Ben Chu



Profile:
Full name: Ben Chu

Area of interest: Government and Politics; Economics

Journals/Organisation: The Independent

Email: [mailto:b.chu@independent.co.uk b.chu@independent.co.uk]

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Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/biography/ben-chu

Blog: http://blogs.independent.co.uk/author/benchu

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Networks: https://twitter.com/#!/BenChu_



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Education: Manchester Grammar School; Jesus College, Oxford: History

Career: The Independent: comment desk; letters department; personal finance; leader writer

Current position/role: Economics editor


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Role: Commentator, Leader writer

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Email: [mailto:b.chu@independent.co.uk b.chu@independent.co.uk]

Website: Independent.co / Commentators

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Articles: 2016

 * Official immigration figures are known to be inaccurate – so what about the rest our national statistics? - It would be wrong to write-off all statistics as inherently dodgy, but the figures have to be subject to expert challenge – and the ONS should be more receptive to such scrutiny - 16th May
 * Private schools catering to the global elite are spending lavishly because of their huge UK tax breaks - it has to stop - If these institutions paid tax in the manner of other private firms the Treasury’s coffers would be swelled by an estimated £100m a year. Add in the business rates exemption and the annual tax break is closer in value to £250m - 10th May
 * How can you lose £100,000 by saving £20? By breaking the habit of a lifetime - The psychology of betting tells us something interesting about what happens when we win and lose - and why we choose to bet in the first place - 8th May
 * The housing crisis has just taken an even more frightening turn thanks to the so-called Bank of Mum and Dad - What the Bank of Mum and Dad (BOMAD) really underlines is that this isn’t so much about the young versus the old when it comes to housing, but poor families versus rich families - 4th May
 * Here's the secret life of the money in your pension pot - it will make you angry - Over the lifetime of a typical pension, hidden charges can eat up as much as 30 per cent of what it would otherwise have been worth - 1st May
 * Record labels are far from the evil suits Prince made them out to be – they’re redistributive business models - When big acts attack the funding model of record companies what they are doing, whether they know it or not, is pulling up the ladder behind them - 27th April
 * If you think more celebrities are dying young this year, you’re wrong – it’s just a trick of the mind - When we hear of a death, we summon up a mental image of the young star. It’s the discrepancy that amplifies the shock and makes it feel unusual - 25th April
 * These are the psychological tricks both sides of the EU debate are playing on you - and how to recognise them - What sounds worse: a shortfall of 6 per cent of GDP resulting from Brexit, or a loss of £4,300 per household? - 19th April
 * Why did Sadiq Khan change his mind over the Garden Bridge? He's fallen for the sunk costs fallacy - The temptation for a politician who started a war is to pretend that there was no mistake and plough on. It's not rational, but it is understandable - 17th April
 * If BP votes down a pay rise for the boss, the era of fat cat salaries could finally be over - It will be hard for defenders of boardroom excess to wield the 'pay for performance' defence ever again - 14th April
 * Inheritance tax doesn't work. Let's tax all family gifts instead - Inheritance charges are not a 'death tax' nor a 'tax on love' – they are a levy on free gifts and unearned windfalls, and they're overdue a rebrand - 12th April
 * Even Amazon will be swallowed up by the free market – and there's nothing Jeff Bezos can do about it - Even the most successful companies are merely small boats bobbing on the surface of a great and treacherous ocean - 11th April
 * Forget tax redistribution – the Panama Papers show we need to focus on tax havens if we’re going to tackle inequality - Around 8 per cent of global wealth is held offshore. That is a serious amount of money. And it means we are probably underestimating national wealth inequality. - 7th April
 * Never mind redistribution - the Panama Papers show why we need to focus on tax havens if we are to tackle inequality - Around 8 per cent of global wealth is held offshore. That is a serious amount of money. And it means we are probably underestimating national wealth inequality. - 6th April
 * The Djokovic approach to economics is fraught with unforced errors - There is already a commercial popularity contest in which the best players win big: sponsorship - 25th March
 * We should recognise that George Osborne has got some things right - From the sugar tax, to the Apprenticeship Levy to the creation of the Office for Budget Responsibility, let's give credit where it's due - 21st March
 * Should fuel duty go up in the Budget? Ask Arthur Cecil Pigou - If there is a "war on motorists" it is a war the motorists have been winning - 14th March
 * It's absurd to tie being 'workless' to doing no work. Just ask a mother - GDP does not capture ‘family output’. It doesn’t measure childcare by family members, the care of infirm parents – activities with a market value - 11th March
 * Family is the one thing economists cannot measure - GDP does not capture ‘family output’. It doesn’t measure childcare by family members, the care of infirm parents – activities with a market value - 11th March
 * So you think you've got consumer incentives in the bag? Think again - When chancellors add pennies on to the price of tobacco or alcohol at Budget time, we don’t see big falls in the public’s consumption of such items - 7th March
 * The Nike donation shows that in the world of business, a halo can be worth paying for - Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, made a $400m (£288m) donation to Stanford University to fund a scholarship scheme. Why do billionaires do this sort of thing? - 29th February
 * There's nothing shameful about budgeting around your child's safety - We’re naturally uncomfortable weighing up costs and benefits when it could affect the health of our loved ones, but it's perfectly acceptable to think statistically - 26th February
 * Despite what you may have heard, Help to Buy has not helped the housing crisis - In fact, there's good reason to believe that it could have made it worse - 22nd February
 * A university degree is a signal coming through loud and clear to employers - Did you choose that arts degree to “signal your virtue” – to demonstrate your social superiority by picking a fancy-sounding, but useless, qualification? - 15th February
 * The business model that would give football clubs back to their fans - Football clubs are not normal businesses and should be priced accordingly - 12th February
 * How to cut through the problem of multinationals’ tax dodging - How about if we simply scrap corporation tax in the wake of the latest outbreak of public outrage and confusion over Google’s back-tax settlement? - 8th February
 * This is one proposed pension raid on the rich that isn’t justified - Politicians are a cynical breed. They have most likely targeted pension contributions relief in recent years because relatively few grasp how the system actually works - 1st February
 * The economic data tell us there’s no cause for alarm about refugees - It’s worth remembering that skills and talent flee along with people - 28th January
 * Global income inequality is indeed falling - but we should still be wary - The encouraging trend will not continue if developing countries' growth stalls and inequality within countries is not kept in check. - 24th January
 * Saudi Arabia's troubled economy could bring down ruling House of Saud - Economic View: The collapse of the global oil price since the summer of 2014 has destroyed the Kingdom’s public finances - 7th January
 * The floods have revealed the imbecility of Osborne’s economic strategy - Can any good come out of such a sodden fiasco? Perhaps it will, finally, make people wake up to the economic idiocy of the Chancellor’s new chosen fiscal mandate, which demands that governments run absolute budget surpluses - making no allowances for capital expenditure - 4th January
 * How is a self-respecting economist supposed to spend gift vouchers? - Our habit of having pots of money mentally devoted to particular spending drives financial advisers crazy - 2nd January



