Patrick Hosking



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Full name: Patrick Hosking

Area of interest: Business

Journals/Organisation: The Times

Email: [mailto:patrick.hosking@thetimes.co.uk patrick.hosking@thetimes.co.uk]

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Website: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/profile/Patrick-Hosking

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Career: Daily Express: City editor; London Evening Standard: deputy City editor; Investors chronicle's DIY Pensions columnist, 2001/2004; New Statesman: 'The Business' column, 2002/2005; The Times: Investment editor

Current position/role: The Times: Banking and Finance editor


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Section: Business - Banking and Finance

Role: Banking and Finance editor

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Email: [mailto:patrick.hosking@thetimes.co.uk patrick.hosking@thetimes.co.uk]

Website: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/columnists

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 * Wall Street’s dizzy heights should make everyone feel a bit queasy - While London’s money folk were on their commute home on Friday evening, Wall Street came within a whisker of passing a bit of a milestone. The Dow Jones industrial average hit a record high, touching 19,999 points. - 9th January 2017
 * Vow of silence by pension trustees leaves funds open to more abuse - It might be all right. The controversy at Trinity Mirror might in time prove to be a fuss over nothing - 2nd January 2017
 * Bond bull looks out of puff at last - Everyone remembers what they were doing on Monday July 11, 2016, right? - 13th December 2016
 * The best pension schemes are nearly extinct but can’t be left to die in peace - Like giraffes, which were reclassified the other day as vulnerable to extinction, the traditional British pension fund is more than ever an endangered species. Giraffes have to contend with poachers and habitat encroachment but at least have a fighting chance - 12th December 2016
 * Can Trump the salesman avoid using business empire as bargaining chip? - The story of Ivanka’s bracelet speaks volumes about the challenge facing Donald Trump as he seeks to make the transition from private business owner-manager to leader of the free world. - 5th December 2016
 * Affluent homeowners won’t get a tax cut but they’ll find a new friend in Lisa - One thing everyone agrees will be in the autumn statement this week is a bit of jam for the JAMs. The Just-About-Managing, households on £20,000 to £30,000, are Theresa May’s favoured demographic - 21st November 2016
 * Economy is following a learning curve - It’s now more than four months since the plunge in sterling that followed the vote to leave the European Union in June, but so far there is little hard evidence that it has done much to improve Britain’s poor trade record. - 10th November 2016
 * The real scandal of town hall waste is having 99 separate pension schemes - Ministers like to talk about the Local Government Pension Scheme as if it were a real entity. If only that were the case - 7th November 2016
 * A level playing field for pensions is not supposed to be levelled down - Bluntly, not enough employees care enough, or understand enough, to make retirement benefits a management priority - 24th October 2016
 * Hammond needs to tackle the unequal treatment of public and private pensions - For years doctors, senior civil servants, head teachers, hospital administrators, MPs and other higher-earning public sector workers have enjoyed a dirty little pensions secret - 5th October 2016
 * Brexit wine leaves a nasty hangover - After two days of party conference speeches, we are not much wiser about how ministers are going to handle Brexit negotiations. But it is at least clear that export access to the EU is to play second fiddle to border control as they decide a pecking order of priorities - 4th October 2016
 * Real test of auto-enrolment will be when a headwind blows - Opt-out rates have been far lower than expected. Fewer than one in ten have bailed - 28th September 2016
 * Looking at three steps to heaven in London - To Leicester’s pantheon of home-grown successes (Showaddywaddy, Next and the Foxes) should surely be added Dunelm. The home products retailer has had a tremendous sales and profits run since floating in 2006 - 15th September 2016
 * Employee ownership ticks the boxes but is not always the right answer - Employee-owned businesses have undeniable advantages, but they will lastingly prosper only if they learn to be as disciplined as their conventional competitors - 7th September 2016
 * Buyer beware? Not by the look of it - British consumers aren’t following the script. Don’t they understand that since that seismic vote on June 23 they should be curbing their spending, postponing big-ticket purchases, trading down to cheaper lines, forgoing little treats, shunning the “buy now” button and generally giving their plastic cards a bit of a holiday? - 19th August 2016
 * World of difference for foreign assets - Here’s an investment strategy. Buy Mexican airports, buy Taiwanese chipmakers, buy Indonesian soapmakers, buy Brazilian phone utilities even, but on no account touch UK assets - 18th August 2016
 * Prepare for a quick burst of inflation - At the very least, British shoppers must brace for a burst of price rises over the next 12 months as the 17 per cent post-referendum slide in sterling feeds through into the real economy - 17th August 2016
