James Moore



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Full name: James Moore

Area of interest: Business, economic and financial affairs

Journals/Organisation: The Independent

Email: [mailto:j.moore@independent.co.uk j.moore@independent.co.uk]

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Articles: 2012

 * HSBC is so sorry about the drug money – honest - Outlook: Who said sorry seemed to be the hardest word? Banks seem to be falling over each other to make ever more effusive expressions of regret, and yesterday it was the turn of HSBC - 31st July
 * Turner's candour may shut Bank door. Maybe he is better suited to Barclays - Lord Turner may also be right in his analysis that free banking has to end - 25th July
 * Kay's ideas on target but it will take teeth if we are serious about fixing the City - Outlook: Vince Cable will be formulating a response that could easily be frustrated - 24th July
 * Was Lord Green too busy writing books to see the sub-plot going on at HSBC? - Outlook: It is sometimes said that everyone has a good book in them. Most people, though, struggle to find the time, not to mention the motivation - 20th July
 * We must be deluded to think that the Bank of England has too much power - Outlook: So it's official. The Governor of the Bank of England does indeed have more power than God, at least when it comes to London's financial centre. Even though he's not (officially) a regulator and didn't know there was anything wrong with Libor for ages - 18th July
 * Danish distraction is why G4S is still in a right old mess - Outlook: This can't be allowed to continue. It is time for regulators to get a handle on it - 17th July
 * Bankers will put the block on sensible regulations rather than take a pay cut - Outlook: Believe it or not there are still those who think there's too much regulation in the City - 13th July
 * Turner's message didn't get through to Barclays – or the FSA - Outlook: One of the disturbing things about the Libor interest rate fixing scandal is how frequently apparently intelligent people in functions of vital importance to this country's economy have been capable of misinterpreting what other similarly intelligent people have said to them - 11th July
 * The odds could be against Betfair as Cypriots plan to ban a losing bet - Outlook: The SFO has sometimes given the impression that it lacks the stomach to take this on - 10th July
 * A bank tale stranger than fiction, but we need the truth now - This affair has briefly eclipsed the eurozone crisis, but the latter hasn’t gone away - 4th July
 * City suits laugh at the law while hoodies get their collars felt - Outlook: The regulators simply aren't feared. They are looked upon as 'stupid' - 3rd July
 * While directors of Farepak had an early Christmas, it was ruined for savers - Outlook: Christmas has come six months early for the directors in charge when Farepak sank, and now it looks like the party could be paid for by the taxpayer - 22nd June
 * Microsoft is Armed and possibly even dangerous to Apple - Outlook: So which chip are you going to pick? - 20th June
 * Why knackered CWW is worth £1bn to Vodafone - Outlook: CWW's assets immediately turn Vodafone into the biggest fixed line provider after BT - 19th June
 * Cost of tackling pensions crisis will only be more painful if we keep ignoring it - Outlook: We've become so used to hearing about a pensions timebomb that it's really very easy to respond with a shrug of the shoulders and a quick "la la la, heard it all before" - 13th June
 * Tesco's playing the blame game is not cricket when they can hit rivals for six - Outlook: A revived corps of rivals are eager to take back business Tesco once took away from them - 12th June
 * The golfer-turned-financial adviser in a drive to clean up his industry's act - This is not a self-interest campaign. It is about facing the issues the industry has created - 6th June
 * Shareholder spring? It was just a cynical attempt to keep Vince Cable at bay - Outlook: Companies should put some of the money they give to their executives back where it belongs... in the pockets of shareholders - 29th May
 * HomeServe has no room for boasting when it has so many problems to sort out - Outlook: If you ever needed an example of why the insurance industry gets it so wrong so often HomeServe's chief executive Richard Harpin provided it yesterday - 23rd May
 * London's regulators are as scary as a Disney movie with the lights turned on - Outlook: US regulators have been more alive to the situation. Even the FBI has got in on the act - 22nd May