Articles: 2015

 * Nurofen’s devious marketing is nothing out of the ordinary - What nurofen have done with their marketing was shady and misleading, but 'price targeting' does have a number of positives we should also consider - 21st December
 * Nurofen’s devious marketing is nothing out of the ordinary - What nurofen have done with their marketing was shady and misleading, but 'price targeting' does have a number of positives we should also consider - 21st December
 * How George Osborne exploited our psychological biases to secure his cuts - The Government has a Behavioural Insights Team whose objective is to make the most of the public’s psychological biases, in order to push 'progressive' policies - 7th December
 * Immigration is good for growth, so why is the public so hostile to it? - If people think high migration and a rising population are a problem, they should consider the alternative - 3rd December
 * After the little red book was flourished in Parliament, should Mao be rehabilitated? - It has become an increasingly respectable argument to assert that, despite the tens of millions of Chinese who were undoubtedly done to death under Mao, he prepared the ground for the country’s economic modernisation. Did Mao really do more good than harm? - 30th November
 * Why is Osborne so keen to balance the budget? To bring about a smaller state - The Chancellor will say that there is no alternative to his plan if the Government’s finances are to be put in order but you will search in vain for any serious economic support for that argument - 23rd November
 * Scrap the rhetoric. There's no such thing as capitalism - “Capitalism” as a concept has outlived its usefulness. It now merely spreads confusion and breeds dogmatism - 16th November
 * When markets fail, sometimes only the regulator’s axe will do - Once upon a time politicians took a more robust approach to market failure - 2nd November
 * China's population would not have exploded without the one-child policy – and it won't explode now - The country is moving into an era of greater personal freedom - 31st October
 * How do we like those Apples? - Outlook: In this week’s update Apple, as usual, specified revenues from selling iPhones, iPads and Macs. And pretty strong they looked too - 29th October
 * It’s not what we earn that really matters, but what we spend - The Balassa-Samuelson theory explains why a haircut is so much cheaper in China, but an iPad costs roughly the same - 19th October
 * Why we should hold out a friendly hand to China - Ignore the propaganda – the fact is that China needs Britain every bit as much as Britain needs China - 17th October
 * So Jeremy Hunt thinks that cuts will make Britons as 'hard-working' as the Chinese... - The Health Secretary is peddling an inane Western stereotype, and ignoring the fact that 'hard work' in China is rarely a free choice - 6th October
 * We’re singing the blues today but our incomes will be different in future - Incomes fluctuate over a lifetime for a variety of reasons - but the sun will shine soon - 5th October
 * Evidence shows that refugees contribute to the economies of their new homes - Economic View: The distinction between economic migrants and refugees is not so clear cut. Many seek sanctuary in rich countries precisely because they do not want to be helpless refugees forever - 14th September
 * The economics of the stock market is simple really: buy and hold - Economic View: But the key here is not to sell with the herd when markets drop sharply, as they did last week, but to ride it out - 31st August
 * It's time to lay siege to the robber barons of high finance - Economic View: Political debate about the economy and business would benefit if people focused less on the sums made by individuals and took more account of how they earned it - 24th August
 * The curious incidence of taxing companies - Economic View: George Osborne’s apparent desire to push down the UK’s rate of corporation tax until it disappears altogether doesn’t look so smart - 17th August
 * History shows that one man's pirate is another man's business innovator - Some argue that the 20-year monopoly privileges typically granted by patent laws are far too long - 11th August
 * Discount rates: how money off today can be bad news in the future - If we turn a blind eye to this problem, we are in danger of excessively discounting our own future prosperity - 4th August
 * Britain is no country for the young – in jobs, income or housing - Until young people start mobilising to force their desperate circumstances on to the political agenda – they can expect more of the same - 29th July
 * Greece debt crisis: Beware plausible stories - there are times when only statistics will do - Economic View: As a species we rely heavily on stories. Plausible narratives help us make sense of an often complex and inherently uncertain world - 21st July
 * Beware plausible stories – there are times when only statistics will do - Media coverage of Greece glosses over reality - 20th July
 * Production rose in America after pay rises – could the same happen here? - Economic View: Workers who are paid more than the market rate tend to be more productive - 13th July
 * Freer trade or freer hand for multinationals? - Outlook: Barack Obama will get his cherished Trans-Pacific trade deal after rolling over heavy resistance from his own party in Congress with the help of Republicans - 25th June
 * Greece crisis: Remember - when people's backs are against the wall they will take big risks - If Greece embraces default and exits the single currency it would cause immediate and severe economic pain - 22nd June
 * Is Europe really safe in the event of a Grexit? - The country's room to manoeuvre really is almost gone - 17th June
 * Iceland: The economy that came in from the cold? - Seven years after its bloated banking sector imploded, Iceland is finally lifting capital controls. Is this the final stage of the country’s economic rehabilitation? Or could it plunge back into crisis? - 10th June
 * Labour made mistakes – but causing the crash was not one of them - Sorry, but the next Leader of the Opposition should not have to apologise for something they didn't do - 2nd June
 * Thomas Cook gets it, at last - Outlook: The penny finally seems to have dropped for Thomas Cook, with Peter Fankhauser - 21st May
 * Will this be the week when Greece’s future is decided? - The spectre of ‘Grexit’ is back - time up for the country’s single currency membership? Or yet another false alarm? - 9th May
 * The lady doth protest at the wrong thing - Outlook: ECB dictatorship? If only - 16th April
 * The political parties don't want to talk about tax... and neither do we - As the population ages, taxes should rise or services must be cut. But politics and business are in denial - 13th April
 * Secular stagnation? We should hope it's not true - but also plan for the worst - Economic View: It’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future - 9th April
 * Don't be taken in by the Chancellor's living standards myths - Economic View: Do mountaineers get 100 metres from the summit and celebrate? It's the peaks that matter - 5th March



