Stephen Foley



Profile:
Full name: Stephen Foley

Area of interest: North American business news

Journals/Organisation: The Independent

Email: [mailto:s.foley@independent.co.uk s.foley@independent.co.uk]

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Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/biography/stephen-foley

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

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



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Current position/role: Associate Business Editor


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Awards/Honours: Business and Finance Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards, 2009

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Column name: Outlook/US Outlook

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Section: Business comment

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Email: [mailto:s.foley@independent.co.uk s.foley@independent.co.uk]

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Day published: US: Saturday

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Articles: 2015

 * Kyle Bass, a sharpshooting short-seller - The hedge fund chief is betting on a vicious fall in the renminbi - 20th February
 * Put women at the top and lift hedge funds - From 2007, those run by females have returned 59% against average of 37% - 18th September



Articles: 2014

 * The fiendish bond market needs a rethink - Standardised products are likely to attract more demand - 30th October
 * Tax inversion makes a tempting M&A bet - Proposed legislation is not slowing the tide of US ‘tax deserters’ - 8th September
 * Risk parity and McNuggets: a history - Rising interest rates risk to survivial of risk parity approach - 23rd August
 * Markets enter ‘Great Frustration’ phase - Economic optimism remains, but valuations are too high - 12th August
 * New money market fund rules risk backfire - If ‘gates’ are erected the incentive to get out kicks in earlier - 29th July
 * Wall Street’s master fishermen are betting on a storm - Few conflicts make a dent in the world’s GDP - 28th July