 * Treasury lucked out with Northern Rock and now might have to repeat the fluke - Outlook: With the economy hitting the buffers the Treasury could use some good news. Today no less than the National Audit Office appears to offer some with the publication of its report into the Treasury's management of Northern Rock. Appears to - 18th May
 * Fickle friendships - the real value of Facebook is in users who refuse to pay - Outlook: It is unlikely that many of the investors falling over each other to buy into Facebook's flotation are long-term users - 16th May
 * As Dimon finds new ways to say sorry, the blame is being laid further down - The book publisher Quercus is among the 156 companies attracted to the Plus market - 15th May
 * We must not miss this chance to rein in the banks - JP Morgan's bankers were supposed to be the industry's golden boys - 12th May
 * Man who holds the remuneration purse strings must be next for the axe at Aviva - Outlook: Last week, Andrew Moss was giving up his pay rise. This week it's his job - 9th May
 * PPI is still reining in the black horse - Outlook: The numbers from Lloyds Banking Group might not have looked terribly clever yesterday, but there were reasons for the black horse to be feeling a little friskier than of late - 2nd May
 * Aviva might want to demonstrate this tremendous value shareholders pay for - This sets a terrible example to the firms in which Aviva’s fund management arm invests - 1st May
 * Primark has the formula M&S lost - Outlook: Here's an example of what you get if you run a retailer that doesn't seem to require that its chief executives devote lots of time to getting photographed with Twiggy or Dannii Minogue and instead gives customers what they want, when they want it - 25th April
 * Corporate rules flouted by the cosy club at the top of SABMiller - After 15 years Cyril Ramaphosa is almost becoming part of SABMiller’s furniture - 24th April
 * Barclays bosses' offer to give up half their bonuses doesn't amount to much - Outlook: Oh dear. Barclays' PR offensive with its fractious corps of investors appears not to have been going too well - 20th April
 * Tesco certainly has issues, but critics must be mad to say it's in a real crisis - Outlook: The supermarket that ate Britain is still suffering from indigestion - 19th April
 * Bolland's got good reason to frown after woolly thinking sees M&S mess up badly - Outlook: Marc Bolland has certainly got into the swing of things as M&S boss - 18th April
 * Barclays must take more heed of the taxpayers on the Clapham omnibus - Outlook: The Sex Pistols' lyrics could scarcely be more relevant today, and not just on these shores - 17th April
 * Expensive and out of touch - it's child's play to see what's wrong with Mothercare - Put the name "Mothercare" into the search box at Mumsnet, a favoured online hangout for much of the retailer's target market, and it is very easy to see that this is a company with deep-rooted problem - 13th April
 * A good reason to hire consultants - you can blame them if things go wrong - Giving the headhunter control is considered "best practice", and with good reason: if the process goes wrong, there is someone there to blame other than the executive - 12th April
 * It's probably good that Thomas Cook didn't go for an emergency landing - Outlook: Here are some figures that ought to scare you a little, if you happen to have taken out a package holiday with Thomas Cook - 11th April
 * If Dimon stopped whingeing and took less money then he'd really be helping out - Outlook: Is the collective noun for bankers a whinge of? It certainly looks that way - 6th April
 * Expect the words 'pension' and 'black hole' to stay linked for some time yet - Outlook: Is the word "pension" inextricably linked to bad news? - 5th April
 * Murdoch finally jumps – but not far enough away from BSkyB - Outlook; James Murdoch's King Canute act has finally come to an end. The word was yesterday being put out that the now former chairman of BSkyB was not pushed out. The decision to step down was his alone - 4th April
 * Standard Life's good at feathering its nest but should stop throwing stones - If we could just make our report a bit more like yours it might make life easier for myself - 3rd April
 * Royal Mail may be sealing its demise with rises in prices - Outlook: Talk about indecent haste. Ofcom had barely issued its press release giving Royal Mail the green light to stamp all over its customers before the deed was done - 28th March
 * Coutts in the dock... but once again the taxpayer will pay price for City folly - Outlook: For Coutts, the right sort of person was just about anyone with a big enough sack of cash - 27th March
 * Expect frightened bankers' behaviour to get worse as their job options dwindle - Outlook: The next few weeks promise to be fraught ones in the human resources departments of the City's investment banks - 21st March
