 * accounting birds nest shows shareholders should keep up pressure on pay'' - Before banker bashing and project Merlin, bonuses were a simple, if controversial, matter. Now they are a complex and controversial matter. Progress? - 16th February
 * family keeps firm grip on the tap that has gushed cash'' - Shareholders in John Wood Group have struck black gold. Returns were gushing thanks to a $1.7bn cashback after GE agreed to pay $2.8bn for its Well Support Division - 15th February
 * Stock Exchange buys time with TMX deal'' - Attack is the best form of defence, apparently, and traditional stock exchange businesses such as the LSE have certainly been forced on the defensive of late - 9th February
 * shareholders are right to be in a Huff over $315m website purchase'' - Tim Armstrong, chief executive of AOL, said his $315m (£199m) acquisition of the Huffington Post website was a deal where "1 plus 1 equals 11" - 8th February
 * signs of recovery mean the time has come to raise interest rates'' - The R-word was on many people's lips on Thursday – but R for recovery rather than recession - 4th February
 * good to talk... if you're the new Vodafone chairman'' - I don't know if Sir John Bond sent a congratulatory Vodafone text message to Gerard Kleisterlee on Wednesday, his successor as chairman at the mobile phone group, but it might have read: "Bst of lck gerard. voda is a gr8 job – not!!!" - 3rd February
 * has the Bank of England boosted Mervyn King's pension?'' - Mervyn King's final-salary pension pot has received contributions in advance for what, on the surface, appear unexplained, administrative reasons - 1st February
 * WEF 2011: Sarkozy vs Dimon highlights regulation fault lines'' - Davos is surrounded by the evidence of orogeny and the tectonic plates of politics and banking came together in the Alpine ski resort on Thursday - 28th January
 * WEF 2011: East and West must cooperate if we're to survive this economic mess'' - We had the boom. Then we had the bust, which led to a crisis in Western capitalism (although Chinese capitalism seems to be in rude health) - 27th January
 * will growth become top priority for the UK?'' - Two speeches on Monday identified the priorities for ensuring our long-term economic health - 25th January
 * victory may be all the Coalition can gain from bank talks'' - David Cumming is to be congratulated for injecting a much-needed voice of sanity into the increasingly fraught negotiations between the Coalition and the banks - 24th January
 * Balls arrives as the Coalition is busy cleaning up after Labour’s party'' - Balls takes up his role as shadow Chancellor just as the Coalition enters its most difficult time - 21st January 2
 * 2010 results at Goldman Sachs are not a cause for celebration'' - There's banker bashing and then there's Goldman Sachs bashing - 20th January
 * accountancy degree adds up for school leavers and employers'' - Monty Python's Mr Anchovy eventually decides lion taming isn't for him after discovering, to his shock and surprise, that lions are not short brown furry creatures with long noses that eat ants - 14th January
 * interest rates soon to avoid pain later'' - My piece on Tuesday about why a rise in interest rates might not be that bad for the country upset a few people, judging by my inbox - 14th January
 * bashing is beginning to obscure Coalition’s own shortcomings'' - Going into battle against the banks always seemed an unwinnable war for politicians, if only because it's counter-productive to the health of the economy - 11th January
 * Green must get off his moral pulpit to do his job as trade minister'' - Shareholders in HSBC did not pay Lord Green for his ethical beliefs, they paid him for his banking expertise - 7th January
 * oil spill failures highlighted by Obama report pose risk to the UK'' - The findings of President Barack Obama's National Commission set up in the wake of the Macondo well disaster in the Gulf of Mexico last year has profound implications for our own North Sea oil industry - 6th January
 * in Britain, made in China - it's how it should be'' - "Designed in the UK, made in China" is a neat way of summarising our economic relations with the Middle Kingdom – or at least what they should be - 5th January



Selected articles: 2010

 * black swans, but Cable is the turkey'' - In a year of big surprises, how long before the Business Secretary is stuffed - 24th December
 * rally doesn't mean FTSE 100 will maintain growth'' - Traders' antics pushed the FTSE 100 through the 6,000 barrier on Thursday, momentarily at least, but it's going to take more than fun and games to maintain the rally into next year - 24th December
 * have been warned - prepare for rising interest rates'' - You have been reading it in The Daily Telegraph for most of 2010 and now you've got it straight from the horse's mouth – it's time to prepare for rising interest rates - 23rd December
 * UK can't afford to lose its economic credibility'' - There will no doubt be people here in the UK who have been looking on at events in Ireland and Greece and feeling pleased that we have escaped such a fate - 22nd December
 * clampdown is the wrong message for the tax-generating City'' - I had always assumed that any Tory Chancellor who had felt it necessary to hold their nose and adopt an unpopular Labour tax policy would have a very good reason for doing so - 21st December
 * reform is a burning issue and the nuclear fallout will be higher bills'' - One share price worth watching on Thursday will be Drax, the coal-fired power station business, which could be a loser from Chris Huhne's electricity market reforms, due at lunchtime - 16th December
 * protests are not helping the UK's chances of inward investment'' - Protests are part of our way of life but they shouldn't be one-sided. Obnoxious wastrels such as Charlie Gilmour can riot but tax receipts of £548bn and public expenditures of £697bn means his misplaced sense of entitlement is unaffordable - 14th December
 * report into RBS merely seals the regulator's fate'' - It has taken 18 months for the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to conclude, nay it has "confirmed" according to a statement on Thursday, that Royal Bank of Scotland made a series of "bad decisions" in the years immediately before the financial crisis - 4th December
 * attacks on King tell us more about his critics than about him'' - The Bank of England deserves critics but, like any institution involved in running a critical part of our national life, it deserves credible critics - 2nd December
 * far, so safe– but relax and we risk being pushed to Europe's brink'' - International bond markets continued to send out a clear message to governments on Tuesday, especially in Europe - 1st December
 * Osborne should not over-promise on the back of the OBR figures'' - It is far too early to declare victory in the Coalition's battle to save our economy from the long-term, irreparable damage that it faced recently - 30th November
 * pique misses what's really important to ask about the MPC'' - Adam Posen is welcome to his views about the political bias of Mervyn King and the majority of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) but they are eccentric, both in terms of their timing and their content - 27th November
 * tight a regime is the real cause of our mutuals' woes, Lord Turner'' - Lord Turner once again gave us pause for thought on Tuesday. Having previously questioned the social utility of banks, the chairman of the FSA was questioning the future of our building societies when he appeared in front of the Treasury Select Committee - 24th November
 * now, sing along with the Irish... Who’s Sorry Now?'' - Cheer up Ireland, you've had years of success in Europe. And who's to say those happy days won't return? - 23rd November
 * outcome highlights worrying fashion for intervention'' - Marius Kloppers need not be too disappointed with his failure to acquire Potash Corporation, the object of his $38bn (£23.5bn) offer and now a company very much under the protection of the Canadian government - 16th November
 * shares ring up as the market shows its faith in Ian Livingston'' - Shares in BT Group jumped yesterday as the company delivered on its financials. But it has yet to deliver on growth - 12th November
 * blind faith reveals worrying trait for a central bank'' - I do feel sorry sometimes for Mervyn King and the Monetary Policy Committee - 11th November
 * Cameron should be focusing on intellectual property not human rights'' - Human rights in China is an important topic but allowing the subject to overshadow the Prime Minister's trade delegation there is a mistake - 9th November
 * economy in danger of being sucked into Ben Bernanke's great inflation'' - Markets were in party mood on Thursday. But traders' hangovers this morning have less to do with celebrating a market discounting strong economic growth and a lot more to do with equities being seen as a refuge - 5th November
 * oil spill fines will be the real test for BP's Bob Dudley'' - New BP chief executive Bob Dudley faces a tougher task than the job of cleaning up the Gulf - 3rd November
 * of QE could mask the pong of bad debts on banks’ balance sheets'' - No Georgian fop would have been seen about town without a heavily-scented handkerchief to keep the stench of London’s streets at bay - 2nd November
 * growth is good but we must liberate our cities to set recovery free'' - Vince Cable's proposals to kick start local growth are a positive set of ideas - 29th October
 * of recession? You could just have read the papers, Mr Bean'' - Charles Bean, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, gave a speech on Wednesday asking if better, or different, statistics would have helped the Bank anticipate the recession and set policy appropriately - 28th October 2010
 * good start, but we must keep the recovery path clear of obstacles'' - Our series Rebuilding Confidence on Wednesday turns its attention to what the leaders of British business are saying about the UK’s prospects. It makes for a suitably sober read. Things are getting better, but significant risks remain - 27th October