Articles: 2012

 * Americans betrayed by half-baked attempts to fix housing market - It may be we will wish, instead of nudging the actors in the chain, government had seized control - 25th August
 * Regulators should resist temptation to gore Google over Frommer's move - There have never been so many options for finding pertinent information - 18th August
 * A threat to peace and stability? No, this bank's one of the good guys - US Outlook: Standard Chartered was no rogue bank. In fact, it might have been one of the financial institutions that was most helpful to the US Treasury here as America has ratcheted up financial pressure on Iran over the past decade - 11th August
 * Sanctions are hurting Iran - but there are ways round them - International sanctions are hurting Iran, but by hook or by crook – and sometimes by US-approved exemption – the country is not frozen entirely out of global trade - 7th August
 * The disasters that show why we have to be on our guard with algos - US Outlook: Si ves algo, di algo. If you see something, say something - 4th August
 * Zuckerberg's long-term view is not enough to calm short-term worries - The stock fell another 11 per cent in after-hours trading on Thursday - 28th July
 * Frightening reminder of why we need rules - A decade ago, before everyone hated the banks, it was the pharmaceuticals industry which was Public Enemy No 1 – and the details revealed in GlaxoSmithKline's $3bn legal settlement in the US are a reminder of why - 3rd July
 * Moody's will tighten the vice on bank downgrades - US Outlook: Arbitrary! Backward looking! Completely unwarranted! Complaining by the banks downgraded by Moody's started the second the rating agency's actions hit the wire late on Thursday night - 23rd June
 * Apple and Facebook's love-in will end in tears amid fight for big prize - the showdown really foreshadowed by iOS 6 is the one between Apple and Facebook - 16th June
 * banking watchdogs are off the leash and can now make a difference'' - Our band of outlaw regulators arrives at the right moment - 9th June
 * Why Americans have got themselves in a froth over super-sized soft drinks - US Outlook: The image of the sedentary, pop-swilling American is more than a stereotype - 2nd June
 * The nun, the merchant banker and a question of corporate ethics - US Outlook: Nobody mentioned the name Greg Smith, though it is barely two months since the London-based trader quit Goldman Sachs citing a "toxic" culture where clients were regarded as "muppets" to be ripped off wherever possible - 26th May
 * At a stroke, Jamie Dimon has become Exhibit A in the case for regulation - US Outlook: Whatever Jamie Dimon says, JPMorgan Chase's employees don't think the Volcker Rule is a waste of time - 19th May
 * The financial abyss we stared into in 2008 is still there waiting for us - The modest reforms have prompted a vicious push-back by money market funds’ lobbyists - 12th May
 * Regulator needs help to tame financial Wild West - At Goldman Gensler was lobbying for precisely the lack of oversight he now seeks to enforce - 5th May
 * When is a bribe not a bribe? Wal-Mart feels the heat down Mexico way - It would only take a tweak or two to legitimise corruption - 28th April
 * Twitter has the wrong answer to the problem of technology patent wars - US Outlook: Having revolutionised the way we share news and links on the web, the company now wants to revolutionise the way we think about intellectual property. I fully expect Twitter to unveil a new corporate slogan: Do no patent evil - 21st April
 * Decades of criticism have not cleaned up supply chains - It is up to consumers to make sure turning a blind eye to this is too expensive a gamble for companies - 14th April
 * Apple must learn from Nike and get tough on causes of supply chain abuse - The biggest lesson from Nike is that all this monitoring has its limitations - 7th April
 * BlackBerry's products will be in high demand – from museum curators - US Outlook: Research in Motion even managed to screw up the admission that its business is a screw-up - 31st March
 * Oprah, Queen of Daytime, finds her crown is slipping with this OWN goal - US Outlook: The naysayers might have got it right when they said Oprah Winfrey couldn't spin her brand of hopey-changey lifestyle television into a whole cable channel - 24th March
 * While millions cast aspersions, Greg, I believe you. But, tell me, why now? - US Outlook: Call me, Greg. Three days after your explosive resignation letter, lobbed like a grenade over your shoulder as you walked out the door of Goldman Sachs, and you are being traduced across the City of London and Wall Street - 17th March
 * Facebook's attempt to be friendly will not leave investors drooling - US Outlook: I think we just discovered the cost of the privacy outcry. Facebook tried so hard this week not to offend privacy advocates with its new services for advertisers, including a way to place ads on its mobile site for the first time, that the result was – well, underwhelming - 3rd March
 * Foreign firms may be on a loser when the online gambling ball starts rolling - US Outlook: There are no Puritans in a recession - 25th February
 * OK, so no toga parties, but mega-rich Apple can't rest on its laurels for ever - US Outlook: What would you do with $100bn? - 18th February
 * Wall Street firms are leading the way when it comes to workplace diversity - US Outlook: 'I'm Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, and I support marriage equality.' - 11th February
 * Why are consumers gloomy? Because the Republicans tell them they are - US Outlook: The American consumer is "a riddle wrapped inside an enigma", one economist wrote, when we learnt that consumer confidence has dipped again - 4th February
 * If only Goodwin had done things the Zuckerberg way... - Mark Zuckerberg is about to join the 1 per cent - 4th February
 * Lawyers fight it out with directors, and never mind the shareholders - US Outlook: As the late Steve Jobs faced up to his diagnosis of cancer and tried to face down the disease, he reached for the highest of hi-tech measures: he sequenced his entire DNA - 28th January
 * Why does Google make it so hard to search out investor info about itself? - US Outlook: Waiting for Google's quarterly figures to land in your inbox is a bit like going to press the "I'm feeling lucky" button on the search engine's website - 21st January
 * Google has a fight on its hands to preserve an open and accessible web - US Outlook: Google is being a bully. On our behalf - 14th January
 * HP investors do not need a muckracking lawsuit over sex claims against ex-boss - US Outlook: There are too many claims and counter-claims to be sure what Mark Hurd, the ousted chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, really told the soft porn actress-turned-corporate hostess Jodie Fisher, but we can be pretty sure he was telling porkies when he boasted that Sheryl Crow was madly in love with him - 2nd January