 * Will Lisas ever see light of day? - Inheriting other’s people’s pets can be a mixed blessing. Philip Hammond, the chancellor, is no doubt wondering what to do with the rabbit George Osborne pulled out of the hat on budget day in March - 16th August 2016
 * Cutting VAT looks like the quick and easy answer, not the right one - It’s only August, but business leaders are trying to divine what may be in the new chancellor’s autumn statement - 10th August 2016
 * Pick the pensions triple lock - The army of pensioners is an interest group that no one wants to rile. That said, the notion of intergenerational unfairness is rapidly rising up the political agenda - 3rd August 2016
 * Just what the doctor ordered - With consumers faltering, it’s even more important that businesses take up the slack if Britain is to avoid a nasty downturn. Cue yesterday’s cheering pledge from Sir Andrew Witty at GlaxoSmithKline - 28th July 2016
 * Corporate drinks party loses fizz - Like a neglected glass of Stella - 27th July 2016
 * Do a privileged few get away with it? - Say what you like about them, but politicians have done far more than our financial watchdogs in throwing light on the infamous HBOS collapse and trying to hold the responsible parties to account - 26th July 2016
 * Risk of abuse raised by Bank’s delay - A curious thing happened in the hours before the interest rate decision on Thursday. Sterling shot up by almost a cent - 16th July 2016
 * It’s time for the Bank’s governor to pause on monetary orthodoxy - Phew. Theresa May’s speedy coronation has significantly reduced the political uncertainty eating away at business and markets - 13th July 2016
 * Carney has the tools but politicians hold the key - The politicians may think it perfectly reasonable to take ten weeks to decide a new prime minister. The governor of the Bank of England is plainly not so sure, warning yesterday of the “stultifying effects” of uncertainty on businesses and households - 1st July
 * The Sir Humphreys are storming the City. That’s both good and bad - It’s only two months since one of the country’s biggest asset managers, Schroders, blew a gigantic raspberry at boardroom rule-makers and elevated its chief executive to the chairmanship - 8th June 2016


 * Kicking back at the chancellor - Business Commentary: Here’s the standard operating procedure for when the chancellor of the exchequer unexpectedly swings a sledgehammer through your lovingly nurtured business plan - 13th May 2014
 * Following King will not be easy - The pressure on Mike Coupe is immense and would be so even if the chief executive-elect of Sainsbury were not taking over in the midst of an intensifying groceries price war - 8th May 2014
 * Two shareholder votes is too many - Hosking on Monday: Here’s Warren Buffett the other day discussing the latest Coca-Cola executive pay plan - 28th April 2014
 * Risks remain in this de-risking - There hasn’t been a big deal quite like it for years. GlaxoSmithKline’s asset swap and joint venture with Novartis is unusual in that each of the three elements is conditional on the other two - 24th April 2014
 * Risks remain in this de-risking - There hasn’t been a big deal quite like it for years. GlaxoSmithKline’s asset swap and joint venture with Novartis is unusual in that each of the three elements is conditional on the other two - 23rd April 2014
 * So much choice, so little time - Eleven and a half months and counting. That’s the pitifully short time that ministers, regulators and the savings industry have to prepare for the brave new world of pension liberalisation - 14th April 2014
 * Waiting for the watchdog to fall - Martin Wheatley has made a lot of enemies over the past couple of years. The Financial Conduct Authority chief has been stamping his hobnailed boots all over the financial world - 31st March 2014
 * Osborne puts us in charge of our pensions - The Chancellor promises control of our savings – but will future politicians keep their hands off? - 21st March 2014
 * Bond sales emerge into the daylight - Where there is fear are loathing, there are investment opportunities. So the sell-off in emerging markets has inevitably started to get the bottom-fishers excited - 18th March 2014
 * Brain teaser to test the banks - Hosking on Monday: Rate tarts and financial dweebs with the time and energy to constantly shop around and switch to get the best deal on financial products will hate Royal Bank of Scotland’s pledge the other day to abandon the industry’s dodgier marketing wheezes. Everyone else will applaud it - 3rd March 2014
 * Banking has yet to clean up its act - Hosking on Monday: There are two ways to interpret the fact that more than 5,800 bankers and financial advisers in Britain have been sacked or suspended for dishonest conduct since the start of the banking crisis - 10th February 2014
 * Time for auditors to make the move - Hosking on Monday: Doors rusted shut for decades are creaking open. More and more companies are responding to pressure and are switching their long-time auditors - 9th December 2013
 * Economy’s growing pains still remain - One message from Threadneedle Street was rather overlooked amid all the good cheer this week about the economy - 18th November 2013
 * Economy’s growing pains still remain - Economic Insight: One message from Threadneedle Street was rather overlooked amid all the good cheer this week about the economy - 16th November 2013
 * Governor faces his Bernanke moment - Mark Carney has a delicate job next week. It was only three months ago that the Governor ofthe Bank of England was setting out how his big new idea, forward guidance, would help to bring the moribund British economy back to life - 9th November 2013