 * The case of George the magician and disappearing rabbits at the Royal Mail - Outlook: Even Dennis the Menace might baulk at pulling off a trick as mendacious as this - 20th March
 * RBS finds itself on the same side as the directors who led it to disaster - Game's shops are cold, antiseptic and unfriendly. They are not places people want to go - 13th March
 * Why the Fonz's thumbs-up for'reverse mortgages' is not so cool - It was the gratuitous insults that made corporate America shun Rush Limbaugh - 10th March
 * New boss Corcoran is facing long odds to turn Betfair into a real winner - Outlook: Welcome to the toughest job in gambling, Breon Corcoran. That might seem like a rather strange thing to say given yesterday's sprightly trading statement from Betfair, where Mr Corcoran will soon take over as chief executive - 7th March
 * Ocado's streets ahead on its delivery but here's why the investors aren't buying - Outlook: How long will investors tolerate the fact that the love is not being shared with them? - 6th March
 * Does addiction to bonuses make the banks a sell? - Investment View: Standard Chartered is not immune from a favourite pastime of bankers - moaning - or questionable bonuses - 2nd March
 * The man from the Pru is playing a dangerous game by making threats - Prudential has broached the nuclear option of moving to Hong Kong - 28th February
 * Recruiters look good long-term, but now it's best to bide your time - Investment View: Longterm, I would be a buyer of the sector. Firms have internationalised their businesses and so have good prospects - 24th February
 * This is Osborne's chance to clamp down on stupidity in the public sector - Outlook: Did George Osborne just get a little bit of breathing room? Yesterday's public sector borrowing figures contained some welcome news for the Chancellor - 22nd February
 * Lloyds' timing is handy with these clawbacks but why must it stop there? - Outlook: PPI is small potatoes when you consider the biggest hit executives landed shareholders with - 21st February
 * Investment View: Sky has potential to rebound, but ITV may struggle - Virgin is getting better... and is beginning to present a genuine competitive threat after years of problems - 17th February
 * Should we really care what Paris Hilton thinks about our party? - Outlook: The fact that the UK has so far escaped any hint of a credit downgrade has long been cited by the Coalition to support its preferred combination of spending cuts and tax rises to deal with the budget deficit - 15th February
 * What's in this deal for Voders? Perhaps the taxman could explain over lunch at the Ivy - Outlook: If the mythical King Midas ever needed a cure for his affliction he might find it by joining the board of Cable & Wireless Worldwide - 14th February
 * Party-poopers are at the door of this deal but there's more work to be done yet - Will the marriage of Xstrata and Glencore ever be consummated? Not if Standard Life and Schroders get their way - 8th February
 * Big business just doesn't understand it has a problem over bosses' pay - Outlook: Stephen Hester should get a bonus when the taxpayer gets a return on its investment - 7th February
 * An open letter to the Minister for road safety - Other motorists can hurt me when I'm in a car. And when I'm on a bike, they can kill me - 3rd February
 * New Apple boss Browett is in the big league now – but he has to watch his step - On the face of it, Apple retail and Dixons are in the same business. In reality they aren't even on the same planet - 1st February
 * Hester faces his tormentors alone as RBS top brass retreat to their bunkers - Outlook: Sir Philip Hampton has been doing a marvellous impersonation of the invisible man of British banking - 31st January
 * No big payout now, but a golden chance for Cairn chief to display his charity - Outlook: It couldn't have been timed better. Just a day after Vince Cable rushed forward his plans for a crackdown on executive pay, Cairn Energy bowed to pressure from shareholders and withdrew a £2.5m bung plus a £1m donation it had been planning to lavish on its chairman, Sir Bill Gammell, and his favourite charities - 25th January
 * Hester deserves his seven-figure bonus for plugging huge hole in sinking RBS - If Stephen Hester gets cross enough he might pull a trigger of his own and walk - 24th January
 * Dear Sir Mervyn, Goldman Sachs will increase revenues paid out to its staff - Outlook: Sir Mervyn King is becoming quite the radical. The Bank of England Governor used a hearing at the Treasury Select Committee yesterday to fire yet another broadside at the banks and their addiction to six- and seven-figure bonuses - 18th January