Articles: 2011

 * HP investors do not need a muckracking lawsuit over sex claims against ex-boss - US Outlook: There are too many claims and counter-claims to be sure what Mark Hurd, the ousted chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, really told the soft porn actress-turned-corporate hostess Jodie Fisher, but we can be pretty sure he was telling porkies when he boasted that Sheryl Crow was madly in love with him - 31st December
 * If we don't mend our broken telephones, then a lot more kittens will be crushed - US Outlook: In the UK it's called Chinese Whispers - 10th December
 * Judge's rebuff of SEC's Citibank settlement shows he's no friend of the little guy, after all - US Outlook: Judge Jed Rakoff is not the man you think he is - 3rd December
 * Groupon's share collapse highlights the big paradox of the small float - Outlook: I take no pleasure in having seen Groupon shares tumble below the price of their initial public offering this week - 26th November
 * US politicians won't be talking turkey about the budget on Thanksgiving - US Outlook: The "super-committee" charged with coming up with $1.2 trillion (£760m) of federal government debt reduction over the next 10 years has a deadline for producing its proposals of this coming Thursday, the Thanksgiving holiday. The odds are it will serve up a turkey - 19th November
 * What price the new democracy? Goldman Sachs conquers Europe - Feature: While ordinary people fret about austerity and jobs, the eurozone's corridors of power have been undergoing a remarkable transformation - 18th November
 * A fatalistic approach to fixing the economy will only make the outlook darker - Outlook: The irony of the financial crisis is that policymakers rediscovered Keynesian interventionism just in time to prevent a recession from turning into a slump, but that the one economic philosophy that has gained strength since then is its polar opposite - 14th November
 * Facebook poked into action by privacy regulator - Outlook: At last, regulators are coming to the aid of users concerned about their privacy on the internet - 12th November
 * How housing policy could ease US unemployment - Outlook: The Federal Reserve made no tweaks to monetary policy this week, but recent speeches by Federal Open Market Committee members suggest they are homing in on the US housing market as the one place they might still have leverage to boost the sluggish economic recovery - 5th November
 * MF Global: The gamble that didn't pay off - The collapse is the final humiliation for Jon Corzine - 1st November
 * Now Hewlett-Packard has decided it will not divest, it must decide that it will invest - US Outlook: The "data-driven evaluation" to which Hewlett-Packard has belatedly subjected the proposed spin-off of its personal computer business, probably did not need to go further than measuring the share-price decline on the day it was announced - 29th October
 * Flat tax is a seductive idea that just might survive the Republican pandering season - US Outlook: Could the world's largest economy really switch to a flat tax? - 22nd October
 * Olympus shareholders are owed full disclosure on the strange payouts revealed by its ex-boss - Outlook: The story of unusual payments surrounding acquisitions by the camera maker Olympus gets curiouser and curiouser - 20th October
 * EU makes its bid to tame the speculators, and it comes not a moment too soon - Outlook: European Union officials are about to launch a new attempt to tame financial weapons of mass destruction and curb the speculators – and it seems not a moment too soon - 19th October
 * Income inequality is the unifying theme for all these global protest movements - Outlook: The link between income disparities and financial crises is more than just a coincidence - 18th October
 * The death of Steve Jobs may have left Apple with the wrong chief executive - US Outlook: I may have underestimated the importance of love - 8th October
 * The dictator is no more. Now Apple must adjust to democracy - The man who would brook no compromise, miss no detail, suffer no fools will be an impossible act to follow - 7th October
 * Over-exposed? Kodak debt mounts up as it misses digital picture - Focus Business: Its camera film was ubiquitous in the 20th century, but modern technology seems to have passed Kodak by - 5th October
 * So will it be Amazon or Apple taking the honours in the Tablet Premiership? - US Outlook: Sometimes we business reporters can feel a lot like sports commentators. Certainly this week, we have been writing about two of the world's largest technology companies as if they were United and City - 1st October
 * HP's bizarre decision may yet turn out to have been a masterstroke - US Outlook: Hewlett-Packard's decision to appoint Meg Whitman as chief executive is bizarre bordering on the laughable - 24th September
 * A moment of existential crisis for BlackBerry – but the board seems unaware - US Outlook: Its legacy business as the device beloved of the corporate world is eroding fast. IT departments are indulging employees’itch for iPhones - 17th September
 * Yahoo may be run by 'doofuses' but they were right to oust Bartz - US Outlook: Was Carol Bartz the problem at Yahoo, or is it the board of directors? - 10th September
 * News Corp investors should reject Murdoch's minimalist shake-up - US Outlook: Rupert Murdoch's message to the corporate governance campaigners snapping at News Corp could not be any bolder if he had written it on the front page of one of his tabloids: Stick it up your punter - 3rd September
 * battened down for a storm in a Starbucks coffee cup'' - US Outlook: Howard Schultz has brewed up a storm with his pledge to withhold campaign contributions to US politicians until they stop their destructive squabbling and put a proper budget deal in place – a budget deal that cuts the national debt in the long term with the mix of cut and tax rises that every economist says are necessary, and also gives an urgent boost to the economy now - 27th August
 * must rise above the jibes from Perry's Texas hold'em economics'' - Rick Perry’s comments about Ben Bernanke have been viewed as a gaffe and an unwise reminder of the rhetorical style of George W Bush - 20th August