 * The new game not everyone can play - The stock market rose by 27 points, or 0.8 per cent, yesterday. Or did it? - 19th October 2013
 * Minister’s excuses get lost in the post - Vince Cable did his best to defend himself yesterday, but it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that he has sold Royal Mail too cheaply and that taxpayers have been short-changed - 12th October 2013
 * Remember to look under the bonnet - Brrm brrm. The men in sheepskin coats are smiling: 63-plate motors are being driven off the forecourts of Britain by the fleetload - 5th October 2013
 * Delivery presents its own dilemma - It’s been so long since there’s been a big privatisation retail offer that no one, not even the all-seeing lead adviser Goldman Sachs, really has much of an idea how the Royal Mail share issue to the public will go - 1st October 2013
 * The answer to our pensions time bomb? - Sometimes even the most valuable economic insights just don’t seem to travel - 21st September 2013
 * What’s the name of the game, then? - The chief City regulator made an extraordinary remark the other day. Giving evidence to MPs on the Treasury Select Committee, Martin Wheatley, head of the Financial Conduct Authority, said he thought price comparison websites were all being “gamed” - 16th September 2013
 * Lloyds must set its new baby free - It’s been a painful, protracted birth. It has taken four years to extract the infant from the Lloyds womb. Nevertheless, TSB emerges bawling into the financial world today and it seems to be alive and kicking - 9th September 2013
 * Carney ignored by those who matter - It was billed as the speech in which Mark Carney would speak over the heads of the financial markets and communicate directly with the Great British family and the Great British small businessman - 31st August 2013
 * Annuities are the new game in town - Does this sound familiar? Financial services firms are being asked to submit important numbers to a central information gatherer - 27th August 2013
 * Bacs is the future as direct debit rules - Years ago, Britons were accustomed to paying their bills by cheque, postal order or cash, so direct debits were treated with suspicion when they were introduced in 1970 - 26th August 2013
 * The ‘profit’ that is no profit at all - It may be perfectly sensible to start selling the state’s Lloyds Banking Group shares at once. But ministers and officials really must refrain from claiming that taxpayers are already making a substantial profit - 6th August 2013
 * Home of Motown sounds a warning - It’s the summer of 1963 in Detroit. General Motors is basking in the plaudits for its fabulous new Corvette Stingray convertible - 20th July 2013
 * Fledgeling scheme makes difference - McDonald’s UK has just completed its phase of automatically enrolling all employees over 22 into a pension scheme of minimum standards - 15th July 2013
 * Is there a future for ‘zombie’ companies: or are we storing up problems? - Banks should be more aggressive in pulling the plug on businesses with no viable long-term future, but there must not be indiscriminate slaughter, a panel discussion on creative destruction concluded - 3rd July 2013
 * Tempus: an idea that seems to be flying - Airlines have not been an easy route to share market riches, but what about airliners? - 2nd July 2013
 * Give the economy a break – at home - If there is one industry well placed to help drag the moribund British economy out of the mire, it is tourism - 3rd June 2013
 * Loan bandits face day of reckoning - Neither the payday loans industry nor the Office of Fair Trading comes out well from the Public Accounts Committee’s public spanking today - 1st June 2013
 * Oblivious, to the humiliating end - Shareholders were scratching their heads to think of a case as extreme as the humiliation of Sir John Bond yesterday. To be publicly hoofed out of the chairmanship of a top ten British company is unusual - 18th May 2013
 * Pouring gravy on the fiery protest - Anyone who thinks that big institutional investors are about to crack down, at last, on excess boardroom pay isn’t paying attention - 14th May 2013
 * Pay in the court of public opinion - A quiet campaign is under way to secure big pay rises for the non-executive directors on the court (board) of the Bank of England - 7th May 2013
 * There’s no salvation in Welby’s banking plan - Breaking up one large lender into smaller regional ones won’t make our money any safer - 24th April 2013
 * Howls over bankers’ bonuses are overdone - They won’t flee or starve – but it is up to bank directors, not the EU, to clamp down on pay - 1st March 2013
 * All the makings of a scam, and a real test for the FSA - Regulators wondering where the next great mis-selling scandal in financial services might be festering need look no further than consultancy charging. This has all the makings of a big scam in embryo - 12th February 2013
 * Ireland hails debt deal, but is in the red for 40 years - Ireland extricated itself yesterday from a toxic liability costing taxpayers interest equivalent to 2 per cent of the country’s entire annual output - 9th February 2013
 * Santander’s dividend means all that pain in Spain can be worth it - It’s a curious little anomaly that the second most widely held share in Britain is not a traditional British blue chip but a Spanish company, Banco Santander. More than 1.6 million people in the UK directly own shares in the Madrid-based bank - 2nd February 2013