 * RBS has its critics, but the bank is absolutely right not to prop up Peacocks - When you shout about dressing people for £3 you surely ought to find a ready market - 17th January
 * Food saves Bolland's bacon as M&S counts the cost of a Christmas flop - Outlook: If Marks & Spencer's Christmas figures are anything to go by, the pixie dust Marc Bolland sprinkled on Morrisons to make it fly has been in short supply - 11th January
 * Novelty could soon wear off for gadgets as HMV tries to change its tune - Outlook: Dr Dre has found a lucrative, alternative revenue stream... 'Dr Dre Beats' headphones - 10th January
 * Metal exchange will not be able to resist the pot of gold - Outlook: The London Metal Exchange is the City's belle of the ball, with just about anyone with any interest in exchanges falling over each other to offer gold-plated dowries - 7th January
 * Row over currency trading wife could help chip away Swiss banking secrecy - Outlook: Philipp Hildebrand is apparently a very good swimmer. Perhaps that's why he feels he can push on against what looks like an overwhelming tide flowing against him - 6th January



Articles: 2011

 * The high street of the future: huge chains and a few boutique players - There has been much excitement and bluster about the early figures emerging from planet retail - 30th December
 * Essar Energy's power cut shows why we need to keep tabs on those at the top - Tis the season to lose your chairman. So it seems anyway - 24th December
 * Walsh knows his plans for BMI won't be grounded even if he's in the wrong - Outlook: You've got to hand it to Willie Walsh. He's got a real talent for talking twaddle with an absolutely straight face - 23rd December
 * Essar Energy's power cut shows why we need to keep tabs on those at the top - Outlook: Tis the season to lose your chairman. So it seems anyway - 22nd December
 * the taxman £2.76? You'd better meet him at The Ivy to chew it over'' - Outlook: Dear Taxpayer, We notice that your account is still in arrears and that you owe the sum of £2.76 - 21st December
 * A megabank can still hit the rocks and it will be far from orderly if it happens - Outlook: The trouble with Lehman was it was too big to fail, with tendrils that spread so much poison - 20th December
 * FSA has learnt a lesson, but will it really make a difference? - What comes next is a nasty fight over the idea that bank directors should be subject to "strict liability" - 13th December
 * Here we go again... mea culpa will be part tragedy, part farce - It's like handing over the World Cup final to the bloke who referees pub football - 12th December
 * Lacklustre Bunds sale must be a wake-up call for Germany and the rest of the eurozone - Outlook: There has been much (over) excited comment about the eurozone debt crisis in recent weeks, but yesterday came news that could tempt even some of the more phlegmatic analysts to reach for Prozac - 24th November
 * The cuts are causing me agony - The trouble with people like our esteemed Chancellor and his Chief Secretary to the Treasury is that they’re very clever people. Or at least they’re surrounded by people who tell them they’re clever - 10th November
 * Is it too tough at the top? The leaders who failed the stress test - Growing numbers of powerful bosses are giving up their jobs, blaming pressure and exhaustion. What's going on? - 3rd November
 * Enough already. It's time to shake up the system used to set executive pay awards - Outlook: One group seemingly immune to the impact of inflation, unemployment, economic stagnation and all the other woes afflicting this country is the men (it's usually men) who sit around the boardroom tables of Britain's biggest public companies - 28th October
 * Amazon chief needs to kick his addiction to tablets and concentrate on what he already has - Outlook: Drug habits are always costly, and Mr Bezos's has already cost him more than $4.5bn (£2.8bn) in terms of the fall in the value of his Amazon shareholding - 27th October
 * A true turning point for BP fortunes or just another clean-up job to soothe the City? - Outlook: So Bob Dudley, BP's American chief executive, thinks the business has reached "a definite turning point". Is he right? - 26th October
 * When investors see Britain's banks as a good bet it must be really bad in Europe - Outlook: Given the amount of taxpayers' money that has been pumped into the British banking system it seems rather odd that all of a sudden the investment community is starting to see it as, if not exactly a safe bet, then at least comfortingly defensive. But that is what's happening - 25th October
 * Gold rush may be over as steep price dive sees the metal lose its lustre - Outlook: Since hitting a high on 6 September, the gold price is now off by 20 per cent. The silver price has slumped nearly 50 per cent - 27th September