 * for gold: yellow metal makes return'' - Forty years since President Nixon dumped the gold standard system, Stephen Foley considers the calls for its return - 16th August
 * of sub-prime lending is still haunting Bank of America'' - US Outlook: Anyone searching for terrifying echoes of the 2008 financial crisis need have looked no further than what happened to Bank of America this week - 13th August
 * has just abandoned the unemployed'' - US Outlook: The seven men and three women who sit down in Washington on Tuesday to debate US interest rate policy will almost certainly decide to do nothing. They may well say something, but action – desperately needed action – seems unlikely for the time being - 6th August
 * sends a $4.5bn cheque Vodafone's way, and it won't be the last'' - US Outlook: Vodafone has been standing there with its little porridge bowl saying, "Please, sir, can I have some more" for so long, the dollop that just landed was bound to warm investors' hearts - 30th July
 * may have lost in court, but at least it doesn't have to become a copyright cop'' - Outlook: It is not often you celebrate a court judgment that you comprehensively lost, but BT emerged from its drubbing by the Motion Picture Association at the High Court yesterday with quite a smile on its face - 28th July
 * revenues for TV companies may be just that, microscopic'' - Outlook: What Rupert Murdoch did to his UK newspapers, he is doing now to US television. No, this is not a point about collapsing ethics. It is about paywalls - 27th July
 * need for speed and some tough regulation on broadband promises'' - Outlook: Broadband speeds are rising – hooray – but not as fast as the UK's internet service providers are claiming. The conclusion of the latest Ofcom report is that ISPs are telling bigger whoppers than ever about the speed of their connections. Their advertising is more BS than Mb/s, you might say - 27th July
 * the debt ceiling may not be enough to prevent financial disaster'' - Outlook: Congressional leaders have been privately praying for tumult on the markets, to concentrate the minds of deniers who doubt the US will default - 26th July
 * friends in high places will spare him a swift exit from News Corp'' - US Outlook: John Malone, that other great media tycoon, once said that for half of News Corp's shareholders, their biggest fear is that Rupert Murdoch is going to die. For the other half, their biggest fear is that he never will - 23rd July
 * changes in global financial markets if there's a credit-rating cut'' - US Outlook: Less than three years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a second financial crisis is now more likely than not. Against the backdrop of calm equity markets and a positively sanguine bond market, I know this makes me sound like Chicken Little. But let me explain - 16th July
 * Zuckerberg's figures add up to economic collapse'' - US Outlook: Mark Zuckerberg has been trying out his likely pitch to investors for the stock market flotation of Facebook, and it has all the hallmarks of a bubble-era pitch - 9th July
 * Obama, and for the recovery, this is not the time for Geithner to quit'' - US Outlook: Don't go, Tim. The news that Tim Geithner is considering stepping down as Treasury Secretary should fill us all with dread - 2nd July
 * of Prohibition deprives New Yorkers of competition'' - US Outlook: Just what does it take to get a drink around here? As an Englishman in New York, you never quite get used to the puritan attitude to alcohol - 25th June
 * down – despite the data breaches, there's little actual fraud on the cards'' - US Outlook: News of arrests in Spain of people believed to part of the hacker group Anonymous, responsible for attacks on Sony and MasterCard in recent months, comes on the heels of another big data breach here in the US - 11th June
 * float looks like another offer at a price that's too good to accept'' - US Outlook: It is indecent, the haste with which Groupon is coming to the public markets - 4th June
 * aren't so keen on revealing what's in their baskets'' - US Outlook: Google knows where you've been on the internet. It probably directed you there - 28th May
 * the well-oiled search engine'' - Outlook: There didn't seem much interest from short-sellers in laying bets against LinkedIn shares yesterday, despite it being the first day after the social network's flotation last week that shorting was allowed - 25th May
 * sale of Cadbury to Kraft was a sweet deal whatever MPs say'' - Outlook: The UK is best served by having an open economy, where even strategic industries can obtain foreign capital that UK investors may not be able to provide - 24th May
 * time for America to to get her finances back in order is running out'' - US Outlook: Take a look around, said the Fox News presenter, sarcastically, over a live webcam of Times Square in New York. "Life as we know it is merrily going on in the United States of America." - 21st May
 * market funds are still an accident waiting to happen'' - US Outlook: So farewell then Sheila Bair. America's most ferocious regulator says she will step down when her term as chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) ends in July, robbing government of one of the few people who still seemed keen on radical reform of finance in the wake of the credit crisis - 14th May
 * tactics were the key to exposing secret deals'' - Prosecutors turned to tactics developed for fighting mafia bosses and drug gangs in their latest effort to rein in insider dealing on Wall Street - 12th May
 * this: unsatisfied customers are not a good basis for expansion'' - US Outlook: I am a sporadic tweeter but a keen consumer of tweets. As anyone using Twitter knows, it is a great way of listening in to the thoughts of smart people (or dumb celebrities, if that's your bag), and of keeping up with the latest news - 7th May
 * BlackBerry feels the squeeze and soon it will be crushed - US Outlook: Research in Motion shares have plunged so sharply on the company's profit warning not because the maker of the BlackBerry cut its forecasts, but because it didn't cut its forecasts by enough - 30th April