 * A chronicle of sermons and scoundrels - It was the dead of winter and snow was falling on Barchester. But in the cathedral close, no one so much as glanced at the white blanket prettifying the ancient buttresses, cloisters and almshouses. There was only one topic in the drawing rooms of the clergymen of the city — the departure of old bishop Mervyn and the imminent arrival of his successor, a Mr Carney, an unknown quantity - 29th December 2012
 * The bankers will win – they always do - Andrew Tyrie is right to warn about the power of bank lobbyists - 22nd December 2012
 * Ten reasons to show Crosby no mercy - One of life’s great mysteries is Sir James Crosby. Macavity-like, the former chief executive of HBOS seems never to be there when questions are asked about the collapse of the bank, the destruction of £40 billion of shareholder value, the £20 billion bill for taxpayers and the resulting hurricane that blasted through the British economy - 3rd December 2012
 * Why dabble in yellow metal? - Keynes dismissed it as “a barbarous relic”, but gold’s appeal to investors has rarely been stronger - 3rd November 2012
 * A history of shattered dreams - Nat Rothschild’s approach to money-making has a largely inglorious history that goes all the way back to the South Sea Bubble, if not earlier - 18th October 2012
 * America twists again, now China must join in - Policymakers are pushing on the string again. This time it was America’s turn to try to stimulate its stubbornly dozy economy. The Federal Reserve is pressing ahead with a third round of money printing - 14th September 2012
 * Only the politicians can clear for take-off - Will it fly? Should it fly? The £30 billion contraption created by the proposed merger of BAE Systems and EADS might look too big and cumbersome to get off the ground, but the signs are that it is already some way down the runway - 13th September 2012
 * Nomura admits defeat with move to draw back in Europe - Nomura’s ambitious hopes of building a bulge-bracket European securities powerhouse lay in tatters yesterday as Japan’s biggest bank embarked on a retreat from London - 8th September 2012
 * Barclays’ quiet man needs to wield knife - Perhaps the most singular thing about Mr Jenkins is that he has risen to the top in spite of having absolutely no interest in football - 1st September 2012
 * New faces tipped for Bank’s top job as scandal skittles favourites - The hunt is on to replace Sir Mervyn King as Governor of the Bank of England next June - 21st July 2012
 * A cowboy culture that comes from the top - The Libor scandal cannot be dismissed as the misguided work of junior officials - 2nd July 2012
 * Gordon Gekko days are well and truly over - It is too early to be certain of how this scandal will play out... - 28th June 2012
 * Are they really smarter than JP Morgan? - A senior bank regulator said an extraordinary thing the other day - 19th May 2012
 * More damaging than a bloody nose - Some shareholder revolts are bloodier than others. The mutiny at Aviva this week was a slasher-fest - 5th May 2012
 * Only banks are unhappy - NS&I is an unusual beast. Not only does it have more complex goals than a privately owned bank or building society, but it also has no peers with which it can be compared - 9th April 2012
 * Osborne will try to spin his way clear of a Brown-like blunder - Gordon Brown will always be mocked by some as the financial klutz who sold the nation’s gold reserves for less than $300 an ounce - 16th March 2012
 * Every little helps, but not everybody - If one in six of us will live to be a hundred, as the Department for Work and Pensions asserts, then Tesco already has about 49,000 future centenarians in its pension fund - 14th March 2012
 * More lever-arch files wouldn’t have saved RBS - The FSA’s penpushing report reveals a bureaucracy infected by deluded faith in box-ticking - 13th December 2011
 * Bridging one gap by opening another - George Osborne is wasting no time in pushing ahead with plans for regional variations in public sector workers’ pay - 8th December 2011
 * Savers are not off their trolley, just desperate - Tesco this week is selling a product that no one in their right mind would put in the trolley if they believed the economics profession - 7th December 2011
 * Shabby episode puts credibility at stake - Short of drowning kittens, it’s hard to think of an offence more likely to bring public opprobrium down on the perpetrator than ripping off little old ladies. Trusting, financially naive and sometimes plain dotty, the 2,500 victims of HSBC’s Nursing Homes Fees Agency offshoot... - 6th December 2011
 * Bank bonuses become a luxury too far - Here’s an idea: a complete ban on all bank distributions for, say, 12 months. No bonuses, no dividends, no arguments. Full stop - 3rd December 2011
 * Japanese investment puts BAE to shame - As Toyota gave a big vote of confidence to the UK economy yesterday, investing another £100 million in its plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire, the spotlight turned on BAE, which is displaying rather less faith in its home country - 25th November 2011
 * No desire to save this Merlin from extinction - Project Merlin, that curiously elusive bird incubated by the former Barclays chief John Varley and hatched by the Treasury, is flying south for the winter. Permanently, it would seem - 24th November 2011
 * Lazy bosses add insult to injury for jobseekers - As unemployment rises and youth joblessness goes through the one million mark, the pressure is back on private sector companies to do their bit and get their hiring boots on - 17th November 2011
 * scared with nowhere to turn'' - It’s traditional when a financial crisis gets particularly feverish to wheel out President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s comforting dictum: “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself” - 6th August 2011
 * the shadow of the eurozone'' - Like all banks, Barclays faces serious headwinds from adverse new capital rules and is at the mercy of the wider economy: if growth continues to slow or turn negative, those bad debt provisions will start to pick up again - 3rd August 2011
 * into failure at HBOS is long overdue'' - It is almost three years since the HBOS collapse, but it is only now that we learn for certain that regulators are formally investigating potential wrongdoing at the bank - 23rd July 2011
 * investment can fly because it’s transparent'' - Even the most naive investor has to be sceptical about much of the innovation in the City of London. Too often, new products turn out to be wheezes whose brain-boiling complexity seems designed to befuddle - 15th July 2011
 * 2,000 years on and still a good idea'' - The banks have seen sense. The cheque has been reprieved. The death sentence pencilled in for 2018 has now been indefinitely postponed - 13th July 2011
 * is no shame in flying the flag'' - It’s time that ministers became a bit less starry-eyed about the benefits of inward investment - 12th July 2011
 * giving too much power to Ernie’s elbow'' - Using National Savings & Investments to borrow money is a no-brainer for ministers - 8th July 2011
 * must shrug off Moody’s blues'' - Portugal is not Greece. Its debts as a proportion of national output are smaller. It has a stable Government committed to pushing through austerity measures. It didn’t fiddle its figures to get into the euro in the first place. And a comparatively high proportion of its people routinely pay their taxes - 7th July 2011
 * don’t always bank on big returns'' - High returns from British banks are a modern phenomenon - a reliable, pedestrian reward from bank shares sounds positively delicious - 6th July 2011
 * when Rank made comedy films?'' - Rank’s gong-bashing he-man launched many a quirky black and white comedy in his time. But few of its sagas were half as risible as the company’s own antics in the past few weeks in the face of a cheekily cheap takeover bid from the Malaysian billionaire Quek Leng Chan - 5th July 2011
 * for the exit leaves Aviva short of options'' - And then there was one. The decision by Mark Hodges, the head of Aviva’s huge UK insurance division, to jump ship to Towergate means that three of the four key lieutenants to group chief executive Andrew Moss have left in the space of six months - 3rd June 2011
 * for a big investment beast'' - It hasn’t been a great week for Exchange Traded Funds. These are those clever listed investment products that are promoted as a way of tracking an index at low cost and are sold in huge quantities to institutional investors and private punters - 25th May 2011
 * for savers but not the industry'' - Mervyn King should be on commission. Twenty four hours after the Bank of England governor warned that inflation will hit 5 per cent this year, National Savings & Investments announced plans to resume the sale of inflation-protected savings certificates - 13th May 2011
 * way is up — for inflation, not growth'' - Now we have it from the Governor of the Bank of England. Inflation is likely to hit 5 per cent this year, Mervyn King has conceded. That’s Consumer Price Inflation, mind. Retail Price Inflation, a better measure of the cost of living for many, tends to be a bit higher. So 6 per cent seems all too probable - 12th May 2011
 * in store for the troops — via video'' - How do you lead and inspire half a million people? It’s not just a question for politicians - 11th May 2011
 * admit defeat but will lessons be learnt?'' - The banks have rightly abandoned their fight over payment protection insurance - 10th May 2011
 * is a member of a very exclusive club'' - The roll call of nations starting to lift their interest rates, in some cases aggressively, is becoming longer by the week - 4th May 2011
 * code of conduct on its own is not enough'' - We know of Warren Buffett as investment genius. We know of him as billionaire philanthropist. We know him as a wry and sagacious commentator on Western capitalism. But the notion of the Sage of Omaha as naive dupe is a new one - 29th April 2011
 * tax the irksome'' - George Osborne is reported to be poised to push up duty on super-strength lagers in the Budget this week - 21st March 2011
 * acting in the national interest?'' - One closely guarded secret in the City is how many — or how few — of the big hitters and big earners employed in the largest investment banks are actually British - 12th March 2011
 * over? Not likely'' - There are two corpses on the motorway — a dead cat and a dead banker. What’s the difference? There are skid marks in front of the cat - 29th January 2011
 * the jargon, a template for reform'' - Sir John Vickers is no great orator. The Independent Banking Commission chairman’s keynote speech at the weekend — theoretical, dense, heavy with jargon and footnotes — was more of an economics essay than a piece of rhetoric - 25th January 2011
 * Fasten your seat belts'' - The vote by cabin staff yesterday for more strikes sounded a discordant note as British Airways attempted to celebrate the consummation of its merger with Iberia of Spain - 22nd January 2011
 * lies on the road to Wigan, it appears'' - As Mervyn King ponders yesterday’s dire inflation numbers, he might do worse than look at recent events at the Heinz baked bean factory in Wigan - 19th January 2011
 * we can cut to the Chase'' - Until now, every number in all the acres of coverage about imminent City bonuses has been speculation and educated guesswork. Now, with figures from JP Morgan Chase, the first serious investment banking player to report 2010 results, we at last have something concrete to go on - 15th January 2011
 * of sound and fury signifies nothing'' - Bob Diamond dutifully received his spanking from MPs yesterday - 12th January 2011
 * to front about bonuses'' - It looks like the Government’s attempts to curb City bonuses have been a complete bust. That should surprise no one - 8th January 2011
 * good reasons to be cheerful in 2011'' - A view seems to have taken hold in the past few weeks that 2011 is going to be a stinker - 1st January 2011
 * charm offensive pays off'' - 21st December 2010
 * fine snap decision'' - John Varley’s decision to step down early leaves him with at least one less headache. By leaving on Barclays on January 1, he won’t have to deal with the explosion of public anger over City bonuses almost certain to erupt in the early weeks of next year as the loot gets paid out - 18th December 2010
 * we all knew story behind bailed bank'' - Pressure for the Financial Services Authority to publish its report on the collapse of Royal Bank of Scotland is intensifying - 15th December 2010
 * will keep its attraction'' - Ask bankers what they plan to do with their annual cash bonuses this January and a lot will admit to looking at bricks and mortar. Again - 11th December 2010
 * shares? I’ll buy into that!'' - "David Cameron will today announce plans for a “happiness index” as he asks the national statistician to devise ways of gauging the quality of life in Britain" - 27th November 2010
 * Bank Holiday? Bah, humbug!'' - You don’t have to be a rampant republican to be riled by David Cameron’s remark this week that there should be a public holiday to mark the Royal wedding - 20th November 2010
 * answer calms Rolls nerves'' - The rogue engine on that Qantas flight eight days ago was reduced to a shattered, charred remnant. Finding out what went wrong looked hard. Yet Rolls-Royce yesterday was certain it had the answer. Its statement could not have been plainer - 13th November 2010
 * froth and asset bubbles'' - Stuart Gulliver, the soon-to-be-elevated chief executive of HSBC, is right to raise concerns about overheating in emerging markets - 6th November 2010
 * Pru chief was right after all'' - Tidjane Thiam could be forgiven for howling: “I told you so.” Prudential’s chief executive was berated by many of his shareholders this year for wanting to pay $35.5 billion for AIA, the pan-Asian insurer - 30th October 2010
 * brings broader reward'' - There’s a novel idea kicking around that receives hoots and snorts from institutional investors and companies whenever it is mentioned, yet surely deserves much more serious consideration: loyalty dividends - 23rd October 2010
 * up and set to unravel'' - The big, largely unreported, financial story this week was not the planned privatisation of Royal Mail but the planned nationalisation of its enormous pension scheme - 16th October 2010
 * up a cliff and the Bank won’t look down'' - You’re walking along a ledge halfway up a mountain. The cliff wall towers above you on your left. To your right is a sheer drop. The path is a metre or so wide. Do you keep to the centre of the path? - 9th October 2010
 * case of Monte Carlo and bust'' - Daytime TV is awash with commercials from ambulance-chasing lawyers urging people to seek compensation for any mishap - 2nd October 2010
 * safe, and correct, option for HSBC''m - Mike Geoghegan, who is being defenestrated noisily from the top floor of HSBC, is a talented man - 25th September 2010
 * set to inflict more pain'' - The decision by the BBC this week to freeze the licence fee next year will save most households £3. The penny-a-litre rise in fuel duty due next month will cost them an average of £13 a year - 18th September 2010
 * cloud or a storm brewing?'' - It’s a wobble at the very least. Yesterday’s UK services sector figures were disappointingly weak. The main driver of the economy has slowed. Orders and employment in the sector have contracted - 4th September 2010
 * the right move after all'' - Web-based businesses have a horrible habit of disappointing when they come to the stock market. Sometimes the sense of anti-climax takes time, sometimes the gloom descends even before the business has formally floated - 28th August 2010
 * spree fails to deter the doubters'' - Anyone expecting consumers to start spending more liberally any time soon must be living on a different planet - 27th August 2010
 * on the hamster wheel'' - Paul Polman is starting to earn a reputation as the Mr Awkward of Britain’s blue-chip chiefs. The chief executive of Unilever has already blasted hedge funds as opportunists who would sell their own grandmothers to make money - 7th August 2010
 * death of the payout has been greatly exaggerated'' - There is more joy in Mammon over one company that resumes paying dividends after a lapse than over 99 righteous companies that never falter in the first place - 31st July 2010
 * shabby, retrospective reform'' - Business leaders haven’t fully woken up to it yet but they have just had bestowed on them the mother of all gifts - 10th July 2010
 * the stress on credibility'' - The planned stress-testing of European banks is in danger of descending into farce. Hopes that the successful American experience last year could be a template for Europe this year now look naive - 8th July 2010
 * struggle is one to watch'' -Fresh clues as to how public sector organisations may go about cutting their gigantic pension costs emerged this week. It wasn’t pretty - 3rd July 2010
 * shirt today, gone tomorrow'' - When asked to predict the path of the UK economy these days, I’m reduced to a rather lame, We’ll Muddle Through Somehow - 27th June 2010
 * ploy from realms of fantasy'' - In a parallel universe similar to our own, a private memo finds its way from Whitehall to Wapping - 19th June 2010
 * for BP to make a gesture'' - BP’s first-quarter dividend of £1.7 billion has not yet been paid - nor should it be. The oil company should suspend it - 12th June 2010
 * shareholders in rebellion? All power to their elbow'' - The importance of events at the Pru is hard to exaggerate - 3rd June 2010
 * least worst option for American taxpayers'' - BP’s struggles in the Gulf of Mexico and Prudential’s attempt to negotiate a price cut for AIA are denting Brtain’s reputation - 29th May 2010
 * journey back from brink is proving slow'' - Unpalatable realities of economics are having to be faced in the eurozone and in Britain but where is the urgency? - 15th May 2010
 * perils of prolonged horse trading'' - A hung Parliament may not only delay tackling the deficit, but also paralyse decision-making by private enterprise - 8th May 2010
 * three main party leaders? Lock ’em up'' - Precision may be impossible but it is fair to expect those chasing our votes to outline areas where they would cut - 1st May 2010
 * to sort out the bad eggs in banking'' - Bankers rightly say that a regulatory crackdown is unlikely to improve things much. A revolution from within is needed - 3rd April 2010
 * Horse rides to the Chancellor's rescue'' - Lloyds Banking Group’s forecast of a return to profits has given Alistair Darling some room for manoeuvre in his Budget - 20th March 2010
 * history spoils good story'' - Standard Chartered has had a great financial crisis, so why has the bank mucked about in the presentation of its dividends? - 6th March 2010
 * flights of fancy'' - Every second in 2009, Lloyds was writing off another £760 as clients queued up to say they could not honour their debts - 27th February 2010
 * bitter taste of bid politics'' - Takeover Panel should investigate how Kraft's takeover campaign created unfounded hope for Cadbury's Somerdale plant - 13th February 2010
 * all a matter of timing — just ask investors at Icap'' - So the founder of the broker sells shares that go on to plunge in value. Outside shareholders hate this kind of thing - 6th February 2010
 * hail the grumpy old men'' - It has taken the 82-year-old Paul Volcker to put bankers in their place. If only Britain had some wise owls of its own - 23rd January 2010
 * bonus season. Cue impotent public wailing'' - We bailed them out, yet bankers are still rewarding themselves lavishly. What can be done to curb their excesses? - 21st January 2010
 * beards Chinese tiger'' - In pursuit of their laudable aims, the internet group’s co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are burning dollar bills - 16th January 2010
 * paid to pay consultants'' - ‘Socially useless’ fits advisers on board remuneration like a glove. What do they achieve except hoodwinking investors? - 9th January 2010
 * beware or be fleeced'' - The story of 21st-century consumption is not so much about shopping as about shopping around. Any consumer unable or unwilling to spend hours doing just that risks being mercilessly plucked - 2nd January 2010
 * which Pooh learns that honey isn’t everything'' - The bonus culture has even taken root in the Hundred Acre Wood, as Tigger bounces with pleasure for more extract-of-malt - 26th December 2009
 * bamboozling spins out of control'' - Our banks have grown too big and their so-called financial innovation too complex. If some want to quit Britain, let them - 19th December 2009
 * tax on bankers’ bonuses may prove too difficult in practice'' - It is likely the ingenious City people will find a way round any attempt to make them give up this perk - 7th December 2009
 * buy or not to buy, that is the question'' - These are high-risk, high-return odds, and attractive ones so long as you can afford to lose everything - 5th December 2009
 * for the nation’s savings'' - National Savings & Investments was luring savers away from the private sector - it certainly wasn't a level playing field - 21st November 2009
 * only they had sobered up'' - The First Quench board should have seen the writing on the wall when it bought casualties from the supermarket booze wars - 31st October 2009
 * bank bullies v new boys: no contest'' - Just think – Virgin or Tesco could produce a new kind of customer-friendly bank. Think again - 29th October 2009
 * when we dared to hope'' - Economic statistics do not just reflect the past; they can also help to influence the future - 24th October
 * silence of the pension funds'' - The institution whose members were hit hardest by the financial crisis is too philosophical by half about reckless banks - 10th October 2009
 * magnetic pull of China'' - The banking chief executive's move from London will send out a strong signal that HSBC is serious about emerging markets - 26th September 2009
 * dreams, but not for us'' - Cadbury, a brand from childhood, has a grip on the popular imagination quite unlike that of most large companies - 12th September 2009
 * banks and vampire squid'' - The original remark by Lord Turner that some banking was socially useless, is on the face of it incontestable - 5th September 2009
 * big for their own good'' - A tentative threat by regulators this week to slap a tax on City trading has triggered a furious response in the Square Mile - 29th August 2009
 * time to take responsibility'' - It needs greedy, gullible, incurious lenders as well as dishonest developers and surveyors to make mortgage scams work - 22nd August 2009
 * on King to pull no punches. But his critics may hit harder'' - The pregnant pause of a former deputy, when asked if the Bank of England Governor was too mighty, has added to City doubts - 21st August 2009
 * is dead — car hire apart'' - We might be staring at deflation but car hire prices are rocketing because rental companies are unable to secure finance - 15th August 2009
 * 20 reasons to be cheerful about the economy'' - So the UK growth figures were 'awful' ... Never mind, look on the bright side of life: things aren't as bad as they seem - 25th July 2009
 * to have a pension at RBS'' - The near-basket case that has had to tap taxpayers for £500 billion runs Britain’s most generous staff pension scheme - 18th July 2009
 * Barclays above its station?'' - Barclays has grand ambitions in high-risk investment banking, wanting to displace Goldman Sachs as the pre-eminent player - 11th July 2009
 * is turning the corner'' - Financial gloom is the fashion. No one can publicly admit to seeing the bright side without inviting ridicule - 4th July 2009
 * of Shaves would make Sweeney Tod blush'' - King of Shaves has positioned itself as the small but superior product doing daily battle in the world’s bathrooms - 27th June 2009
 * foundation of a recovery'' - A surprisingly chipper Pete Redfern, the chief executive of Taylor Wimpey, is calling the bottom for British house prices - 20th June 2009
 * Tinto: show some Agincourt spirit'' - All that is needed is for fund manager A to pick up the phone to B and C and together determine to show grit and tenacity - 6th June (See also: Mining: summary)
 * culture has to end'' - The secret of successful investment - and governance - is to select only a few baskets for your eggs and watch them like a hawk - 30th May 2009
 * Airways must change direction'' - In more than two decades, the fruits of the airline's success, such as they are, have entirely accrued to the management and staff - 23rd May 2009
 * investment plan structured or perplexing?'' - A new structured product by Barclays at first glance does appear enticing, but at second glance it becomes apparently less generous - 16th May 2009
 * RBS bill might vanish'' - The actual cost of the bank's bailout for taxpayers could well turn out to be a fraction of the said £500bn, and could vanish completely - 9th May 2009
 * case for Chrysler rebels'' - While some may be unsympathetic hedge funds, others are mainstream fund managers trying to protect the interests of Americans - 2nd May 2009
 * week in the life of G. Osborne'' - 'I have to find some deep spending cuts or massive tax rises - and quick, so we can attribute them to Labour’s imprudence' - 25th April 2009
 * needs welding - not just a pot of touch-up paint'' - The dire figures for UK car production yesterday helped to explain the Budget decision to offer £1,000 bungs to people trading in old bangers for new vehicles - 25th April 2009
 * out charities and councils: rewarding incompetence?'' - Like so many bankers, regulators and fund managers in this financial crisis, charities too may be rewarded for their ineptitude - 4th April 2009
 * do us all a favour, Sir Tom McKillop'' - BP seems to have mysteriously lost the plot. The company is recommending that Sir Tom McKillop be re-elected to its board - 28th March 2009
 * penny saved is a penny not in circulation'' - The reason we in the UK are now saving more is not because we have our eyes on a Tuscan castle but because we are scared - 28th March 2009
 * to stop pussy-footing over banks'' - Banks pose difficult problems and every instinct in Whitehall and Westminster seems to have been to keep them at arm's length - 21st March 2009
 * starter for 10, Lord Myners'' - The City Minister was in contact with RBS directors over Sir Fred's severance terms the weekend that taxpayers were tapped for £20bn - 14th March 2009
 * must rise to the challenge'' - Rolls enjoys a tremendous reputation for engineering excellence and safety, but the verdict from the US air safety watchdog is explosive - 14th March 2009
 * all about fairness, Mr Mervyn King'' - We now need officials and new bank chiefs - terriers who are prepared to get down and dirty to fight on behalf of the Exchequer - 28th February 2009
 * Daniels must keep his eye on the bailout ball'' - The last thing Eric Daniels needs at present is a scandal over the severance terms offered to the rats leaving the sinking HBOS - 28th February 2009
 * one pays back a bonus'' - The unpalatable truth is that much of 'the talent' in banks has turned out not to be talented. The system is rotten and flawed - 7th February 2009
 * No more running for cover - The intriguing thing about institutional investors' evidence to MPs this week was not that they demanded Sir Fred Goodwin's head on a plate in early 2008. It was that they did precisely nothing when for the following six months or more the platter failed to arrive - 31st January 2009
 * The case against Gordon Brown - The PM has to bear responsibility for past policies that amplified the credit crunch and made Britain particularly vulnerable - 24th January 2009
 * Heroic handling needed to save economy - 17th January 2009
 * Barclays shares battered in short order - 17th January 2009
 * Hard times demand desperate measures - 10th January 2009
 * Psst! Want to pay a lot for cheap shares? - 10th January 2009
 * A win-win view of the blame game - 3rd January 2009
 * High time to speed up fundraising process - 3rd January 2009



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 * New Statesman archive