Articles: 2014

 * Pain for Russia, gain for the West - the price of low oil - Vladimir Putin warned yesterday it could take Russia two years to emerge from its current economic crisis. What does that imply for Russia? And what knock-on effects could this have on the rest of the world? - 19th December
 * Autumn Statement: 4 charts that show how badly George Osborne has got it wrong - How has the British economy performed since George Osborne became Chancellor in 2010? How about the public finances? - 2nd December
 * Computer revolution has rebooted the job market - People tend to support the principle of social mobility because they assume they will be moving up the ladder of social status; yet few imagine their fate will be to descend - 6th November
 * Manufacturing delivers huge benefits – so let’s have more of it - Economic View: We’re still waiting for the ‘march of the makers’ promised by George Osborne - 23rd October
 * Any mansion tax must overcome the Dinner Party rebels - A powerful elite is ensuring that we only hear bad things about a levy that would benefit most of us - 12th October
 * Why George Osborne's headline-grabbing claims are wrong - The Chancellor is fooling us with his statements on welfare, the higher tax rate and spending cuts - 5th October
 * Scottish referendum results: What does 'No' vote mean for the UK economy? - What’s the opposite of Armageddon? Many forecasts of the economic implications of a Scottish vote for independence were pretty over the top - 19th September
 * Scottish independence: How Scotland could benefit if its big banks leave - The confirmation from an array of banks yesterday that they will move their legal domiciles form Scotland to England if the “yes” campaign triumphs in next week’s independence referendum has provoked a tug of war between the two camps over financial services jobs - 12th September
 * Scottish independence: Crash aid and big reserves? Banks may thrive on Yes - The fiscal position of an independent Scotland could look better if these large banks did redomicile - 12th September
 * Eurozone flames were doused, but those coals still smoulder - When the crisis was tackled by the ECB two years ago it merely bought time that has not been used well - 31st August
 * Ever felt that financial forecasters are making it up as they go along? - If so, you are worryingly accurate, as the most important economic measure can only be guessed at - 24th August
 * David Cameron should do some homework before sounding off about immigration and jobs - Economic View: His comments risk stoking the potent fear that immigrants are coming here and taking our jobs - 21st August
 * Be sceptical of those who impugn the Old Lady’s virtue - Outlook - 19th August
 * Economists do not predict the future, and can't explain the past - The financial crisis surprised the 'experts'. Now they can't agree on the reasons for the recovery - 17th August
 * The black cloud hanging over Britain’s impressive economic recovery? Weak productivity - Outlook: The Bank slashed its 2014 productivity growth forecast to just 0.25 per cent - 14th August
 * It would be prudent for Tidjane Thiam to stop harping on about the one that got away - Outlook: Fans of Vic Reeves Big Night Out will recall the catchphrase: “You wouldn’t let it lie.” One person who refuses to let it lie is the chief executive of the insurance giant Prudential, Tidjane Thiam - 13th August
 * Crying for Argentina: It has defaulted on its debts again and bondholders could take it to the brink... - But investors are betting that a deal with the vultures will come. Ben Chu looks at the domestic and global implications - 1st August
 * Only structural reform will clean up our unsound banking system - Outlook: Keynes nailed it 83 years ago. As the great economist wrote: “A sound banker, alas, is not one who foresees danger and avoids it but one who, when he is ruined, is ruined in a conventional way along with his fellows, so that no one can really blame him.” - 31st July
 * British economy: Government hails the latest GDP figures, but there is still room for skepticism over this 'glorious recovery' - George Osborne’s Liberal Democrat deputy, Danny Alexander, proclaimed that Britain is now in the 'fast lane' - 26th July
 * We need to talk about George, and his irrepressible economic urges - The cuts of this Parliament are nothing to what's planned for after the election. It smacks of ideology - 6th July
 * Be wary of weak arguments for an early interest rate rise – moving too soon is the biggest risk - Earnings are 8 per cent lower than before the financial crisis. This is an odd definition of ‘normal’ - 3rd July
 * We need to remember that there is more to 'capital' than asset values - We can't become richer by trading ever more expensive houses between ourselves - 9th May
 * Rent controls are not the answer – more housebuilding is - Chunomics: The most effective way for politicians to help insecure renters is to increase the supply of housing - 2nd May
 * So real pay is rising for the first time in years? Here's how to figure out who's really better off - Economic View: It is premature to herald a pay recovery based on a single month's figures - 17th April
 * Only time will tell if income tax changes prove worthwhile - It is too soon to judge the effect of George Osborne’s reduction in the rate to 45 per cent last year - 8th April
 * Choose your targets carefully, George, or you’ll end up with egg on your face - This pledge owes rather more to political than economic logic - 1st April
 * Why we’ve got it so wrong on inequality - The economic world is changing rapidly and we need to shift our focus from income to assets - 29th March
 * Will the reversal of easing lay waste to shares? We simply don’t know - Outlook: “Après moi, le deluge,” warned Louis XV. But what about après quantitative easing? - 11th March
 * New figures go against right-wing claims that public sector workers are grossly overpaid - These headline figures suggest private sector workers are getting a raw deal - 11th March
 * Ukraine crisis: What would a new Cold War mean for the economy? - Investors are rightly worried about the global impact of the Ukraine crisis - 5th March
 * The smart solution is clear: a land value tax - We have a regressive system where people in modest homes pay a bigger proportion in tax - 25th February
 * Could China’s credit hangover prove to be a headache for HSBC? - Outlook: When a financial hurricane smashed into the Western world in late 2008, China somehow seemed to emerge unscathed. The Middle Kingdom has its banks to thank for that - 20th February
 * Failed HBOS merger is a cautionary tale for Lloyds privatisation - Outlook: I have it on good authority that Alistair Darling experienced last minute doubts about blessing the merger of HBOS and Lloyds during the height of the financial crisis in the autumn of 2008 - 4th February