 * Please let's not pretend that averting the next Lehman will be easy - US Outlook: No crash. No bang. No wallop. If the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms, which became law last year, had been in place back in 2008, Lehman Brothers would either not have failed, or would have been wound down by regulators in an orderly fashion. The panic of September 2008 would never have been - 23rd April
 * Complaining customers need to do less talk talk, and more walk walk - Outlook: My goodness, how fast the spinners went into action yesterday morning, when Ofcom published its league table of the UK's most complained-about telecoms companies - 22nd April
 * Cost of mis-selling scandal will keep growing the longer that banks dig in - Outlook: The nation's banks are dicing with danger by putting off compensation to the hundreds of thousands, or millions, of borrowers who were mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI) with their loans - 21st April
 * Vedanta lost its deft political touch in India, and may lose more still - Outlook: As political posturing goes, £920m seems a lot to pay to send a message to government - 20th April
 * Wetherspoons changed the British pubs industry – but what does it do next? - Outlook: As the chain moves into smaller towns and becomes a commonplace, the risks of homogeneity grow, particularly if it stints on the cost of refurbs - 19th April
 * The US finances may be going to hell, but at least someone has noticed - US Outlook: Even writing this down feels like it might jinx it, but here goes: it has been a rather optimistic week in US politics - 16th April
 * Welcome to the age of sub-prime patents – or mutually assured litigation - US Outlook: Remember the chaos that ensued when mortgages stopped being a contract between you and your bank, and instead became financial chips bought and sold by gamblers on the world's markets? - 9th April
 * Warner and Live Nation: The all-singing and all-dancing music group? - US Outlook: The overlap, in terms of promotional activity for stars, is enormous, which means the cost savings ought to outstrip the other bids on the table - 2nd April
 * New York Times puts up an online paywall – but are readers ready to pay? - Outlook: The paper is competing against free sites and state-sponsored rivals. Probably only a few people are likely to be encouraged to pay for an online subscription - 26th March
 * G7's intervention to halt the soaring yen was more than just an act of charity - The co-ordinated response to the surge in the yen was needed to curb speculation and correct perversity in the world’s foreign exchange markets - 19th March
 * This spicy feud between HuffPo and The New York Times will keep on running - US Outlook: Who knew that Bill Keller, editor of the prim and proper New York Times, could zing? - 12th March
 * Icelandic saga will take time for fraud investigators to unravel - Outlook: Forgive me, I must start by pointing out that three years after our horrific financial crisis caused by financial fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that's wrong - 10th March
 * The FSA must be given more weapons to root out insider-dealing networks - Outlook: If Raj Rajaratnam had returned to the UK after business school in Pennsylvania and set up his hedge fund, Galleon, in the City of London instead of in the US, would the British authorities have been able to put him in the dock on charges of insider trading? The answer, sadly, is certainly not - 9th March
 * EADS should have won the Air Force deal before: it should appeal this time - US Outlook: The saga of the US Air Force's effort to replace its fleet of mid-air refuelling tankers has had all the drama, cliffhangers and improbable plot twists of a prime-time soap opera. Let's hope that wasn't the last episode - 26th February
 * Apple's days in the sun are numbered as Google's freedom fight gains pace - US Outlook: Barack Obama was able to get Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google, and Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, round the table for dinner this week, but that was a photo op, not peace talks - 19th February
 * How the hysteria over Toyota's tribulations spiralled out of control - US Outlook: Call it "The $5bn Injustice". For the best part of two years, Toyota has been fighting a tide of innuendo about the safety of its cars - 12th February
 * Fed chief Bernanke spells out home truths on financing the future - US Outlook: Will someone please listen to Ben Bernanke? The Federal Reserve chairman becomes more shrill in his warnings about the US government debt crisis every time he speaks publicly - 5th February
 * A little bit of this, a little bit of that... and a disco for dogs - There is a stunning photograph of Venice in the first edition of The Daily, which amply demonstrates what you can do on a touchscreen tablet such as the iPad and would never be able to do in a print newspaper – or on the boring old internet, for that matter - 3rd February
 * The trouble with the FCIC is it agonised too long over who was wrong, rather than why - US Outlook: Since every man and his dog appears to have a dissenting opinion on the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission report, allow me, too - 29th January
 * Google: The search engine that lost its way - The hegemony of Google on the internet is under attack from 'content farms' and other rivals - 27th January
 * Some 'adult supervision' will ensure Page keeps Google's fortune safe - US Outlook: Has Google just picked the wrong chief executive - 22nd January
 * Dimon's gripes reveal reform is still being resisted by the banks - US Outlook: You can pretty reliably measure how well the efforts to reform the banking system are going by listening to how annoyed Jamie Dimon is on a results conference call. The more complaining he does, the more content you should feel - 15th January
 * Oprah always gets her way but is her TV venture all it's cracked up to be? - US Outlook: Today is Oprah's big day. After 25 years hosting the daytime talk show that made her the most influential woman in showbusiness and the US's first black billionaire, Oprah Winfrey launches her own TV channel - 1st January