 * is an unreliable witness – but a very convincing one'' - If contemplating his jail term and the suicide of his son have loosened his tongue, there may well be sleepless nights at some very grand institutions - 17th February
 * traders' can still spin the wheel without scrutiny'' - It was billed as making Britain the most transparent financial jurisdiction in the world, beyond even Hong Kong which demands that pay packets of the top five employees are detailed as well as those of directors - 10th February
 * shares have been under the cosh – Sir John Vickers is the reason'' - Those who thought bank break-up talk was quite unthinkable when the Commission was announced have been forced to revise their expectations - 1st February
 * Mr Osborne trying to tip us off a cliff with his deficit shock therapy?'' - Outlook: George Osborne was talking tough yesterday, with a nod to the heroine (Mrs Thatcher) whose name he dare not mention in public in case it upsets the voters. "We will not be blown off course by the weather," he boldly proclaimed, as the economy nosedived into a tailspin - 26th January
 * options would help people quit loans habit'' - Those who defend companies such as Provident Financial make two points: that their clients are broadly satisfied with their service (Provident puts the figure at 95 per cent), and that the alternatives are dire - 24th January
 * are on a winning streak, but it might not last much longer'' - Today's gambler can access a bewildering array of betting opportunities at the click of a mouse from a vast selection of online bookies, each touting better odds and more exciting promotions than the last. Maximising one's returns with the aid of price comparison sites is child's play. And yet the popularity of the betting shop endures - 21st January



Articles: 2010

 * failure's the same on the trains, the buses and the planes'' - Outlook: Another day another report of transport misery brought about by the snow. And, amid a rising tide of criticism British Airways and BAA, the airports operator, are indulging in the time honoured tactic of blaming each other - 23rd December
 * the banks took revenge on the politician once known as St Vince'' - Outlook: Should I be watching my back if I were a banking executive? - 18th December
 * self-styled 'world's local bank' takes a nasty hit'' - HSBC is an institution that jealously guards its corporate reputation. That reputation took a nasty hit yesterday - 7th December
 * Kong has shown the world how to call the banks' bluff'' - Tough on bankers and tough on the causes of bankers. That was the rhetoric in the run-up to the election. Given Labour's supine response to the excess that led to the financial crisis and the worst recession for a generation, it proved a vote -winner. Now reality bites - 26th November
 * watchdog must look again at the mortgage market before it's muzzled'' - Outlook: It's obviously quiet at the Treasury right now with not much going on to trouble ministers and mandarins. That's why it's such an ideal time to shake up Britain's system of financial regulation (again) - 24th November
 * looks like it's catching a very nasty cold from the Spanish flu'' - Outlook: Have the wheels fallen off Banco Santander? This is the bank, remember, that incredibly brushed off the credit crunch as if it were an elephant having a minor problem with an irritating mosquito - 29th October
 * this a ray of light in the appalling mess of the British pension system?'' - Outlook: Auto-enrolment into company pension schemes is here. It is a pension reform idea with a dab more credibility than the carefully leaked, headline-grabbing figure of £140 for the basic state offering - 28th October
 * the CBI wants a union crackdown, firefighters may provoke one'' - Outlook: You may not have heard of AssetCo, a small, but growing British company that specialises in fighting fires - 27th October
 * we shouldn't move on: UBS is the latest bank to let former execs off the hook'' - Outlook: Jérôme Kerviel must be choking on his croissants this morning. While he's facing a lengthy jail term for his rogue trading at SocGen, the boys who nearly bust UBS, once the pride of Switzerland's financial services industry, are getting off scot-free - 15th October
 * forward Jerome Kerviel, court jester of casino capitalism'' - Outlook: Jérôme Kerviel seems to have become a sort of white-collar Raoul Moat - 6th October
 * soon to the stock market: a rush of cheap as chips flotations'' - Outlook: Time for a revival of the IPO market? - 3rd September
 * a care, Mr Osborne the economy's still very much on the critical list'' - Outlook: There's a curious feeling of the phoney war about the Government's austerity drive - 2nd September
 * takeover does not reflect well on institutional wheeler-dealers who want it'' - Outlook: So goodbye Tomkins. The metal-basher has become the latest British corporate name to succumb to an overseas takeover bid at a price that at least one prominent shareholder believes is too cheap by half - 1st September
 * no excuse for 70 companies to report interims at the last minute'' - Outlook: Just in case you missed it, yesterday was super Thursday in the City of London, not that there's really anything really super about it - 27th August
 * worthy attempt by the FSA to lead the way on banking reform'' - Outlook: The more we learn about the banking crisis, the more crazy what was going on in the months leading up to it appears to be - 26th August
 * campaigners are right about Vedanta but battle is not yet won'' - Outlook: So score one for the good guys? Vedanta – or perhaps "the world's most hated company" – suffered a reverse yesterday after its much-criticised plans to mine bauxite on sacred tribal land in the province of Orissa in eastern India were shot down by the country's environment ministry - 25th August
 * might not look that way but housebuilders could yet be stock market stars'' - Outlook: Ursine investors might be missing a trick. The shares of nearly every housebuilder trade at sharp discounts to their net asset values at the moment - 24th August
 * needed for this mutual funding crisis'' - For the past few years, any building society facing hard times has had a readily available solution – call on a larger rival, usually Nationwide - 12th July
 * should pay more for the support that they are still receiving'' - Outlook: Are Europe's banks coming off the critical list? There were vocal sighs of relief all round yesterday as the eurozone's finance houses borrowed much less from the European Central Bank than most analysts had been expecting - 1st July
 * top ranking shows that public image means nothing to bankers'' - Outlook; It seems the notion of "brand contamination" doesn't apply to the world of investment banking. Despite being vilified by all-comers for its conduct during the credit crunch – and facing fraud charges from the US Securities & Exchange Commission – Goldman Sachs remains Wall Street's most wanted - 25th June
 * blow-up offers lessons that Facebook must pay heed to'' - Outlook: So bye-bye Bebo. If ever you needed confirmation that AOL has the reverse of the Midas touch, it's this deal - 18th June
 * this case it's not the bankers that the OFT should have in its sights'' - Outlook: Apologies for indulging in a football related metaphor (it's not as if we'll be starved of them over the next month) but it appears that the Office of Fair Trading is shooting at an open goal with its launch of an investigation into the way investment banks underwrite share issues (in other words, the fees they charge) - 11th June
 * funds, deficits and a bevy of financial snake oil salesmen'' - Some pension risk solutions are being flogged by snake oil salesmen and trustees taken in by them will be left counting the cost - 25th May
 * watchdogs must now land some bigger fish'' - Simon Eagle operated at the fag end of the City, and a repeat of his scam is unlikely today - 21st May
 * funds and private equity are partly to blame for a bad, bad law'' - Mr Osborne has probably realised that going in to bat for hedge funds and private equity managers would be politically suicidal - 19th May
 * must not resort to macho regulation'' - Outlook: One of the issues with the Alternative Investment Fund Managers directive is that it tramples over territory which should be owned by national financial regulators - 19th May
 * tears shed across the Atlantic for the bank that gave others a bad name'' - It hardly seems credible that, less than three years ago, Goldman Sachs at the height of its powers won the sought-after title of "Bank of the Year" at the annual IFR awards in London - 28th April
 * right on predatory takeovers'' - Outlook: When news of a bid breaks, there tends to be precious little talk about whether it's a good or a bad idea - 23rd March
 * signs off with quite the flourish'' - Outlook: If Mark Bolland can do half as well at M&S as he has done at Morrisons, he might even be worth the egregious sum of money the retailer had to cough up to get him to sign on the bottom line - 12th March
 * politicians' solution: sit back and hope'' - Analysis: Here's a frightening figure. Every time longevity increases by a year, it costs BT's final-salary pension fund £1.3bn a year - 12th March
 * pension funds hoping for a miracle'' - Outlook: One of the curiosities of the financial crisis was that it actually made final-salary pension schemes look good. Thanks to various economic quirks, they showed a funding surplus of £43bn in December 2008 - 6th March
 * takes Pru into the corporate champions league'' - Analysis: It's a mark of the shift in world economic power to the east that this time Asia is the venue for Prudential's attempt to join the corporate champions league - 2nd March
 * displays symptoms of Sensitive Banker Syndrome'' - It's a condition that is spreading like the plague in the steel and glass temples of London's high priests of finance - 26th February
 * gives up bonus but where's UKFI?'' - Outlook: UKFI was given a brief to behave like a City institution, but politicians appear incapable of keeping their noses out - 23rd February
 * glittering career forever tarnished by a failure to act'' - The word emanating from the FSA's docklands Lubyanka about Hector Sants' departure - 10th Februaryannouncement yesterday was that it was a personal decision dictated by his personal timetable
 * the taxman plays hardball we're all in trouble'' - The taxman's 'pay now' demand is enough to tip a business over the edge - 8th February
 * the US has muscle to make banks behave'' - So plucky little Britain stands alone as the only country to set out concrete proposals to crack down on the appalling greed shown by bankers - 22nd January
 * came hunting in the only country that would sell – Britain'' - Kraft has been grappling with a problem. Its growth has been at best tepid and (as a result) the company's share price has done nothing very much - 20th January
 * world expects the US to do its duty'' - In confronting a natural disaster, Barack Obama has avoided the mistakes of his predecessor – so far. But he has to deliver - 17th January
 * banks and Barack's supertax'' - So the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has written a letter to the Chancellor with a complaint that the Government's policy on financial services is "ill-judged, will weaken our financial sector and send out the wrong messages about London's global role" - 15th January



Articles: 2009

 * need new approach for new year'' - Outlook: Sack as many people as you can while loudly bitching about your shareholders, competitors, government and regulators – the strategy adopted by Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group for paying back nearly 30 million unwilling individual tax-paying investors whose government has so far made available £74bn just to keep these banks afloat - 31st December
 * big impact from a small cut's removal'' - Outlook: Take a financial hit you really can't afford by following suit or give up yet more market share to the giants - 30th December
 * lesson for banks in Cadbury'' - Outlook: It looks like the bankers in Cadbury's corner are set to make some healthy success fees - 15th December
 * version of the three wise monkeys is fooling nobody'' - Alistair Darling is playing a dangerous game. Just how dangerous a game was made clear yesterday in the way investors in bonds issued by his Government reacted to his pre-Budget report - 11th December
 * boys the winners with Ofwat?'' - Outlook: Northumbrian Water's response to Ofwat's final decision on how much it can squeeze out of its customers over the next five years was a really quite outstanding piece of corporate verbal diarrhoea which said absolutely nothing - 27th November
 * happily ever after for JP and Caz?'' - Outlook It's been the longest of corporate courtships. The terribly traditional Cazenove has been cohabiting with JP Morgan in a joint venture for years, but only yesterday tied the knot - 20th November
 * task for Bolland to spark Marks'' - A changing of the guard at the top of the corporate tree, with two tarnished companies that once arguably had claims to represent the best of Britain appointing two proven turnaround men in the hope that their spit and polish will restore their shine - 19th November
 * tackle bank secrecy – everywhere'' - The spotlight that is now (belatedly) shining down on UBS is showing up some very ugly things - 18th November
 * contract crackdown is just hot air'' - The FSA's oncern is the way in which people are paid and what they are paid for - 17th November
 * enthusiasm is rewarded'' - There is a lesson for those who complain that the growth of supermarkets is squeezing high-street competition - 17th November
 * worst is over'' - Just as it's possible to talk your way into a recession, you can also talk your way out of a recovery - 12th November
 * ratings agencies can still bite hard'' - In the world of ratings agencies there is a very definite hierarchy. Standard & Poor's sits at the top of the tree, a branch or two above Moody's. Fitch occupies third place and, as a result of this, it has often proved rather more willing to say rather more interesting things than the others - 11th November