Articles: 2013

 * Leaving aside Reverend Flowers' drug abuse - the truly indefensible thing was how little this Co-op Group chariman knew about finance - Morality must be more than an advertising slogan or carefully cultivated image - 18th November
 * The relaxation of China's One Child Policy is necessary, and long overdue - Today, having too few people of working age threatens to impede growth - 16th November
 * Mark Carney is relaxed about banks' balance sheets – that should worry us - Economic View: The attitude that size doesn't matter as long as there is robust regulation is dangerous folly - 8th November
 * Our housing problems are worse than a bubble - Economic View: Is there a housing bubble? This question is put endlessly to our policymakers and politicians. The trouble is it's not a very useful way of talking or thinking about the state of the British property market - 27th October
 * The prejudice, fear and ignorance around Alan Sugar’s – and others’ – views on Chinese labour - So the Chinese work harder than the rest of us, right? Wrong - 8th October
 * Nine common myths about China - Everything we think we know is wrong: the various China whispers that have warped how we view the country and its people - 5th October
 * It could still be beautiful: The United States is not bankrupt - not yet at least - In part two of our series on the Washington crisis, our economics editor Ben Chu debunks the myth that the US is bankrupt, but warns of the malign influence of Wall Street and right-wing ideology - 3rd October
 * Mark Carney may have to wield the big stick of QE if he is to win City support - "Don't fight the Fed" is one of a traditional axiom of bond traders. It means that if the US central bank wants interest rates to move in a certain direction, they ultimately will, so you'd better not get in the way - 29th August
 * Come on, George, do the right thing: split up The Royal Bank of Scotland - Five years after the bailout, the depressed RBS share price shows that investors still do not believe the institution is worth buying - 28th August
 * Productivity plummeted in 2008 – and its fortunes are tied to our own - Economic View: Through education and developing new technologies, we have increased output - 25th August
 * What are we worth as human beings? Surely more than our salaries tell us - Firms that treat workers well can turn out to be more profitable - 24th August
 * Break up the banking oligopoly or expect more customer abuse - Outlook: CPP. When the latest high street banking scandal broke a couple of years ago I looked at those three letters and a bell rang in my head. After some thought I remembered where I'd seen them before: on my list of direct debits - 23rd August
 * Huge bonuses are more to do with power than merit - Male managers tend to give others in the boys’ club large rewards - 21st August
 * Builders are part of the problem - Are housebuilders a hindrance rather than a help in solving Britain’s chronic housing shortage? - 20th August
 * Until inflation eases off, the downturn will not feel like it is over - Economic Studies: We have accepted hits to our incomes as the price of keeping our jobs - 14th August
 * Standard Chartered shareholders, beware - the East is no one-way bet - Outlook: Standard Chartered is a strong bank because it is well capitalised and generates most of its revenues in fast-growing Asian markets. That's what we're constantly told - 7th August
 * Watching and waiting to see what Governor Carney’s interest rate ‘guidance’ will mean for UK growth - Mark Carney’s hope is that he can successfully decouple gilt and US Treasury bond yields - 5th August
 * The capital Taliban still have unfinished business at Barclays - Outlook: When regulators at the Bank of England decided earlier this year that Barclays and Nationwide should increase their capital buffers to cover at least 3 per cent of their total assets, the two lenders fought back vigorously - 31st July
 * China could be the new Japan if it doesn't heed signs of stagnation - Economic View: Looking at the numbers, the outlook could actually be even worse for China - 28th July
 * Bank should set its sights on lifting Britain's abject economic performance - Outlook: August, Schmaugust. The Monetary Policy Committee wasn't supposed to outline its views on the merits of offering the financial markets guidance on the future path of interest rates until next month - 5th July
 * If politicians deserve a pay rise, why don't the rest of us? - As bosses' bonuses soar and MPs' salaries look set to rise, Ben Chu asks why everyone else still lives in wage-freeze Britain - 3rd July
 * Just what the euro needs - another new member with a creaking economy - Croatia already effectively lives with interest rate decisions made by the European Central Bank so it might as well sign up for full membership - 28th June
 * If George Osborne was thinking clearly he would break up RBS - Outlook: The late Christopher Hitchens wrote in his memoirs that an editor once said something to him that made it impossible to continue working for the man. A footnote revealed that those words had been "you're fired" - 14th June
 * Water, water everywhere – but where is there any benefit for customers? - Outlook: The City's mouth is watering. A takeover bid for Severn Trent from a consortium of pension funds and a sovereign wealth pot is stimulating juices in the Square Mile - 31st May
 * Why isn't a global tax on multinational profits on the agenda for G8? - Outlook: Big Brother watched you. And Google? Google just loves you - 24th May
 * The opinion of the IMF shouldn't matter, but Osborne has ensured it does - The IMF has called on the Chancellor to press the pause button on austerity for the sake of the health of the economy. It's the cause of particular embarrassment - 23rd May
 * Here's a solution: It's time for a global companies to pay a Global Profit Tax - The cascade of revelations in recent months showing multinational companies doing a huge amount of business here and yet paying virtually no corporation tax has provoked widespread public demands for something to be done - 19th May