Articles: 2010

 * is heaving but the US still has a long slog to recovery'' - US Outlook: Tis the season for retailers to be jolly. American shoppers, whose maxed-out credit cards drove the last global economic boom, are back – and in a big way - 24th December
 * goalposts for insider trading have not moved, despite the Wall St noise'' - US Outlook: What a lot of bleating we have heard this week from Wall Street, as federal investigators launched the latest wave of their three-year blitz on suspected insider trading - 27th November
 * call a halt to this Fed-bashing. In the longer view its record is strong'' - US Outlook - 20th November
 * seemed a good idea has become a lethal trap for Obama and his allies'' - US Outlook: It sounded like a good idea at the time. When President Barack Obama set up a cross-party commission to recommend ways of cutting the US deficit - 13th November
 * major feels the benefit as crude prices surge after Opec speaks out'' - After months when BP, through bad luck and its own obvious failings, simply couldn't catch a break, the company now has at least one thing going in its favour – the rising oil price - 3rd November
 * catches on as US consumer regulator goes for the simple approach'' - US Outlook: Elizabeth Warren is off to a cracking start in her job as architect of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau here - 30th October
 * the courts should remember the first rule of business: a deal is a deal'' - US Outlook: David Boies, America's most famous litigator, has been having a busy few days - 23rd October
 * is exceptional but its rivals are queuing up to take a bite'' - US Outlook: The world of technology has only one superpower, and it is Apple - 16th October
 * in foreclosure process will buy time for economic recovery'' - US Outlook: The most surprising thing about the chaos enveloping the foreclosure process on millions of homes in the US is that it has taken so long to reach this point - 9th October
 * Icahn's plot for MGM merger should be rejected by other investors'' - US Outlook: There are many terrible reasons why two companies might embark on a merger. Doing it because the same corporate raider pops up on the investor register at both companies must be among the worst - 2nd October
 * adventure on the dotcom superhighway may yet fail spectacularly'' - US Outlook: When is a $100m gift not a $100m gift? When it’s in Facebook stock - 25th September
 * happened to the real Gordon Gekkos?'' - Oliver Stone's great villain was inspired by Wall Street's most colourful characters. As he returns to our screens, Stephen Foley uncovers the truth behind the fiction - 23rd September (feature)
 * Street's habit of 'window dressing' isn't illegal – it's just wrong'' - US Outlook: Even regulators have taken to using the phrase "window dressing" to describe Wall Street banks' habit of reducing their short-term borrowings for a few days around the end of each quarter, in order to make themselves look less risky than they really are - 18th September
 * must realise America is on the verge of a fresh economic crisis'' - US Outlook: The intensity with which Barack Obama buzzes about announcing new plans to kickstart America's economy has become inversely proportional to the chances of those plans making it into law - 11th September
 * new space race can give desert state economic lift-off'' - US Outlook: It is approaching truth or consequences time for space tourism - 4th September
 * and Dell have lost their minds in this irrational bidding war'' - US Outlook: It is with some hesitation that I write about the battle for control of 3Par, a little California data storage company that is suddenly the hottest property in the tech industry - 28th August
 * it doesn't matter if the US government makes a profit on GM'' - US Outlook: Can US taxpayers be made whole on their bailout of General Motors? - 21st August
 * neutrality campaign should not lose heart, even if Google has'' - US Outlook: When the US built its interstate highways, it was transformed. The rapid growth of the suburbs, new horizons for tourism and a revolution in haulage – vast opportunities unfolded when Americans hit the open road - 14th August
 * the Federal Reserve can jump-start the recovery at this stage'' - US Outlook: Is the financial market tail wagging the economic dog? - 7th August
 * won't take much for fears of a lost American decade to become reality'' - US Outlook: If the stock market's reaction to his testimony before Congress this month doesn't jolt Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke out of his complacency, then maybe the little tap on the shoulder he got from his colleague James Bullard might - 31st July