 * Obama's poor economic policies are playing into China's hands'' - It's a quiet morning in the Famous Cozy Soup 'n' Burger diner on the corner of Astor Place and Broadway. "Sometimes it's busy, sometimes it's slow," says the waiter. "The economy is making it more slow than busy." - 26th October
 * Review 2010: Osborne must demonstrate he's not for turning, just like Thatcher'' - Here we all are, agog, waiting for tomorrow's Comprehensive Spending Review. Can life get any more exciting? - 19th October
 * we should believe the banks when they say they will lend more'' - The Business Finance Taskforce is worth listening to. The chief executives of the country's leading six banks, in a report published last night, have admitted that some viable businesses have been denied credit - 14th October
 * civil servants are costing us all a fortune in wasted cash'' - They say there's one born every minute. But when it comes to civil servants, there must be at least two - 12th October
 * shouldn’t care if bankers are well paid, as long as they are paid well'' - It is obvious that bankers aren’t badly paid but they are paid badly. Go figure - 8th October
 * become a country of fiscal nimbys, and it’s left us all worse off'' - I have never had much sympathy with fiscal nimbyism. Not in my back yard has become not in my back pocket - 7th October
 * Terry shows long-termism is alive and well in corporate Britain'' - Just five days ago, Sir John Rose told an unsuspecting world he would be quitting as Rolls-Royce chief executive. Yesterday, Sir Terry Leahy delivered his last set of results as chief executive of Tesco - 6th October
 * class will foot the deficit bill for now, but not for ever'' - As a warm up act for George Osborne, Sir Stuart Rose, the outgoing chairman of Marks & Spencer, played a blinder at the Tory party conference on Monday - 5th October
 * transition at high-flying Rolls-Royce spares Sir Simon more drama'' - Sir Simon Robertson is a great opera buff but even Covent Garden in its pomp couldn't serve up a script so colourful and unlikely as the scenes that have played out in his life these past few weeks - 1st October
 * lending and more safety’ is a contortion too far for the banks'' - An unhealthy stand off is developing between the Government and banks - 30th September
 * casual attack on the press is flawed'' - The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is cracking down (it hopes) on the communication between journalists and their City contacts. It's worried about leaks surrounding mergers and acquisitions - 25th September
 * review is a chance to improve, not destroy, the system'' - Friday will see Sir John Vickers set out more detail on the issues that the Independent Commission on Banking will be investigating over the next year - 24th September
 * Anti-Business Secretary should be an odd man out of a job'' - Odd and emotional is a good way of summing up Vince Cable, the Business Secretary (or Anti-Business Secretary as he's becoming known) - 23rd September
 * for a new Business Secretary as Cable and capitalism do not mix'' - Is it time to stop demonising the Square Mile? - 22nd September
 * deal will define Daniels and could haunt his successor'' - Panama can have an amazing effect on a man - 21st September
 * the economy looks pretty grim, it’s not unmanageable'' - It isn't an easy message to get across but while things are difficult in the economy they’re not disastrous - 16th September
 * anyone should be protesting, it's the put-upon private sector'' - It is not hard to see why Brendan Barber and his pals at the TUC are so keen to take to the streets and man the barricades - 15th September
 * III will not prevent another crisis unless there is effective regulation'' - So much for the death of gentlemanly capitalism. Adoption of the new Basel III capital requirements is being forced through at such a relaxed pace that we could all don our bowler hats and retire for lunch for eight and a half years and still meet the deadline - 14th September
 * do Malta and Latvia have more say on the City than the UK?'' - If anybody was in any doubt about the UK’s loss of sovereignty over its financial services industry, they should turn immediately to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard’s interview with Michel Barnier, Europe’s commissioner for the single market - 10th September
 * oil spill: after the human cost will come the cost of safer oil production'' - First the nine minutes of terror. The dry technical language and presentation of BP's accident report cannot be allowed to obscure the horror and tragedy of what happened on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on the evening of April 20 - 9th September
 * Diamond is without peer but HSBC's Green has tougher task'' - Diamond's appointment is seen by some as Barclays thumbing its nose in the direction of the government - 8th September
 * Walsh's merger plans are a flight of fancy'' - Willie Walsh's Mumbai vision, that British Airways has a hit list of 12 companies to buy or merge with, is less of a strategy and more a flight of fancy - 7th September
 * the argument over 'too big to fail' could be too big to lose'' - Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, yesterday told us what he thinks is the most important lesson to learn from the financial crisis. Drum roll. And the answer is? - 3rd September
 * powerless to reverse stagnation as the jobless total climbs'' - I always think it's nice when the end of the world is postponed for a bit longer - 2nd September
 * up Osborne, Labour's bonus tax did more harm than good'' - When Alistair Darling introduced Labour's bonus tax in last year's pre-Budget report his intention was clear – he wanted to stop bankers being paid so much - 1st September
 * Britain's consumers and companies should ignore exhortations to borrow more'' - Economies such as the UK's don't recover in a real and sustainable way from traumas like the credit crisis without fundamental and lasting change taking place first - 6th August
 * more Lloyds shareholders will start to feel happier about the HBOS deal'' - Save for the biggest of screw-ups, I expect Eric Daniels, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, to see out a decade holding the reins to the Black Horse bank - 5th August
 * Crozier is right to lambast ITV but now needs to pick the company off the floor'' - Programme makers at ITV have long kicked around a treatment called "I'm a shareholder. . . Get me out of here!" - 4th August
 * lending targets down the throat of banks will kill Britain's recovery'' - Before banks got a chance to publish their half year results this week, the British Government was firing off broadsides about their behaviour - 3rd August
 * must get serious about protecting its intellectual property'' - Question: which of the two vacuum cleaners below is a Dyson? - 31st July
 * Gas owner Centrica deserves applause, not blame'' - When it emerged BP would be forced into suspending its dividend after the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill there was uproar - 29th July
 * chairman Svanberg must prove he was right to dump Hayward'' - It will be a very different BP that the oil giant's beleaguered chairman Carl Henric Svanberg will find himself selling to investors when he speaks to institutional shareholders over the coming weeks following Tuesday's half-year results - 28th July
 * BP fails to weigh the chances of being rebuffed in the US . . .'' - There is no doubt that BP is a radically changed business, I'm just not sure the company's management realises it - 28th July
 * will allow the state to deliver more for less – at long last'' - If you thought 25pc savings from the Coalition’s fiscal consolidation are a stretch, try 50pc. That’s what one government department has told Capita, the outsourcing business, it expects to see by the end of a contract it has awarded the company to deliver services previously administered by the state - 23rd July
 * off Vodafone's Sir John Bond now would be an unnecessary distraction'' - The case against Vodafone made by Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, a 0.42pc shareholder, is a strong one. Its decision to vote against the re-election of the chairman, Sir John Bond, is particularly pertinent - 22nd July
 * Tucker heading AIA, the Pru faces a battle on the Eastern front'' - Things just got worse for Prudential's hapless chairman and chief executive, Harvey McGrath and Tidjane Thiam - 20th July
 * secure long-term recovery, let's invest in engineers, not psychologists'' - Vince Cable's idea of a graduate tax to help bridge the inevitable funding gap hitting our universities seems reasonable - 16th July
 * UK recovery be quicker if we started to pick winners?'' - Labour market data out yesterday provided another sign that recovery continued to take hold in the second quarter of the year - 15th July
 * had a hasty birth at the Treasury's hand – and it's made a bad start'' - Sir Alan Budd has learnt the hard way that a week can be a long time in politics - 14th July
 * lack of humility has ushered in a new era of intervention'' - Restraint. The meaning of the word is well understood by you and me. It's understood by private sector workers and, increasingly, public sector workers. But not, it seems, in the City - 13th July
 * the UK is to compete with China and India, we have to pick winners'' - Michael Geoghegan, the chief executive of HSBC, was feeling the heat on Friday in London. It was, he said, warmer here than in Hong Kong where he relocated his office to last year, although not quite as hot as Doha where he'd just flown in from - 10th July
 * July 27 is a big day for BP investors, who probably won't include Gaddafi'' - The last Tuesday in the month will be its second quarter results and the company sees that moment as a fulcrum to create a more positive mood - 6th July
 * Sports 1 arrives on BT Vision but who benefits?'' - BT heralded a "new era" of competition in pay-TV yesterday by finally launching Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 on its Vision service - 2nd July