 * Let's not get bamboozled by Google in the global tax avoidance debate - Outlook: Who says politics is boring? There was another entertaining session of the Public Accounts Committee today as Google's Matt Brittin received a fresh savaging from the chair Margaret Hodge over the internet giant's tax avoidance - 17th May
 * What's the verdict on the King's baby? - The Governor has delivered his final Inflation Report. But how has Sir Mervyn King's analytical innovation performed - 16th May
 * It is Nat Rothschild's investors in Bumi who are the truly unlucky ones - Outlook Poor Nat Rothschild. The financier with the storied surname laments in an interview with Bloomberg that he was "unlucky" ever to have got involved with the Indonesian coal-miner Bumi and its owners, the Bakrie family - 10th May
 * Manchester United fans could expect no more from Sir Alex Ferguson - he always gave his all - His outbursts, against referees and opponents, were seen as a dark side, but that rage explains a great deal of Ferguson’s success - 9th May
 * The dumb money is still flowing into hedge funds – and it belongs to you - Outlook: More money than God. That's one of the colourful descriptions of hedge fund managers and the title of a fine history of the industry by Sebastian Mallaby - 2nd May
 * Will the authorities ever tire of flogging this dead banking horse? - Outlook: What goes through the head of someone when they're flogging a dead horse? Do they imagine that if they only put more vigour into the beating the beast will advance? - 25th April
 * Investors beware - at Barclays, three years is seen as the 'long term' - Outlook: Antony Jenkins, who says he aspires to make Barclays the "go to" bank, instructed Bob Diamond's old comrade-in-arms, Rich Ricci, to go forth and multiply. And so yet another wing of the Wall Street wannabe banking house that Bob built is knocked down. Good riddance - 19th April
 * Has our debt pile finally hit its peak? - Economic View: Do British households have too much debt? Or to put it another way, do British households feel they have too much debt to allow them to start spending? On this question hang the prospects for our economic recovery - 7th April
 * How George Osborne threw our guardian angel overboard - No one has been better than Robert Jenkins at explaining the mechanics of banking to a lay audience - 5th April
 * George Osborne's conflicted Budget - The Chancellor wants to play it safe. But he is also running out of time to boost growth ahead of the election. Ben Chu looks at his likely plans - 21st March
 * The day of reckoning for the private equity barons is still to come - Outlook: Remember the buyout barons? Before the 2008 financial crisis there seemed to be three ways in which financiers could become insanely rich, obscenely quickly - 15th March
 * The long and the short of it is that we urgently need more investment - Outlook: If you require evidence of the short-termism that bedevils our economy you probably require a new pair of spectacles - 8th March
 * Are markets getting ahead of themselves? - Perhaps America's politicians should commit economic self-harm more often - 7th March
 * Special pleading from a sector which still thinks it exists on a different planet - Outlook: Some people have scrubbed themselves into an impressive lather over the European Union's new legislation to cap bankers' bonuses as a proportion of salary - 1st March
 * This energy debate has produced overpriced heat, but little reforming light - Outlook: Multinational energy firm announces fat profits as pensioners freeze to death following an inflation-busting hike in fuel bills. It doesn't take a corporate public relations genius to spot that particular mantrap - 15th February
 * Berlusconi has actually talked some sense – but he terrifies the markets - The view is that Mr Berlusconi would undo all the good work that Mr Monti has done - 26th February
 * The world should stop fretting about currency wars and focus on growth - Outlook: It'll all be over by Christmas. That's what they said of the First World War. A naïve reading of the G7 statement would lead you to believe that last year's currency wars will have an even briefer duration - 13th February
 * We're being cuckolded by RBS. It's time for the Coalition to nationalise - Outlook: Power without responsibility, as Stanley Baldwin noted, was the prerogative of the harlot through the ages - 7th February
 * What a wonderful world the magnificent Jamie Dimon inhabits - Davos Outlook: Some things at Davos never change. The snow is heaped in thick slices on the gabled roofs. Audis with tinted windows prowl up and down the Promenade. Delegates are given goody bags filled with useless tat. And Jamie Dimon stands up, belligerently, for the banks - 24th January
 * These banks' fortress balance sheets aren't as impregnable as they look - Outlook: The London Whale turned out to be more like the London goldfish. JP Morgan's results for the final three months of 2012 today confirmed that Jamie Dimon's Wall Street juggernaut emerged from its annus horribilis in surprisingly decent shape - 17th January
 * What if Britain left Europe? - Analysis: A "Brexit" is considered a real possibility for the first time in four decades. But just how economically damaging would UK withdrawal be - 15th January
 * The Chancellor's corporation tax con - Economic View: Why is our crusading Chancellor, who claims to have zero tolerance for multinational tax avoidance, cutting rates and hosing down cross-border firms with allowances? - 6th January
 * Sir Martin Sorrell's peculiar vision of social responsibility - Outlook: Sir Martin Sorrell has expressed himself on the great corporation tax debate. What firms need to understand, the advertising magnate said today, is the imperative of corporate social responsibility - 3rd January



Articles: 2012

 * Warning - state-subsidised asset stripping is a severe choking hazard - Outlook: Did the private-equity house, OpCapita, really intend to turn Comet around - 19th December
 * Autumn Statement: Osborne's deficit dissembling - Our Economics Editor on a disgracefully misleading claim made by the Chancellor - 6th December
 * Are we being held down by household or bank debt? - Investment Column: Do we have zombie banks, as the BoE thinks, or zombie households, as Fathom argues? - 8th November
 * Never mind Obama, can the House of Congress avert a fiscal catastrophe in the coming weeks? - America's political elite have shown precious little appetite for bipartisan negotiation over the past four years. Yet the looming fiscal cliff demands urgent co-operation - 8th November
 * The news has got gloomier, yet the outlook is brighter - Back in June, Greece and maybe even the eurozone itself seemed to be dancing on the brink - 23rd August
 * Is the UK economy turning Japanese? - Is there ever going to be a recovery? The question is pertinent because last week the Bank of England downgraded its growth forecasts for the umpteenth time - 12th August
 * Manchester United for sale: One careless owner - The Glazer family are floating a stake in Manchester United in New York. But it is a rotten deal for both shareholders and fans - 11th August
 * Germany is not bailing out Europe, it is rescuing itself - Huge transfers are still required. Without more honesty from Germany this crisis will not end well - 5th July
 * Case for splitting up banks is now unanswerable - Do you trust investment bankers? Don't laugh, because faith in the good behaviour of these individuals is the linchpin of the Government's reforms of our financial sector - 4th July
 * Victory for Rome? Sorry, Monti, you're still €1.9trn behind… - Could this deal be the prelude to directing the full firepower of the ECB at the debt crisis? - 30th June
 * The eurozone crisis is too big a problem for Germany alone to fix - German politicians may have to deal with the dire economic consequences of their actions - 28th June
 * A banking union will not be enough. We need growth - Does the road to eurozone salvation pass through a European banking union? - 7th June
 * Europe has to become a 'country' – a new beast – if the euro is to survive - US dollars, sterling and Japanese yen don't have the structural flaws that are undermining the single currency - 27th May
 * Argentina managed to survive a huge default – so could Greece do the same? - It's the inescapable question: would Greece now be better off outside the eurozone than inside? - 16th May
 * Athens needs time, not cuts, if it is to end the people's pain - Many Greeks are angry at their European neighbours for demanding that Greece adopts cutbacks - 4th May
 * It's not Spain nor Italy spooking the markets, but punishing austerity - Economic View: There remains far more austerity than growth in the European policy pie - 8th April
 * The chill winds of real austerity have yet to bite - We are all making a lot of fuss about nothing. The cuts aren't even a scratch. Indeed, the Government is increasing public spending - 4th April
 * Only optimists or Eurocrats believe the crisis is resolved - The risk is that spending cuts and tax rises will not bring down Greece's overall debt burden - 22nd February
 * As the cuts hit home, inequality is fanning flames of rebellion - Just how severe is Greece's austerity? The raw statistics are certainly alarming - 14th February
 * Nation takes its medicine – but condition may worsen - A Greek exit from the eurozone looks less of a risk today, but it has not disappeared - 10th February
 * Why deal with bonuses when you can pick on a scapegoat? - The dishonouring of Fred Goodwin is a cynical political distraction from David Cameron - 2nd February
 * This was not the crisis summit... the worst is yet to come - Greece was not a focus here but it still loomed large, as the Athens government continued to haggle with its creditors - 31st January
 * All Greek bondholders should lose – even the European Central Bank - Economic Outlook: Where there is a foolish borrower there is also a foolish lender, this applies not only to Greecebut also to Ireland - 16th January
 * It was lobbyists' influence that fostered this crisis - The banking lobby is a machine to turn profits into influence into rules to help keep profits high - 11th January
 * Draghi's plan backfires as eurozone banks still run for cover – and the crisis rolls on - Mario Draghi's big bazooka has backfired - 8th January
 * Europe needs to wake up to Greece's unsustainable debt - Economic Life: They had the devil's own job persuading banks to accept a 50 per cent writedown - 5th January
 * If we want to get tough on banks, Europe should set a better example - When it comes to bankers, the Europeans are hard and the British are soft. That, at least, has been one of the assumptions of recent years - 4th January



Articles: 2011

 * How far and how fast is key to the reforms - The commission said that high street depositors should be first in line to get their money back if a bank goes bust - 19th December
 * Is France really in a better state than the UK? - Both countries have banking systems that are painfully exposed to the debt of peripheral eurozone nations - 17th December
 * This lobbying against reform is dishonest and damaging - If you or I had done what the banks had done – crashed the economy, thrown hundreds of thousands of people out of work, taken a huge chunk out of living standards and landed taxpayers with a giant bill – we would probably decide to embark on a long period of silent and humble introspection - 16th December
 * Our economic fate is still chained to the Continent - Like a desperate exam student, Europe's leaders have responded not to the question they were actually asked, but the question they wanted to answer. And even that they got wrong - 10th December
 * Only the ECB can calm crisis, but it is still dragging its feet - Super Mario to the rescue? Not on the basis of yesterday's performance - 9th December
 * The impossible job of an economic forecaster - "I don't know why you're laughing, it's a serious matter," snapped the Conservative MP David Ruffley at Robert Chote in yesterday's Treasury Select Committee hearing - 7th December
 * Why banks must come clean about leverage - Economic Outlook: The banks' desire to protect high leverage is founded on self interest, not concern for the economy - 5th December
 * King tells bankers: Cut your bonuses to help us all - Banks must cut bonuses and use the money they save to protect themselves from the eurozone - 2nd December
 * Germany sees austerity as the road to recovery - These meagre growth figures are the calm before the storm for the eurozone - 17th November
 * We'll never know whether Labour is right - Why is the Coalition expected to borrow more than the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast in June 2010? - 17th November
 * Britain’s subprime bankers - Note that Barclays, which constantly points out that it made it through the credit crisis without taking public money, registered losses of £21bn on subprime investmants, only slightly less than that corporate disaster zone, RBS - 10th November
 * The Cannes debt festival - It's the biggest event in the French resort's history – and an absolutely critical one for the world leaders who are taking part in it. Ben Chu previews a G20 summit that could make or break the world economy - 3rd November
 * Securitisation poisoned the economy. Is it really a sensible idea to revive it? - In 2007, the party stopped. Investors finally realised that they had bought junk - 24th October
 * The IMF matters, but we should also pay attention to the World Bank - Economic Outlook: Staff at the Bank are under huge pressure to push money out of the door. The emphasis is on quantity rather than quality - 3rd October
 * How long can Germany sustain this contradiction? - It is a German paradox. Opinion polls show that the population is mostly hostile to more bailouts for Greece and the use of German national credit to underpin a rescue for the rest of the eurozone. And yet the most popular political parties in Germany at the moment – the Social Democrats and the Greens – are those that back precisely those policies - 30th September
 * The challenge for the eurozone? It must find its Abraham Lincoln - Economic outlook: When the Christian Democrats hear the word eurobonds, all they see is hardworking Germans picking up the bills - 26th September
 * Why no flexibility? It's the markets, stupid, says George - The Treasury won't countenance a "Plan B" on deficit reduction in response to slowing growth. Even a "Plan A-plus", as floated by some of the Coalition's increasingly nervous supporters, is apparently out of the question - 22nd September
 * The banks will take a hit – but their pain is the economy's gain - The benefits to the British economy of a safer banking system are huge - 13th September
 * is safe for now but twitchy markets may not tolerate more delays'' - As expected, cataclysm was avoided. The German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe ruled that the emergency measures to safeguard the future of the single currency did not break national law - 8th September
 * Germans have yet to be told they face a momentous choice - Merkel is fighting a fierce tactical battle to save her coalition. But she has not spelled out to Germany the costs of allowing the euro to break up - 2nd September
 * Any delay to reform would represent fiscal recklessness - When it comes to closing the deficit, George Osborne is against any delay. But over banking reform, the Chancellor seems to prefer a more relaxed timetable - 31st August
 * Merkel can't admit to her voters that the euro is worth paying for'' - Economic View: What has the euro ever done for Germany? - 28th August
 * can forgive the debtors – or it can throw them in the dark tower'' - Economic View: In Nuremberg there stands a forbidding brick tower known as the Schuldturm. In the Middle Ages this is where those who could not pay their debts were sent - 21st August
 * our most vulnerable people really safe in the care of these men?'' - It is a long way from Ireland's Coolmore Stud to Winterbourne View. But the two are linked by a fat trail of cash - 3rd June
 * the monarchy performs a public function, it needs scrutiny'' - For as long as this country has had monarchs, the secret business of royalty has been a source of intense interest - 8th January (see: Royal Family granted new right of secrecy)



Articles: 2010

 * bankers who are the real drain'' - I am ready to accept that the benefits system harms those it is intended to help. But if a life of reliance on others is bad for the poor, then surely it is equally so for the rich - 5th October
 * Diamond - a very dangerous banker'' - Warren Buffett advises investors to 'be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful'. But Diamond's record shows that he is greedy all the time - 9th September
 * beware the American model'' - The 'social signifier' of where you went to university seems to matter more on this side of the Atlantic. Seven out of ten ministers in the Cabinet went to Oxford or Cambridge - 18th August
 * default could have same impact as Lehman collapse'' - Why does Greece's debt crisis matter to the rest of us? The answer, in a word: contagion - 29th April
 * praise of the artistic blockbuster'' - They might be crowd-pleasing, but this one was not dumbed down - 15th April
 * English football lost its mind'' - If you think sport matters at all in our national life you should be concerned - 30th January



Articles: 2009

 * a good reason why climate naysayers are failing'' - Isn’t it likely that oppositionist views have been weighed and found wanting? - 24th December
 * zombie of free-market fundamentalism lurches on'' - The idea that banks must be left to their own devices still drives policy - 26th November
 * Johnson - would you buy a faulty boiler from this man?'' - Imagine that there had been a great global conflagration which began when boilers with faulty designs around the world simultaneously exploded - 4th September
 * the banks aren't lending out their income from quantitative easing'' - An insightful and informativeanalysis by Robert Peston on quantitative easing on the BBC website. Why is all that money that the Bank of England is putting into the economy not increasing the money supply? Peston's theory is that the banks are essentially soaking it all up and using the funds to stabilise their balance sheets - 7th August
 * Act of Settlement served its purpose'' - To grasp why Parliament passed a law in 1701 forbidding a Catholic from acceding to the throne, you need to understand a little of the era's power politics - 28th March
 * – and it just won't work'' - The Calais ‘Guantanamo’ - 21st March
 * The golden rule is a distant memory. Now we're flying blind - The course of this economic crisis has been full of unexpected twists. But yesterday's revelation of falling Treasury tax receipts and rising government borrowing was not one of them - 20th February 2009
 * Time for Israel to talk to Hamas - There is, it seems to me, one argument that Israeli ministers have been pushing more than any other to justify what they are doing in Gaza... - 6th January 2009



Articles: 2008

 * How Britain became a giant hedge fund - Over on the Spectator's Coffee House blog, Fraser Nelson, uses some alarming statistics compiled by Michael Saunders, an economist from Citigroup, to castigate Gordon Brown - 12th December 2008
 * Has the mystery of Sir Ian Blair been solved? - The career of Sir Ian Blair has long been something of a puzzle - 10th December 2009
 * Game over? English football at bursting point - Amid a frenzy of borrowing to pay the wages of international superstars – and build extravagant new stadiums – the most treasured clubs in the Premier League have been sold off to foreign investors. But as times get hard, English football could be sitting on a debt time bomb - 2nd December 2008
 * Sentimental brutality - Martin Narey, the head of Barnado's was accused of bad taste by some last week for suggesting that had Baby P lived he might well have grown up to become one of the "feral" youths the populist press loves to hate. I think it was a point well worth making - 1st December 2009
 * So it's back to the Seventies - Tax the rich. The return of the politics of envy. New Labour is dead. That's the view of many in the right wing press this morning in the wake of the Pre-budget report - 25th November 2008
 * Obama the ‘anti-American’ - I'm confused. Today's Spectator leader tells us that "Internationally, Obama's victory will rout lazy Anti-Americanism" - 6th November 2008
 * Ross and Brand deserted - Why have no heavyweight comedians ridden to the defence of Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross? - 31st October 2008
 * Bankers plead poverty - They still don't get it. Read this report in the FT today on banking bonuses and the (belated) political pressure for them to come down - 30th October 2008
 * Rich as Rothschild? - There are so many ironies in the three-men-in-a-yacht story and they have been pored over elsewhere - 21st October 2008
 * All you need to know about the meltdown - I'm open-mouthed in admiration at the quality of this broad explanation of the financial crisis from the broadcaster and Sunday Herald journalist Iain Macwhirter - 17th October 2008
 * Time for Cameron to make his mind up - The Evening Standard's Paul Waugh has spotted a gem in Cameron's speech on the economic crisis today - 17th October 2008
 * Blame governments for this one? Nonsense - There are some who say that playing the "blame game" in a financial crisis on this scale is irresponsible - 15th October 2008
 * Why Manchester United could go bust - I've held off long enough. It's an emotional wrench to suggest that the football club you support is going to go bust. But that, I believe, could be the fate that lies in store for Manchester United - 26th September 2008
 * Sarah props up Gordon - There have been plaudits from here about how wonderful Sarah Brown was in her introduction to her husband's conference speech: "She gives him warmth", "she's truly his greatest asset," etc - 23rd Sepember 2008
 * Son of Tarzan - Many people here at the Labour conference are wondering why David Miliband's speech was so lacklustre - 23rd September 2008
 * Crime and punishment, Sun-style - The Sun does its bit to encourage a thoughtful public debate on penal policy this morning with its publication of pictures of women prisoners at Holloway Prison participating in a Halloween fancy dress party - 12th September 2008
 * A reminder of the bad old days - I've been turning over in my mind what it is about the whole Policy Exchange "shut down the North" kerfuffle that is so toxic for David Cameron - 15th August 2008
 * No, no, no, Harriet! - Harriet Harman's abiding commitment to gender equality over the years has been laudable, but I think she made a mistake in her interview with Woman's Hour today - 30th July 2008
 * The Big Question: What can we learn from previous stock market panics? - Ben Chu and Michael Savage, 23rd January 2008



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