 * life industry rules will not insure against another financial crisis'' - US Outlook: The presidential ink wasn't even dry. Less than 24 hours after Barack Obama signed into US law the financial reforms that will prevent a repeat of the credit crunch, one of his government agencies laid the foundation for what could be the next great financial crisis - 24th July
 * Sachs's $550m settlement won't make all of its problems go away'' - US Outlook: If Goldman Sachs and the rest of Wall Street think the vampire squid's settlement of fraud charges marks the beginning of the end of their credit crisis woes, they are mistaken - 17th July
 * it has been fun - but please, no more cash for the crisis commission'' - US Outlook: The calls for austerity grow stronger by the day in the US. So it is with a heavy heart that Congress must surely turn down a spending request this week by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, the body set up to examine the causes of the credit crunch - 3rd July
 * off the starting grid, Dell is hoping for an Apple-style tech miracle'' - US Outlook: It is hard not to sympathise a little with Michael Dell, the founder and chief executive of the global computer giant that bears his name - 26th June
 * battle with Barclays makes the case for bankruptcy reform'' - US Outlook: We have been litigating the credit crisis for two years already, and will surely be litigating it for many more to come, but the Barclays boss, John Varley, and his investment banking chief, Bob Diamond, finally get their day in a US court next week. It is to be hoped that they triumph. - 19th June
 * must convince the American public that he's got this under control'' - Even the president's friends have moved from expressing understanding and sympathy to outrightcriticism - 14th June
 * in a local paper: a glimpse of the future of journalism'' - US Outlook: There was a new byline on the business pages of the Daily Tribune in Michigan last Sunday. It was a little byline on a humdrum story ("Maytag recalling 1.7 million dishwashers"), buried deep inside a small local paper from the rust belt of the US. But it looked to me like a vision of the future of newspapers - 12th June
 * waiting for the US to get on top of unemployment'' - US Outlook: There is something a little bit wonderful about a census, about the fact that, even in an age of information overload, sometimes it is necessary just to physically count people
 * the tragedy of an ageing web giant in denial about its relevance'' - US Outlook: Yahoo is a tragedy unfolding in real time. That's not news. The more interesting question is whether Carol Bartz, the company's chief executive, is a tragic figure - 29th May
 * day to celebrate: America ushers in a more robust financial system'' - US Outlook: Every finickity detail in the US Senate's 1,500-page Wall Street reform bill is worth billions of dollars. Every sentence is a potential loophole through which the beginnings of the next financial crisis might be threaded - 22nd May
 * government to 'gold plate' credit ratings isn't funny – it's tragic'' - Outlook: How ironic that the most laughable provision in the Wall Street reform bill going through Congress should have been proposed by a stand-up comedian - 15th May
 * Jones insanity shows the need to regulate the murky world of dark pools'' - Outlook: We don't know all the causes yet of Thursday's bout of insanity on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, but this much is clear: regulators have lost control of the equity market - 8th May
 * mystery of Apple, the forbidden fruit and the padlocked door'' - US Outlook: Flash died on the morning of 29 April, 2010. Steve Jobs killed it. And while we may not mourn its passing, we ought to be wary of its killer - 1st May
 * games on Capitol Hill mean nothing has yet been learnt from this affair'' - Analysis: Republicans don't like being characterised by Barack Obama as the party of "No". Perhaps it is most accurate to describe them as the party of "Not yet". The effect is the same - 28th April
 * one: battle for news-stands hits New York'' - US Outlook: It's the clash that has New York's media community salivating: the Murdochs versus the Sulzbergers, and the bell rings for round one on Monday morning - 24th April
 * turn on Wall Street's 'vampire squid''' - US Outlook: Every way you look at it, the fraud charges laid against Goldman Sachs are devastating for the investment bank - 17th April