 * management should start delivering for shareholders by demerging M&G'' - One of the few bright spots of the recent stormy stockmarket conditions has been the performance of Jupiter, the recently floated fund management business - 1st July
 * Osborne's reshaping of the economy needs to start with real jobs'' - Cutting the deficit is a short term necessity. But righting the egregious wrongs of Labour is more complex than simply balancing the books - 29th June
 * 2010: Mansion House dinner serves up another twist in regulatory tale'' - Mansion House dinners don't lack for conviviality – normally. Last night's was true to the usual form with both an upbeat George Osborne and Mervyn King heralding a new start (yes, another one) for financial regulation - 17th June
 * takeover: Sky's tuned-in non-exec directors' cunning solution to a knotty problem'' - Over the past 20 years or more BSkyB has grown to become an extremely successful and valuable asset - 16th June
 * will be another priceless piece in Murdoch’s global media puzzle'' - In setting up Sky just over 20 years ago, Rupert Murdoch nearly drove his News Corporation empire into the ground - 15th June
 * shareholders pay a heavy price for Obama's foot-in-mouth rhetoric'' - The Gulf of Mexico oil spill has returned some grim statistics, none more so than the 11 dead rig workers - 10th June
 * only voice Prudential’s board has been listening to is its own'' - The demonstrations in the centre of Parliament Square were no more than a tented tea party yesterday, compared to the protest happening 100 yards away in the QE II Conference Centre - 8th June
 * of Mexico oil spill: BP must win over shareholders as well as fishermen'' - After yesterday's lurch downwards in BP's share price, it's time the company addressed those other people suffering from the Gulf of Mexico disaster – its shareholders - 3rd June
 * monumental mistakes over AIA mean it's time for new leadership'' - Prudential's bid for AIA, the Asian assets of US insurer AIG, now being propped up by the American taxpayer, has been a monumental misjudgment from day one - 2nd June
 * shoots aplenty for Lapthorne’s pruned Cable & Wireless'' - Sir Richard Lapthorne was enjoying the Chelsea Flower Show on Monday evening, picking up tips on how to indulge his passion for gardening - 28th May
 * no surprise that investors are avoiding Europe like the plague'' - Europe is finally catching a cold, if not the plague. Its own version of the banking crisis, that both the US and the UK witnessed in 2008, is spreading over the eurozone with a vengeance - 26th May
 * time to let the private sector grasp a precious opportunity'' - How did we ever cope in 2000? We seemed such a cheerful bunch even though the dot com bubble was bursting, Cool Britannia was becoming a bit of a cliche, the Millennium Bridge wobbled and, horror of horrors, public spending was only £371bn - 25th May
 * no bundle of joy in Prudential delivery'' - After an 11-week gestation Prudential has finally given birth to a five-and-three-quarter-pound baby that is 12 inches tall and more than two inches thick - 19th May
 * forecasters are often even less reliable than the weathermen'' - Liam Byrne's morbid sense of humour summarises Labour's running of the economy rather well – a joke - 18th May
 * jeopardise the City’s pre-eminence'' - 3i was out of the blocks fast yesterday morning, pleasing the market with its full-year results and shrugging off the planned rise in capital gains tax on non-business assets - 14th May
 * and economic recovery is finally underway - let's not blow it'' - Finally the economic and political cycles are starting to turn in unison - 12th May
 * Lib-Lab coalition will herald Government of the unstable by the unstable'' - The markets jumped for joy on Monday on hopes of a bail-out for Europe and a deal between the Tories and the Liberal Democrats. Today I expect they will have a seizure - 11th May
 * won’t forgive political procrastination'' - The recent years of financial crisis have seen markets fail and those appointed to regulate them fail. The question this morning in the UK is whether our politicians are about to fail us too - 7th May
 * in Pru's management is draining away at high speed'' - Confidence is draining away from Prudential and its management - 6th May
 * Election 2010: Nick Clegg's fantasy finance exposed in final debate'' - I would much rather have been at Craven Cottage watching the football than watching the craven excuse for an economics debate on BBC1 - 5th May (General Election 2010)
 * Cameron needs to hit Gordon Brown's record where it hurts: jobs, jobs, jobs'' - David Cameron has to win the debate on the election's key issue - the economy. Damian Reece explains how he should do it - 29th April
 * golden bounce for investment banks is coming to an end'' - Lloyds Banking Group will on Tuesday morning unveil what I expect will be a pretty encouraging first quarter trading update - 27th April
 * state could be the real loser from Britain's debt crisis'' - Good news from the deficit front. It's not as bad as we thought, chaps. It's just the £163.4bn for 2009-10, rather than the £167bn we feared - 23rd April
 * public sector pay party is over'' - The economic mayhem that George Osborne warned about on Wednesday on the back of a hung Parliament will be a heck of a lot worse if such political paralysis is combined with spluttering economic growth - 21st April
 * is the one game at which Goldman Sachs will never be able to win'' - The prosecution being brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Goldman Sachs looks far from an open and shut case - 20th April
 * Election 2010: Tories need policies that restore faith in UK plc'' - If this election is about economic recovery, then it needs policies that are going to put cash back into people's pockets - 8th April (General Election 2010)
 * Election 2010: Record on economy is Gordon Brown's Achilles heel'' - "Get the big decisions right," Gordon Brown said on Tuesday, "and jobs, prosperity and better standards of living will result. Get the big decisions wrong and the lives of hundreds of thousands of people are diminished as a result." - 7th April
 * Election 2010: Morrisons has everything Brown and Cameron need under one roof'' - I had Gordon Brown down as a Lidl or Aldi customer. The discount grocers stock just one of every line and are cheap as chips, so it takes zero imagination to shop there. David Cameron I'd pencilled in as an Ocado customer and Nick Clegg a grey man in Tesco - 7th April
 * must welcome the private sector for the health of the nation'' - Care for the elderly has once again been brushed aside by Labour. One of our biggest problems shoved back into the Downing Street filing tray marked "too difficult" – a pile of paper tottering over - 1st April
 * of procedure herald the end of the Gartmore carousel'' - Life couldn't get much better for Jeff Meyer, chief executive of Gartmore. It was the night of January 21. The previous month he'd successfully piloted the fund manager to its second stock market float, in a remarkably varied ownership history, and now his star fund managers were being fêted at the Grosvenor House Hotel at the EuroHedge Awards – a black-tie dinner where anybody who's anybody in hedge funds wants to be seen - 31st March
 * 2010: This may be Darling's Budget but Tories need it to be Cameron's day'' - Alistair Darling has one last opportunity to buy some votes with Wednesday's Budget but our crisis-torn public finances mean it can be nothing more than a fiscally neutral statement - 24th March
 * levy on banks would give them a licence to demand taxpayer aid'' - Imposing a levy on banks will achieve precisely nothing in terms of either avoiding another financial crisis or protecting taxpayers from another bail-out - 23rd March
 * the headlines, Britain faces threat of a jobless recovery'' - A fall in unemployment is welcome news. Such headline numbers give headline writers a rare chance to cheer readers after a long winter - 18th March
 * Airways shows Tories need a plan to avoid union turbulence of their own'' - Union leaders have walked straight into a trap over their planned strike action at British Airways - 16th March
 * Firma investors would rather not feel the pain of acquiring EMI'' - 'Yes, I’d rather hurt than feel nothing at all,” sing Lady Antebellum, the EMI artists, in their title track on America’s current number one album - 11th March
 * plan to cut the deficit is lacking something ... the cuts'' - Many dismal scientists have, of late, predicted a sterling crisis if Britain acts quickly to address its appalling public deficit — none more so than those at UBS - 10th March
 * chief Tidjane Thiam is taking the risk business to a whole new extreme'' - When it comes to business, mention the "A" word and people immediately assume growth - 9th March
 * leaves no room for doubt as to Tories' intentions to tackle deficit'' - George Osborne's 2010 Mais Lecture on Wednesday may not prove as memorable as Nigel Lawson's 1984 monetarist blueprint, which the shadow chancellor paid tribute to in his address, but it was significant in preparing the electorate, and more importantly the capital markets, for what to expect should the Tories win the election - 25th February
 * must act quickly and clearly in its investigation into Google'' - Countless businesses now rely on internet search as a crucial way to generate revenue. Which is why the European Commission's interest in Google, which we report today, is so significant - 24th February
 * have paid their pound of flesh, now the pillorying must stop'' - The pillorying of bankers must end, Britain's banks need managers not martyrs - 23rd February
 * Britain cannot afford to delay cutting the deficit'' - Beware economists writing letters to newspapers. It happened before in 1981 when 364 wrote demanding the Thatcher government change economic policy to end recession, which was causing a steep climb in unemployment - 20th February
 * official: the crisis in UK public finances has taken a turn for the worse'' - What can go wrong, is going wrong for the British economy - 19th February
 * needs radical policies to help economy create jobs'' - "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." LP Hartley's line from The Go-Between might well be true for many aspects of human behaviour, except economic - 19th February
 * has changed the rules of the game and bankers should take note'' - It's been a feat of financial re-engineering while the vehicle has still been moving forward - 17th February
 * offers students a fine education without the debts'' - I've got some advice for Catriona Brown, the Norwich schoolgirl whose letter about trying to win a university place was published in Monday's Daily Telegraph - 16th February
 * Sants makes elegant exit but pressure mounts on Tories to fill the gap'' - If you have been chief executive of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the UK's primary financial regulator, why would you want to become second fiddle in the event of a merger with the Bank of England? - 10th February
 * the tax code not the Takeover Code to encourage long termism'' - Roger Carr, who has just stood down as chairman of Cadbury, will on Tuesday stand up in Oxford at the Said Business School and call for a review of UK takeover regulation - 9th February
 * is the latest embarrassment for Japan'' - Motoring manna. That's all Ford or General Motors can say about Toyota's $2bn (£1.25bn) recall of 8m cars after it admitted safety problems - 5th February
 * markets need to be switched on to solutions to secure energy supply'' - Project Discovery has been Ofgem's year long trek through the British energy landscape, but what has the regulator found on its travels? - 4th February
 * will need emergency Budget for Britain to avoid the risk of a Greek mess'' - There were some deliberately mixed messages from George Osborne on Tuesday as he laid out the Opposition’s New Economic Model - 3rd February
 * Bolland’s M&S pay package is too rich to swallow'' - Shareholders in Marks & Spencer (M&S) will be holding their noses when swallowing the company’s latest fare – the £14.8m pay package for new chief executive Marc Bolland - 2nd February
 * in to ITV's Crozier and Norman show - it could be a ratings winner'' - After an intermission lasting several years, something like normal service might be about to resume at ITV - 29th January
 * end to recession is not the same as the start of growth'' - Today we mark the end of recession, the deepest economic slough on record. It was brought about by a financial crisis the like of which hasn't been seen in 70 years, which caused credit and confidence to disappear - 26th January
 * bold move on banks begins to justify the hype of his election'' - 'You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose." That's what Mario Cuomo, former Governor of New York state, concluded - 22nd January
 * times for the rich (and well off) as London tops the tax league'' - Forget bonuses and bank levies. If you earn £1m then London is now the most expensive of the world's major financial centres as far as income taxes are concerned - 15th January
 * circle as rate rise looks more likely'' - I said here exactly a week ago that the recent period of ultra-low interest rates was about to come to an end. The hawks are undoubtedly gathering - 14th january
 * for Cadbury comes down to three numbers'' - In the £10.5bn bid battle for Cadbury, its chairman Roger Carr has never once been behind his tormentor, Irene Rosenfeld, chairman and chief executive of Kraft - 13th January
 * time's right for the bold to enter banking'' - There’s never been a better time to go into banking - 12th January
 * condemnation of telephone tax for superfast broadband is myopic'' - The economy needs an upgrade to its communications network and superfast broadband is the answer. Labour on Thursday published a consultation on its planned 50p a month "telephone tax" to help fund a nationwide roll out which was immediately condemned by the Tories - 8th January
 * out because Britain's period of ulta-low interest rates is coming to an end'' - Enjoy it while you can because the recent period of ultra-low interest rates is about to come to an end - 7th January
 * the smoke and mirrors, Kraft's offer is still woefully inadequate'' - Cadbury's core shareholders need to focus on the value of the prized asset they own and ignore Kraft's increasingly theatrical attempts to buy the confectioner on the cheap - 6th January
 * George, Alistair and Gordon owe the electorate a debt of honesty'' - Day one of pre-election froth and the contest to become the country’s next Government looks about as exciting as the parallel contest to become the next Celebrity Big Brother champ - 5th January



Selected articles: 2009

 * public could provide a rich seam of opportunity for Glencore'' - Layer by layer the secrecy surrounding Glencore, one of the world's most important natural resource companies, is being scraped away - 24th December
 * should regulate themselves and treat their customers fairly'' - When the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was defeated by the banks in the Supreme Court over unauthorised overdraft fees in November, I accused the OFT and other regulators of infantilising everyday life. "Regulators treat consumers like sheep, but they make poor shepherds - 23rd December
 * defeat highlights Competition Commission's inadequacies'' - As Craig Revel Horwood would say when judging Strictly Come Dancing: "Un-ber-lievable." - 22nd December
 * must mend their balance sheets before the weather turns'' - The Bank of England poured a sobering dose of reality yesterday all over the financial recovery we've seen since March. Not surprisingly the markets didn't like it - 18th December
 * selfish staff are symbolic of a country that's falling apart'' - The United Kingdom feels more fractured today than at any time since the poll tax riots - 18th December
 * bar none, Piedmont's board choices will be good for Mitchells & Butlers'' - John Lovering was looking forward to a quieter life when he steps down as chairman of Debenhams in March - 17th December
 * clink of glasses lies sober message of crisis that cost a million jobs'' - There was a weary feel to the Chairman's lunch at the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday - 16th December
 * Copenhagen talks, Exxon bets $41bn on low-carbon gas'' - If you want action on climate change, don't go to Copenhagen – try Irving, Texas instead. Copenhagen is home, temporarily, to 192 countries trying to agree the environmental future on paper, but Irving is home to Exxon Mobil which has spent $41bn on its view of what constitutes a low carbon tomorrow - 15th December
 * report: don't believe in Alistair Darling's promises'' - Officially, the task of yesterday was to "secure the recovery and promote long-term growth" - 10th December
 * are wearily reaching the conclusion that the UK is a bad risk'' - Much of the regulatory initiative this year has been about forcing banks to take risk management more seriously - 9th December
 * must lead by example if he wants Europe to leave the City alone'' - The row over bonuses at the Royal Bank of Scotland highlights the impossible and contradictory position Labour has landed itself in. It's the sort of multi-dimensional mess that a dissembling Government born of spin and manipulation thoroughly deserves to end its days with - 4th December 2009
 * adequacy is a mutual headache for UK's building societies'' - Back in February of last year, Adrian Coles, director general of the Building Societies Association, declared that his members were "definitely not" suffering the acute agony of the banks, a fate which I had predicted a few days previously - 2nd December
 * yourself for the IPO stampede'' - I can already feel the ground shaking and, on the horizon, a dust cloud is forming. Hear that distant rumble getting louder? - 1st December
 * trouble in the pipeline as Ofwat boss fails to spot the cracks'' - I wonder . . . when Regina Finn turns the tap on and takes a drink, is she a glass half full or a glass half empty sort of person - 27th November
 * ruling strikes a blow for common sense'' - Regulators treat consumers like sheep, but they make poor shepherds - 26th November
 * Worldwide float could benefit all'' - Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, is clipping the wings of BBC Worldwide, the Beeb's commercial arm - 25th November
 * paid the price to avoid chaos and we must learn from our mistakes'' - Now we know what too big to fail really means - 25th November
 * flirtations, Cazenove made a wise choice in its financial partner'' - Back in 2004 David Mayhew, chairman of Cazenove, had a choice to make - 20th November
 * Lapthorne heads for the sun as Cable & Wireless does the splits'' - One of Richard Lapthorne's many stories about his near seven-year term as chairman of Cable & Wireless (C&W) is, appropriately enough, about a phone call - 18th November
 * balancing act of protecting banks but making them pay their way'' - How do we stop banks being such a financial burden on the taxpayer in future? That was the basic question being asked yesterday by Paul Tucker, deputy governor of the Bank of England - 17th November
 * starts long road to recovery but BT should eventually motor'' - Ian Livingston was never going to turn BT Group around quickly, especially given the rusting hulk he inherited. But since April he has managed to at least change tack and yesterday's half-year results reveal a company sailing with a fair wind at last - 13th November
 * the economic weather turned? We await the Chancellor's forecast'' - It used to be called the Autumn Statement but was then given the less poetic tag of the pre-Budget Report (PBR) – more figures in a fog than season of mists - 12th November
 * Tobacco profits are still booming, but is that a cause for celebration?'' - Gareth Davis is to retire as chief executive of Imperial Tobacco Group after 14 years, making him one of the market’s longest survivors - 11th November
 * we need renewable energy but just wait for your bills to go nuclear'' - You wait 12 years for an energy policy and six come along at once. In an apparent rush of decisiveness Ed Miliband, Climate and Energy Secretary, confirmed 10 sites for new nuclear reactors and a further push to develop clean coal technology - 10th November
 * pursuit of Cadbury ends without even a whimper'' - The original proposal that Kraft wanted Cadbury shareholders to see was worth 745p a share - 10th November
 * is of the essence if bank disposals are to succeed'' - Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group were at the centre of another amazing day for our banks when the Government confirmed it would pump £25.5bn into RBS, stand behind £282bn of its toxic debts and take up 43pc of Lloyds' £13.5bn rights issue – the world's largest - 5th November
 * is unlikely to get the results it wants from bank disposals'' - Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group were at the centre of another amazing day for our banks when the Government confirmed it would pump £25.5bn into RBS, stand behind £282bn of its toxic debts and take up 43pc of Lloyds' £13.5bn rights issue – the world's largest - 4th November
 * the UK's credibility will determine whether we see recovery'' - Good news on UK manufacturing yesterday suggests we got off to a positive start in the final quarter, raising hopes we'll finish 2009 with the economy finally reaching positive territory - 3rd November 2009
 * Turner treads fine line between stifling risk and economic activity'' - It's the biggest bang since Big Bang. Nearly a quarter of a century on from the moment the City of London was thrown open to Wall Street-style competition and large, integrated investment banks were born, a second revolution is upon us - 23rd October
 * Credit Crunch II looms, we must learn to escape risk of moral hazard'' - For all those people belly aching about bank bonuses and dodgy mortgage lending in recent days, a speech by the Governor of the Bank of England addressing reform of the banking system ought to have been a highlight of the week - 21st October
 * shareholders should act now to avoid politicians doing it for them'' - When the banking bailout was born that fateful October weekend a year ago, none of the participants, Treasury, Financial Services Authority or bankers, were thinking about profits and bonuses - 20th October
 * needs to sort platinum, sell Tarmac and polish the diamonds'' - It has been said before that Sir John Parker's appointment as chairman of Anglo American would buy the mining company's chief executive, Cynthia Carroll, some time to turn the business around. Now she knows how much – six months - 16th October
 * is a silver lining as the dark clouds of austerity gather'' - The single biggest issue facing the UK economy is the chronic state of the country's public finances. There was some cheery economic news yesterday but I stick to my prediction of earlier this year that I won't be writing about recovery in 2009 – bottoming out yes, but not a real recovery - 15th October
 * teachers and taxes that businesses are rightly worried about'' - The months leading up to a general election are always a good time for business chiefs to publicly outline their concerns. It's something to be encouraged - 14th October
 * cases such as JJB Sports and Cattles cannot simply be ignored'' - Business is all about reputation. In boom times people grow complacent and start to care a little less about who they're doing business with, or who they're working for - 13th October
 * must let Royal Mail deliver a service fit for the modern world'' - The Royal Mail was once part of the fabric of Britain. Its delivery network was our communication system. Radio, television and telephones all became ubiquitous but people still wrote to communicate. "Put it in writing" meant sending a letter. Not any more - 9th October
 * Tories can take a few tips on getting tough on white-collar crime'' - Can the law dealing with financial crime become less clumsy and complex? - 8th October
 * Walsh chooses his moment to establish who really runs BA'' - Never mind the looming public sector cuts to usher in a new winter of discontent, British Airways has opened the door to a new season of industrial relations chill - 7th October
 * look east when there are trade opportunities just over the Channel'' - Goldman Sachs recently suggested the UK could join an elite group of countries who enjoy a positive balance of trade – a nation that exports more than it imports - 6th October
 * is right to make us save for rainy days'' - Having abolished booms, Gordon Brown is already halfway to achieving his long-held aim of no return to boom and bust. Admittedly, the latter half of the project is looking beyond him but 10 out of 10 for the work so far - 3rd October
 * Government has turned regulation into a cash-raising enterprise'' - The shares of companies in the FTSE 100 have enjoyed the best quarter in the history of the blue-chip index. But at the same time the reputation of business appears to be at its lowest ebb. That's puzzling - 1st October
 * King can avoid being misunderstood on sterling by avoiding the topic'' - Some of the City's leading teenage scribblers were invited in to enjoy the Bank of England's famously Spartan hospitality yesterday morning - 30th September
 * Mandelson will be wasted in Opposition'' - Gordon Brown denied on Sunday that he used prescription drugs to help him cope with work. But that didn't stop him gobbling down the happy pills that Lord Mandelson was peddling on Monday in Brighton - 29th September
 * directors are not on the Ball when it comes to its own soap opera'' - Last night on ITV’s Emmerdale, Leyla took drastic measures to solve her financial crisis. Michael Grade, ITV’s chairman, is trying to do the same thing. But it’s just not working - 26th September
 * will take more than a cheap currency to make Britain business-friendly'' - Lord Mandelson has talked a lot about a new industrial policy but most of it has remained just that – rhetoric - 25th September
 * that it's down to politics, the crisis is starting to turn really ugly'' - Is there an inverse relationship in Europe between a country's aesthetic attributes and its politics? Have I missed the sliding scale upon which a eurozone country operates? - 24th September
 * up to the twin capitals of capital to show the way on G20 reforms'' - There will be lots of heads of state in Pittsburgh this week at the Group of 20 summit meeting, but will there be any leaders? - 22nd September
 * pound heading for euro parity, Brown's legacy will become clear'' - If, as seems likely, a pound becomes worth the same as a euro in the not too distant future, expect much hand-wringing from some quarters - 19th September
 * has to make sure his next move for Lloyds adds up - for all parties'' - In August it looked like some clarity was creeping back into Lloyds Banking Group. Eric Daniels, the chief executive, felt able to predict a "weak upturn" with 2009 likely to be the high watermark for impairments at the bank, which stumbled into the toxic swamp of HBOS a year ago this week - 18th September
 * MillenniumIT is a smart move but Rolet needs to do more'' - Xavier Rolet spent many years as a trader and on Wednesday his one-time counterparts were busy bidding up the price of shares in the London Stock Exchange (LSE), where he is now chief executive - 17th September
 * path from austerity to prosperity is in the right direction'' - For the Tories it was a significant victory yesterday to witness Gordon Brown finally admitting to what any sane person had concluded was necessary not just a year ago but at least two years ago as we entered this crisis. Cuts in public spending to stem the new crisis of public debt - 16th September
 * journey to renewed prosperity takes the free market route'' - President Barack Obama's speech on Wall Street on Monday called for a return of "responsibility and prosperity" and an end to the "recklessness and crisis" that led to financial meltdown and recession - 15th September
 * legacy must see taxpayers free of risk from bank crises''' - Number 25 Bank Street is an unassuming name for one of the great edifices of corporate hubris. The address in London's Docklands is home to the Lehman Brothers skyscraper which stands just a high-wire walk away from the original Canary Wharf tower, itself testament to previous booms and busts but nothing on the scale of the financial crisis that finally revealed itself to the world a year ago this morning - 14th September
 * not look forward, rather than back, on this anniversary weekend'' - This morning we start the weekend which last year sealed the fates, all various but all ignominious, of Lehman Brothers, AIG and Merrill Lynch - 12th September
 * should gear up to help Vauxhall and avoid MG Rover car crash'' - Having witnessed one car crash in the auto industry with MG Rover, the Government has the opportunity to avoid a second with Vauxhall, the UK business of Opel - 11th September
 * chief Blankfein joins the bankers thinking afresh about capitalism'' - It's a year since the shocking collapse of names such as Lehmans, Merrill Lynch, AIG, Bear Stearns and HBOS. From the rubble some businesses, with state aid, were salvaged. Others, lost for ever - 10th September
 * Food's offer for Cadbury is low fat'' - Kraft Foods has certainly got it’s timing right with its £10.2bn bid for Cadbury - but that’s about it - 7th September
 * chief Marc Bolland is on the right lines'' - One of the highlights of this week's raft of retail results is likely to be the half-year numbers from Morrisons - 6th September
 * pension loopholes must be closed to ensure staff do not save in vain'' - Our revelation of a pensions scandal at KeTech, a private company rescued by Lord Mandelson’s generosity with taxpayers’ money, raises two major issues - 3rd September
 * can be the best form of attack when beating recession'' - Companies with guns demanding money with threats has always been a common sight here. But the Defence Industries Council's (DIC) latest call for more public spending on its goods highlights a tragic contradiction in Labour policy, which is proving fatal and unacceptable - 2nd September
 * Canary Wharf deal shows foreign investors have faith in the City'' - We know that Asian investors are keen on UK property as witnessed by our story two weeks ago revealing the Indian and Abu Dhabi families who have been sizing up British Land as a bid target - 29th August
 * for shareholders to step up and hold investment banks to account'' - Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), isn't nicknamed Red Adair for nothing. He's thrown off the shackles of office and entered the political fray, asserting financial services is no longer "socially optimal" and supporting taxation to curb its growth - 28th August
 * stockmarket Cinderellas point to fairytale solution to bust Britain?'' - Campaigning for public sector reform has always seemed a Sisyphean task - 27th August
 * Bernanke remains at the Fed, he needs to wield power not waste it'' - Ben Bernanke has received the nomination of President Barack Obama for the role of America’s central banker, Chairman of the Federal Reserve. He’s in the job already and now would not be the time for the President to switch horses - 26th August
 * a short-term tonic can prove to be a long-term poison'' - When does short-term job saving start to hurt longer term economic growth? It's a pertinent question after Focus DIY's financial restructuring plan was accepted by creditors on Monday, thus saving the company from administration - 25th August
 * up, the recession won't be anything like as bad as we think it is'' - While positive growth similar to that in France and Germany for our third quarter seems difficult to believe, I'm confident there's a very good chance of at least a flat GDP figure to signal that the worst really will be over by Christmas - 15th August
 * flexibility on City bonuses is damaging'' - Five months ago loss-making banks were facing the prospect of not being able to pay bonuses at all - 13th August
 * must think again on how to tackle jobless problem'' - This is a genuine call to arms to all those who recognise that their interests are aligned with those of the UK economy and its workforce - 13th August
 * crash that was MG Rover may claim Peter's friends as victims'' - The Government has chosen September 11 as the date it will publish the independent report into the collapse of MG Rover, but this is one piece of bad news that won't be buried - 12th August
 * on trying to be Friends again after only a fortnight apart'' - It's amazing how quickly things change. Exactly two weeks ago Friends Provident said Resolution's approach was "wholly inadequate", every investment banker's favourite phrase for "get knotted". The board, chaired by Sir Adrian Montague, saw "no basis for further engagement with Resolution and has terminated discussions" - 11th August
 * truths about banks and banking'' - Stephen Hester's first job was packing Polo mints. Now he's running Royal Bank of Scotland. From the mint with a hole to the bank with a hole - the hole being £7.5bn in impairment charges arising from a disastrous first half of the year - 9th August
 * Lloyds up for boot camp, Sir Win'' - Lloyds has slumped to a £4bn loss, the bank should turn to the military to win the recovery campaign - 6th August
 * are still no realistic alternatives to London as the financial centre'' - You have to respect a chief executive with the balls to stand up on results day and start by highlighting bad news - 5th August
 * banks it's pay back time but who's paying who?'' - It's payback time in the Faustian bargain between politicians and bankers - 4th August
 * Provident's defensive move against Resolution is a bad marketing ploy'' - Life insurance is one of the few products that markets itself as exactly what it isn't. It's death insurance. If it were life insurance it would pay out to infants who had suffered the unfortunate accident of being born - 18th July
 * Provident's defensive move against Resolution is a bad marketing ploy'' - Life insurance is one of the few products that markets itself as exactly what it isn't. It's death insurance. If it were life insurance it would pay out to infants who had suffered the unfortunate accident of being born - 18th July
 * David Walker's 39 steps to banking heaven'' - Sir David Walker’s 39 steps to heaven are the financial establishment’s answer to the financial establishment’s problems – or at least some of them - 17th July (See: Walker Review)
 * energy is great, but we need investment to keep the lights on'' - Transforming Britain into a low-carbon nation is an exciting prospect. Ed Miliband's White Paper could deliver ecologically as well as economically, given the boost to jobs and investment that a transition on this scale requires - 16th July
 * Friends move is provident'' - Clive Cowdery is big in insurance but the chief executive of Resolution is also fond of dipping into quantum physics. There he's found Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle which states that it's impossible to know both the exact position and exact velocity of an object at the same time – although we're talking on a subatomic level, naturally - 14th July
 * Europe wants a better union it should embrace Britain, not attack it'' - For me bedtime reading means immersion. I plunge from one topic to the next, taking a complete soaking in the waves of information - 11th July
 * Carroll gets air cover from Sir John but it won't last for ever'' - Air cover, that's what Cynthia Carroll, chief executive of Anglo American, has got with the appointment of Sir John Parker as the miner's new chairman - 10th July
 * lending plan highlights regulators failure to give due credit'' - The White Paper is intended to create regulations that will ensure no repeat of the banking crisis that engulfed us so suddenly. Learning from past mistakes is all very well for our future wealth and happiness, but what about now? - 9th July
 * should look past toothless White Paper and beware Tory reforms'' - So there you have it. A White Paper on reforming financial markets. The long-promised legislative proposals from Alistair Darling. A crackdown on City pay backed by the mighty force of an existing code of practice, no less, which won't name and shame those out of line. They're quaking over in the Square Mile - 9th July
 * Sir David Jones in a tangle over loan'' - The story of Sir David Jones's £1.5m loan granted to him by direct rival Mike Ashley reveals much about elements of the retail trade, its incestuous nature and how things come back to bite you once you're caught in its silken web - 8th July
 * EU dog will not only bark but take a bite out of the City'' - Lord Myners told the European Commission on Tuesday that its daft, sorry draft, directive on hedge funds needs "major surgery" - 8th July
 * Ecclestone's race should be run'' - Bernie Ecclestone is a self-confessed idiot and fool. His comments about Hitler also reveal an odious side to his character and confirm my views of Formula One, which are less than positive - 8th July
 * shall it profit a man if he gains the world but loses his salary to the regulator?'' - Banking and insurance have enjoyed two scandal-packed decades since the 1986 Financial Services Act appeared - 7th July
 * sector must learn lessons from BT on dealing with recession'' - Our story today that BT has offered thousands of workers the chance to go on an "extended holiday" in return for a pay cut is the latest attempt by employers to cope with recession - 4th July
 * Home Office is where the heart is for British business'' - At last someone in Government is batting for business. Not, however, the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills. It's the Home Office that business people should look to for a sympathetic ear - 3rd July
 * retribution could still derail National Express bidders'' - NATIONALISED EXPRESS was left looking more like a train wreck then ever after our disclosures yesterday about Richard Bowker's decision to find himself another chief executive's berth - 2nd July
 * one inescapable truth voters must be aware of come polling day'' - We knew there was a sharp decline in economic activity in the first three months of the year but, as has so often been the case in recent years, the initial set of official figures were wrong - 1st July
 * near the zoo, the big beasts of business prepare for leaner times'' - It was extra busy near Regent's Park Zoo on Monday as the big beasts of business gathered at one of their favourite haunts - the London Business School - 30th June
 * attack on Sky proves that Britain still hates winners'' - Since early this morning I've been wading through Ofcom's 360 page demolition job of BSkyB - 27th June
 * Svanberg: a relatively unknown chairman is a big risk for BP'' - On paper the chairmanship of BP is one of the choicest roles in world business. But trying to find someone to take the job has proved one of the most difficult recruitment exercises of recent years. But the wait is finally over and the winner is (drum roll) Carl-Henric who? - 26th June
 * collapse is down to football fans voting with their remotes'' - Setanta's collapse into administration is the product of a failed business model, not a failed market - 25th June
 * on ports' companies will hole more businesses below the water line'' - Lord Davies, Minister for Trade, Investment and Business, recently said that international trade and investment was vital to the long-term economic health of the UK. Shame then that a unknown quango is doing its best to undermine that vision, targeting businesses at the heart of our trading economy – the companies that work our ports - 24th June
 * payday is fair and is a precedent for other companies to follow'' - Last October taking the job of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) chief executive did not look like an easy payday. At the time Stephen Hester told me he was doing it as an "intellectual pursuit" - 23rd June
 * figures are beginning to work their powers on recovery'' - Shareholders have written cheques worth about £40bn this year made out to a variety of UK companies seeking to raise capital - 20th June
 * pay the price in the battle to shake off our addiction to debt'' - it would be reassuring if the banks were lending more and the Bank of England is right to highlight the fact they're not. But the lending figures tell us as much about the state of banks and the conflicting interests they face over their own individual balance sheets as they do about economic expansion - 19th June
 * King tells Chancellor that, from his counting house, the figures don't add up'' - Two years ago at the Mansion House Mervyn King gave a sagacious speech - 18th June
 * credit is no answer to flawed rules and regulations'' - In the post credit-crunch world, the financial services, and particularly banking, is seen as having been a commercial Wild West in the years before the summer of 2007 - 16th June
 * sale of BGI ushers in post credit-crunch rebirth for British bank'' - Finally after one of the longest periods of M&A mid-wifery, John Varley, chief executive of Barclays, has finally delivered the $13.5bn (£8.2bn) deal to sell the bank's Barclays Global Investors (BGI) asset management business to BlackRock of the US - 12th June
 * many more job losses as high street banks prune their branches'' - Bank branch closures are the sharp end of the credit crunch. Lloyds Banking Group's closure of its 164-strong Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G) network is a nasty surprise for the 928 people facing the sack - 10th June
 * the wreck of Labour sinks the economy sails on regardless'' - If the Government had a share price you can imagine its performance since May 8, when The Daily Telegraph first began its revelations on MPs' expenses. The Wall Street crash? The Downing Street disaster, more like - 6th June
 * shareholders should insist Tom Albanese goes after rights issue'' - It was back in December 2007 that we revealed Beijing had begun a two-pronged campaign to derail the proposed takeover of Rio Tinto by BHP Billiton - 5th June (See: Mining: summary)
 * GDP's a long shot worth taking'' - What price flat GDP in quarter three? If you could get odds they'd be pretty long I imagine. But I'd take them and lay a decent sized bet. I think the ultra pessimists, such as the Bank of England and IMF, have got it wrong - 5th JUne
 * all want to get back to business but we need an election first'' - An alphabet soup of lobby groups were yesterday reported to be alarmed at the "distraction" of the MPs' expenses scandal - 2nd June
 * must remember, returns from property take time as well as timing'' - Gnarled old veterans of the property market are fond of telling us that when it comes to land "they're not making any more of it" - 30th May
 * crisis is a test for Europe's credibility'' - The future of UK jobs being decided abroad is nothing new - 29th May
 * bust forces UK millionaires to remember the D word'' - Do you have that itch to be filthy rich? Do you give a hoot for a lot of loot? As the number in High Society asks, "Who wants to be a millionaire?" - 28th May
 * need the whole truth on stress tests, however gory that might be'' - You and I are sitting on losses of nearly £18bn from our holdings in Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland, but we're not going to receive details of how well these banks might fare in a worsening economy - 23rd May
 * Scot - Sir Sandy's appointment is an end to RBS's patriot games'' - One of the problems that helped bring down Royal Bank of Scotland was the limited gene pool from which it chose its senior people, especially chairman and chief executives - 22nd May
 * will be a virtue for UKFI, the City's new silent assassin'' - With the announcement of Sir Victor Blank's plan to step down as chairman of Lloyds Banking Group we got a clear view of what sort of shareholder UK Financial Investments (UKFI) is going to be - active, shall we say - 21st May
 * Victor pays the price for HBOS deal that was too good to be true'' - For a fleeting moment back in September Sir Victor Blank must have thought he’d done the deal of his long and distinguished career in banking - 19th May
 * Continental cousins are ill, but we're not the sick man of Europe'' - Dominique Strauss-Kahn correctly identifies that we are in the grip of a "Great Recession", you only need look at Europe's disastrous decline to see that - 16th May
 * Livingston grasps his opportunity, BT can emerge revitalised'' - Yesterday's results were poor but I don't believe the company's situation is as bad as the one that Sir Christopher Bland, BT's previous chairman, had to sort out in 2001 - 15th May
 * power's late arrival shows we've blown chance to plug energy gap'' - Enormous investment is needed to meet our increasingly stringent environmental targets for power generation - 13th May
 * power play should also energise household coffers'' - Yesterday's deal comes with new energy supply contracts which take Centrica to generating 85pc of its peak electricity requirement and 35pc-45pc of gas and electricity combined - 12th May
 * cold-hearted treatment of could be costly to UK trade'' - The British assets of  Tata's Indian empire have not enjoyed a great week. Both its car and steel-making businesses are in peril, making Tata's pleas for help from the UK Government start to sound dangerously like special pleading - 9th May
 * stress tests on building societies will see mergers but no windfalls'' - Most eyes are on the US banking stress tests but closer to home they're being applied to our own building societies - 9th May
 * Land Rover case will tell us whether Labour really believes in UK manufacturing'' - Labour has driven head on into a row over the future of Jaguar Land Rover which has left its much heralded industrial policy and its desire to support high end manufacturing a mangled wreck - 8th May
 * Informa's Swiss move should send a shiver down our spines'' - Informa's decision to move its tax residency and parent company to Switzerland will please its shareholders but it should worry the rest of us - 2nd May
 * taken 20 years but Sky has now stolen ITV's licence to print money'' - BSKYB has renewed its contract to show Championship football from next season. This may be of limited interest to some but for Jeremy Darroch, chief executive of the satellite broadcaster, it means he'll be able to watch his favourite team using his own product come what may - 1st May
 * in banks is key to economic recovery and germane to this is integrated regulation'' - A balancing act is required to ensure the economy climbs out of the recession, is robust and fit for purpose - 29th April
 * from a flu pandemic beckons, but we're not there yet'' - The sight of some of Mexico City's busiest streets all but deserted brings home the impact that a flu pandemic will have globally - 28th April
 * is the right time in the schedule for ITV to find Grade's successor'' - Michael Grade is going back to the bidet and some Budget losers contemplate their future in UK plc. - 24th April
 * Labour is back with a 1970s Budget more flam than glam'' - We've sent our TV cops back there, to find dramatic inspiration in Life on Mars, and we're remaking its comedy in the shape of Reggie Perrin because his travails in life suddenly seem more relevant than ever - 23rd April
 * Budget day, Labour will be revealed as the can’t act, won’t act party'' - Labour is fond of deriding the Tory opposition as the “do nothing party”. But tomorrow it will be Labour which is revealed as the “can’t act, won’t act” party - 21st April
 * Digital Britain is experiencing many technical difficulties'' - Gordon Brown wants Britain to take a lead in the “global digital economy”. I think he’s right and reshaping UK plc in that direction is laudable. Beyond stating the aim, however, he’s bereft of ideas about how to make it happen - 18th April
 * up for BP, but nervous directors keep playing and missing'' - Once you’ve reached a century, you can’t dither and faff between the stumps. Looking for a quick single will only lead to being run out. You’ve got to step forward with confidence and drive for the boundary - 17th April 2009
 * politicians are succeeding only in worsening the national mood'' - There are green shoots appearing, mainly in fir plantations. Demand for paper is rising sharply in order to print the political rhetoric of economic recovery - 16th April
 * it's time to drive up the feel-good factor'' - She's done more than 100,000 miles in 15 years and I'm afraid she's beginning to show it. The spirit is willing but the body work is weak. My courageous VW Golf estate is beginning to let the neighbourhood down, I admit it - 15th April
 * timely reminder that no regulatory system can be foolproof'' - I thoroughly recommend the Treasury Select Committee's report into the Icelandic banking crisis - 4th April
 * Brown's 'new consensus' mean another period of humiliation?'' - It is undoubtedly a big number. It's also a big new number. So the G20 agreement to spend $1.1 trillion (£747bn) through the IMF and other bodies to restore credit, growth and jobs is welcome news - 3rd April
 * has missed G20's golden opportunity to show courage in a crisis'' - Gordon Brown on Tuesday heard what most of us have known for a while as far as the outcome of the G20 gathering in London is concerned. "Explicit fiscal co-ordination is unlikely to be achieved," said the OECD - 1st April
 * heads in the right direction'' - Compass Group, the world's biggest contract caterer which gave us the Turkey Twizzler among other delights, used to be a regular name on the list of any private-equity bidder stalking a big blue-chip deal in the years before the credit crunch - 1st April
 * shows that size matters for building societies'' - In February last year I wrote that the problems afflicting Northern Rock, and the obvious pain then being felt by Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester as well, would inevitably be reflected in the ranks of building societies - 31st March
 * of inflation is Labour's legacy'' - Earlier in the week when most people were expecting RPI to fall into negative territory and herald our first bout of deflation since 1960, the dial stuck at zero - 28th March
 * Darling must show clearly how he will fix our broken public finances'' - Between them, Mervyn King and Britain's gilt market have done the world economy a huge favour this week - 27th March
 * needs to learn Chinese lesson'' - For thousands of years the Chinese used the feathers of kingfishers to give their art a dazzling, irridescent bolt of electric blue to create countless things of beauty. Sadly the picture is not so bright for investors looking for profits from China through shares in Kingfisher, the retail business - 26th March
 * correct to warn Labour against more public spending splurges'' - Inflation is not back – more's the pity - 25th March
 * and Geithner gambling with their country's financial reputations'' - Barack Obama and his Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, are starting to look like gambling addicts - 24th March
 * the summit risks becoming the Kyoto of the economic meltdown'' - The Bank of England started creating money from nothing on Wednesday, adding £2bn to its reserves which it promptly spent buying gilts from banks (non-bank financial institutions having spurned the offer) - 12th March
 * well insulated for survival of the biggest phase'' - The building supplies group is signalling more pain before gain - 7th March
 * cash call provides reality check despite Asian promise'' - HSBC'S awful results are an important reality check for everyone caught up in the global financial crisis - 3rd March
 * is the focus of the banking crisis still revolving around pay?'' - Britain's banking crisis has plunged new depths. Rather than focusing on fixing the key component for an economic recovery – banks' balance sheets – attention has been diverted to sorting out Sir Fred Goodwin's egregious pension entitlement - 28th February
 * Turner's band of FSA brothers must tread carefully'' - Wanted for hire: forward thinking, brave and intrusive regulators to forge revolution in policing the City of London, apply in writing to Hector Sants, chief executive of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) - 26th February
 * Rock plan avoids the real question of what jobs we're all going to do'' - We warned you on Friday to prepare for politicians pronouncing on a "new settlement" for business with predictable knee-jerk regulatory measures - 24th February
 * is alive and kicking - look at Reed Elsevier'' - Recession always encourages people to reflect on what's gone wrong and how things should be different in future - 20th February
 * calculated risk on HBOS may still pay off'' - Eric Daniels, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, did take a big risk when agreeing to rescue HBOS last year from nationalisation. But it was a calculated risk and the equation remains in his favour, just - 17th February



Selected articles: 2008

 * Bank of Scotland when will we see your like again? Never I'm afraid'' - Forget those hardcore Scottish nationalists mourning the loss of their independent Bank of Scotland. Any pity should be reserved for Lloyds TSB's shareholders after HBOS' vote in favour of merging - 13th December
 * the dividend freeze, next the write-offs as Rio starts a fire sale'' - They don't come much grander than the board of Rio Tinto - 11th December
 * raises wider questions for Carphone and its directors'' - David Ross has added writer's cramp to his financial headache. He's now fired off his third resignation letter in two days. If delivered in email form, his wrists risk going limp through repetitive strain injury - 10th December
 * should make the right call and resign from National Express'' - The resignation of David Ross as a non-executive director of Carphone Warehouse has gone from a bizarre stock market disclosure early yesterday morning to a full-blown scandal that drags in his personal affairs, the behaviour of the banks that lent him the money, his chairmanship of National Express and now the Financial Services Authority - 9th December
 * Liquidity Scheme can give us all a rest from Brown's hollering'' - Gordon Brown risks laryngitis bellowing at the banks to create a new credit bubble - 6th December
 * small step for the economy won't stave off a record depression'' - A giant leap (down) for interest rates but just a small step forward for the economy. That was the rather neat lunar analogy Sam Hill, a bond investor with Threadneedle, came up with for the Monetary Policy Committee's cut in the official Bank rate from 3pc to 2pc - 5th December
 * may be flying a kite too far to avoid turbulence with Qantas deal'' - 3rd December 2008
 * dividend is just one awkward question for Skinner and Co'' - 30th November 2008
 * is in the detail for retailers who lost focus on their day-to-day trading'' - Woolworths and MFI have finally joined other failed retailers in the sky - 27th November
 * Labour, old tricks as Darling's stealth is revealed'' - New Chancellor; same old stealth taxes. The more we look at the pre-Budget report, the less we like what we see - 26th November
 * very familiar budget'' - It's not just the eyebrows that link Alistair Darling and Denis Healey - 25th November
 * is a classic example of how fear can undermine an institution'' - 22nd November
 * may be apologetic over RBS woes, but he remains in denial'' - 22nd November
 * pick 'n mix the best of Woolies before the shoplifters take it all'' - Remind me, what's the point of Woolies? - 20th November
 * gilts market needs to know Prudence will make a comeback'' - We've had the warm-up to next week's Pre-Budget Report with all three main parties limbering up with some gentle insult hurling and a bit of light truth stretching - 18th November
 * is creating turbulence for easyJet with a personal agenda'' - What's good for Stelios isn't necessarily good for other shareholders - 15th November
 * Bank obeyed few of the commandments of good stewardship'' - Like Moses, Mervyn King went among the media yesterday handing out his outlook for the domestic economy, grey hair and robes flapping in the recessionary gale - 13th November
 * tax bribe idea highlights poverty of the Government's thinking'' - 12th November
 * rebel plan too much a quantum leap even for Bond'' - Perhaps the tartan two spent too much time viewing Never Say Never Again when they should have been watching Dr No - 11th November
 * Government needs to recognise the truth over its muddled thinking on banks'' - 8th November
 * didn’t the Monetary Policy Committee listen to the business world?'' - 7th November
 * rate cut shows complexity of modern economy is lost on Brown'' - 6th November
 * won’t like Brown’s empire any better than Sir Fred’s empire building'' - 5th November
 * and fairly priced: Barclays shows the right way to take a risk'' - Barclays has done the right thing by raising capital from private investors rather than relying on state handouts - 1st November
 * banks must not prey on small firms while they are vulnerable'' - 1st November
 * MPC was driving the economy but didn't know the highway code'' - 31st October
 * speech set back stability but he was right'' - The Governor just wanted to mark the start of the “long march back to boredom and stability” - 23rd October
 * Gordon flies round the world, but the Good Ship GB is holed'' - While Gordon Brown is off saving the world, those he's left behind prepare for the worst - 21st October
 * crisis: Will bank rescue tempt Gordon Brown to call an election?'' - All successful people in business try to look at life from all angles – they don’t like to miss a trick - 18th October
 * tie-up with HBOS could turn out to be the deal of the century'' - 15th October
 * Gordy joins the ranks of superheroes with one £37bn bound'' - 14th October
 * Dear Taxpayer, are now bottom-fishing with the great and good'' - If you want something that will cheer you up in these troubled times then consider a trip down to Woolworths - 10th October
 * declaration welcome but no miracle cure'' - So, did the Darling Declaration and a day of coordinated rate cuts by central banks do the trick? - 9th October
 * £50bn gamble is not enough'' - To say the pressure is on Darling this morning as he unveils his latest piece of 'decisive action' is an understatement - 8th October
 * crisis has come at the worst possible time'' - The more a government does to commit taxpayer funds to shore up its banks, the more responsibility it must take for running those institutions - 7th October
 * latest entourage must do more than smile nicely for the camera'' - Gordon Brown has had so many different business advisers he must surely be planning to transform himself into a leading entrepreneur once he's out of office - 4th October
 * Cameron's policies and principles are enough to win support of business'' - 2nd October
 * must leave room for the eventual winners and losers to emerge'' - 1st October
 * we must learn in order to profit from Washington’s lust for vengeance'' - It was stomach churning to see the vote in favour draining away from the Paulson Plan as the tally for the yeas and nays vacillated in front of the watching world - 30th September
 * & Bingley looks set to join Northern Rock in the taxpayers’ property portfolio'' - 27th September
 * 'Apocalypse now' hits the US, the picture in Britain becomes dimmer'' - With President Bush warning the American nation that without immediate action by Congress the world's superpower could slip into financial panic, it's hard to focus on the real economy here - 26th September
 * will keep the lights on longer'' - Nuclear energy fuses value for money and a long-term solution to the energy squeeze - 25th September
 * Paulson's legacy will be very dull financial institutions'' - The events of this past week has seen the financial security of all Americans put at risk - 20th September



news & updates:

 * Telegraph appoints City supremo - The Telegraph Media Group today appointed a single editor to oversee business coverage across its daily and Sunday papers and website - The Guardian, 18th September 2007