 * can't allow Kraft to win'' - If you let a predator take over a company in your portfolio at beneath the market price, others will try the same tactic - 10th November
 * needs to prove worthy of our money'' - So the horse trading begins again. Just a day after the Government pumped a truly obscene amount of taxpayer's cash into two zombie banks, the motor manufacturers are at it with General Motors wanting some financial candy of its own as the price for protecting thousands of British jobs - 5th November
 * head the City wins, tails we lose as RBS has wings clipped'' - So the bonus boys have at last had their wings clipped. Well at least at Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland - 4th November
 * this valuable prize should go to a newcomer'' - If anyone two years ago had described Northern Rock as the "belle of the ball" they would have been laughed off stage. But after all the junk has been carved out of it, with the help of a £27bn dowry from the taxpayer, that is what it will be - 29th October
 * need more than a reports code'' - The financial sector has been allowed to operate behind a veil of obscurity for too long - 27th October
 * inactivity to hyperactivity... the regulator's folly'' - There's been a flurry of activity from Britain's financial watchdog in the last few months. Hardly a day goes by without the chairman, Lord Turner, appearing in the media with an eye-catching new initiative designed to clean up the banking industry here, or a wagging finger aimed at its bonus culture there - 20th October
 * family silver – more of a car boot sale'' - It looks like great idea in principle – raise funds to plug the gaping hole in Britain's public finances by selling off state assets - 12th October
 * hit by corporate cowboy sting'' - The cowboy builder has become something of a British archetype, providing a steady stream of easy fodder for television consumer shows when they're short of ideas. And when the crooks are exposed, they give the bigger boys the chance to suck air into their teeth and counsel people only to use proper accredited companies that might not be cheap, but do things properly - 23rd September
 * Turner's optimism not yet justified'' - If nothing else, Lord Turner has a knack for publicity and self-promotion that few regulators have shown before - 23rd September
 * not much sweet about Kraft'' - Kraft needs Cadbury a lot more than Cadbury's needs Kraft - 8th September
 * data makes ugly reading'' - While much sound and fury continues to be vented over the issue of bankers' pay, the Financial Services Authority yesterday produced a timely reminder that it is not the only issue facing the sector - 4th September
 * needs to be heard over repayments'' - The Federation of Small Businesses is continually banging on about the time taken to pay invoices submitted by its members. So it might be tempting to dismiss its latest missive – complaining that it is now taking up to four months – as more of the same. It would also be wrong - 3rd September
 * need to cool it as anger grows'' - Not wanting to be outdone by Lord "Tax 'Em" Turner, Gordon Brown has now decided he has to join in with the bonus bashing too - 2nd September
 * in the slow lane'' - France and Germany are out of recession. Good news, says Mandy, glib as ever. The business secretary, deputy PM and God's representative on earth, says different economies will show different patterns of behaviour - 14th August
 * takes the Pru back up to the top'' - A ray of light at the end of what have been two bad weeks in financial services - 14th August
 * plan is not as good as it appears'' - Hector Sants could scarcely have garnered more publicity for himself this week had he dressed up in a Fathers for Justice-style Spider-Man suit and stood at the top of Canary Wharf with a banner and megaphone, blaring: "Look at me, look at me" - 13th August
 * 'sort of' recovery can easily go off'' - It's that dreaded "double dip" again, except that, according to Mervyn King, we are not going to experience one – probably - 13th August
 * of the Phoenix Four is a diversion'' - Nearly a decade ago, John Towers was hailed as a hero as he entered stage left with a bold promise to save Rover as a mass-market UK car maker, something BMW, which knows a thing or two about the motor industry, had conspicuously failed to do - 12th August
 * a look at tax havens closer to home'' - And so Liechtenstein has surrendered. Following on from the tax information exchange deal with the US comes a similar one with the UK - 12th August



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