 * inquiry will not find smoking gun'' - US Outlook: The chairman of the US commission of inquiry into the financial crisis complains that $8m is far too little money for an investigation of this size and scope - 10th April
 * Who knows no borders'' - US Outlook: I would have been quite happy to cut a cheque for £145.50 this week. Or $222.60, for that matter. The BBC is always on the list when expat conversation turns to what we miss about the Old Country, and you find few dissenters on the value-for-money Brits get from the licence fee - 3rd April
 * Pharma dodges most of the bullets'' - US Outlook: Barack Obama's gruelling battle to overhaul the healthcare system of the US sprayed gunshot in every direction, but something remarkable is visible as the smoke clears on the political killing fields: the drug industry dodged most all of the bullets - 27th March
 * the wrong answers, turn to Greenspan'' - Perhaps it is impossible for someone as ideologically committed to unfettered markets as Mr Greenspan to break out of his flawed view of how the world works - 20th March
 * familiar themes in Lehman's latest drama'' - US Outlook: In Enron the Play, the West End smash coming here to Broadway in the spring, "the Lehman Brothers" are depicted as conjoined twins in a single over-size suit jacket - 13th March
 * for you to say sorry, Blankfein-san'' - US Outlook: Transcript of Congressional testimony from Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive of Goldman Sachs, in the style of the president of Toyota, Akio Toyoda*: - 27th February
 * good not to throw the book at Google'' - US Outlook: Is Google creating the world's biggest library, or the world's biggest bookstore? -20th February
 * this the last chapter of the Buffett story?'' - US Outlook: Are we entering the endgame for Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway? - 13th February
 * Pharma ignores R&D at its peril'' - US Outlook: It might be a little early to declare, but 2010 looks like being a year of profound change for Big Pharma - 6th February
 * spending plan leaves President on a fiscal tightrope'' - If he hadn't already put one book out with the title, the budget plan published by Barack Obama yesterday should have been called The Audacity of Hope - 2nd February
 * forget: the bailout was right'' - US Outlook: I have been going back and re-reading the newspaper coverage of those few days after Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008, and regretting a lot of things - 30th January
 * time for Bernanke to leave the Fed'' - US Outlook: I promise to throw my cap in the air when the parade rolls by - 23rd January
 * new rules that miss the point'' - US Outlook: Forcing derivatives trading on to exchanges will bring transparency and cut counter-party risk - 23rd January
 * protection is key to reform'' - US Outlook: I am being lied to all the time. In mailings from insurance firms, telephone calls from debt-restructuring salesmen, and in radio ads for refinancing mortgages, I am being deliberately and outrageously misled - 16th January
 * is it about the ethics or the money?'' - For all its potential, China accounts for barely 1 per cent of Google's revenues - 14th January
 * tablet PCs that will kill off e-readers'' - US Outlook: The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas always tempts one into flights of fantasy about our technological future - 9th January
 * to cheer a harder year for banks'' - US Outlook: Don't burst a blood vessel as the bankers' bonus headlines roll in over the next few weeks. This bonus season marks the high-water mark for Wall Street rewards for failure - 1st January



Journals:

 * No regular column



Articles: 2015

 * Bitcoin central banker is yesterday’s man - Cryptocurrencies have moved on — whether or not Satoshi has been found - 14th December
 * Rookies hunt billion-dollar unicorns - Ashton Kutcher shows unlikely names can make good investors - 17th April



Articles 2014:

 * Time may be up for hedge fund replicants - An existential crisis for the funds is also a crisis for their clones - 23rd December
 * Do not be fooled by fund rankings - Memory of risks fades as crisis drops out of performance tables - 3rd June
 * US pensions buy bonds in race to de-risk - Having reduced deficits in recent equity rally, funds find safer ground - 25th February
 * Carl Icahn, obsessive activist investor - His decades-long war on corporate complacency has gone mainstream - 22nd February



News & updates:


