Kamal Ahmed articles



Article archive:


Articles: 2013

 * The killer memo that warned us all about the Co-op - Regulators and politicians should worry that a memo from Lord Levene raising concerns about Co-op Bank nearly two years ago was ignored - 24th November 2013
 * It’s time to hug the Germans close on EU reform - Britain has had its fair share of run-ins with Germany down the years. But now it is time for a new approach - 17th November 2013
 * Here’s how Osborne can beat Miliband – flat taxes - Mr Osborne should sell lowering the tax burden on individuals – and companies for that matter – as tackling inequality - 10th November 2013
 * Here’s how Osborne can beat Miliband – flat taxes - Mr Osborne should sell lowering the tax burden on individuals – and companies for that matter – as tackling inequality - 10th November 2013
 * Carney’s new mood damaged by bank split threat - The Governor’s backing for the City is welcome. It’s a shame he can’t put paid to plans to split up the UK’s leading banks - 27th October 2013
 * Why the Royal Mail’s megaphone critics are wrong - The Government was always, rightly, going to be cautious on price - 20th October 2013
 * Tesco is suffering a dose of Man United disease - Philip Clarke, the chief executive of Tesco, is a season ticket holder at Liverpool, a football club which, after many years of disappointment, is enjoying its best start to the league for more than a decade. Sir Terry Leahy, his predecessor, is an Everton supporter - 6th October 2013
 * George Osborne should delay green targets to cut energy bills - Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Only a handful see it for what it really is – the strong horse that pulls the whole cart." - 29th September 2013
 * Start worrying – estate agents are looking happy - With apologies to Stephen Fry – who once described them as “nasty, purulent sores who roam the land causing despair” –estate agents are back in fashion - 22nd September 2013
 * A jobless recovery: One issue that is keeping Mr Osborne up at night - Uk growth is returning. So why is the Chancellor rushing to listen to a Harvard professor on the subject of "jobless recoveries"? - 15th September 2013
 * Colao – a rich boy in the sweet shop - "We don’t have a large amount of money invested in a company we don’t control.” - 1st September 2013
 * I warn you, Mr Carney – a housing bubble is coming - Like missing penalties, drinking tea and listening to The Archers, home ownership is a peculiarly British obsession that is hard to explain to outsiders - 11th August 2013
 * US banks leave Britain's lenders behind - Sitting over dinner with a non-executive director of an American investment bank a few weeks ago, I asked him what his view was of the treatment of Britain's global banks by the regulators and the Government - 4th August 2013
 * Quietly, a British growth story is taking off – ITV - If judgment about the success of a business was measured in decibels, then BT would be as far ahead of the field as Usain Bolt was on Friday night at the Olympic Stadium - 28th July 2013
 * China, GSK and dealing with toxic bribery claims - 21st July 2013
 * A cunning plan to agree the pay of RBS’s new CEO - As the old joke goes: How do two porcupines make love? With extreme caution. The board of the Royal Bank of Scotland (Porcupine One) is slowly inching towards a shortlist for a new chief executive. The Government (Porcupine Two) is watching very closely - 14th July 2013
 * Close Heathrow? Are the political vandals mad? - He may own the building made famous by the opening credits of The Office, but David Sleath has a lot more to him than wondering – as David Brent did – what the difference is between an elf and a dwarf - 7th July 2013
 * We are in an anti-business funk. It should stop - Last Tuesday night at the headquarters of Barclays Bank in Canary Wharf, Antony Jenkins, the chief executive, and David Walker, the chairman, mingled with staff from all over the world at the annual citizenship awards - 23rd June 2013
 * Sadly, politicians are bad at running banks - Another week, another drive-by shooting. If this was inner London, Scotland Yard would have set up a task force - 16th June 2013
 * Surely it’s only transhuman nature to want to live for ever - The plans of three Oxford academics to freeze their bodies and come back to life is monstrously egotistical - 11th June 2013
 * Royal Mail leads the Government’s great sell-off - Moya Greene has done an excellent turnaround job. The Government should hurry up and give her a chance on the public markets - 26th May 2013
 * Are Waitrose and Ocado heading for a divorce? - Lawyers must be smacking their not inconsiderable lips - 19th May 2013
 * Marks & Spencer – let the fightback commence - I don't know if Marc Bolland has nightmares about women’s ballet pumps but the chief executive of Marks & Spencer would be forgiven if he did - 12th May 2013
 * Sid needs to wait for his chance to buy back RBS - In February Stephen Hester, the newish chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, would tell friends of a little equation he used - 5th May 2013
 * Verizon gorilla eyes Vodafone gorilla - who will win? - Like two silverbacks in a cage not sure which of them is the stronger, Vodafone and Verizon are making a good fist of studiously avoiding each other’s gaze - 28th April 2013
 * George Osborne should take on the mighty IMF - What a difference two years make. It was in the sunny surrounds of the Treasury in the summer of 2011 that George Osborne listened with deliberately intense interest to John Lipsky, the deputy director of the International Monetary Fund - 22nd April 2013
 * The financial crisis – what would Lady Thatcher do? - The view that Lady Thatcher’s reforms caused the financial crisis shows a complete misunderstanding of both her and history - 15th April 2013
 * The mother of all Groundhog Days - "What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?" - 7th April 2013
 * Osborne’s sub-prime mortgage mistake - When will they ever learn? Last week, in a Budget which can be praised for many of its pro-business measures, sat a poison pill which the more you look at it, the more toxic it appears - 24th March 2013
 * A Budget about business is a welcome start - It is a golden rule of Budgets that it is better to concentrate on the price of booze, fags and how much tax people pay because all the other stuff is of no interest to the general public. And it is the general public that ultimately decides the fate of Chancellors - 22nd March 2013
 * Want growth, Chancellor? Then back UK nuclear - In Budget week, George Osborne can signal that he is passionate about backing this country’s future – he should green light Hinkley Point in Somerset - 17th March 2013
 * no mistake, the EU is at war with the City'' - Plans for a cap on banking bonuses is just the latest salvo in a stealth war being waged by Brussels against the financial services sector - 3rd March 2013
 * Watch out Chancellor, rock star Mark Carney is in town - The new Governor of the Bank of England arrives in the UK this week. He should take care not to upstage the resident of Number 11 - 3rd February 2013
 * The five things you need to know about Davos 2013 - After a week in the Alps attending the World Economic Forum it is tempting to think – so, what was all that about? - 27th January 2013
 * Magic number to decide Lloyds CEO's pay? - A year ago this week, Stephen Hester was contemplating taking a bonus of £963,000 - 20th January 2013
 * Marc Bolland has six months to turn around M&S - Like all modern, up-to-the minute, down-with-the-kids, in-with-the-in-crowd retailers, Marks & Spencer has a Facebook page - 31st December 2012
 * Like banks, are supermarket glory days history? - When you are busy looking at the trees it is sometimes hard to see the whole wood, let alone the spooky forest beyond - 6th January 2013



Articles: 2012

 * The City, the EU and a very inconvenient truth - Enoch Powell once said that the best way to keep a secret was to announce it on the floor of the House of Commons, so little notice was taken of anything that went on there - 30th December 2012
 * Chilling economic report strikes fear into CEOs - Over an early-morning coffee with the chief executive of a FTSE 100 business last week, talk turned to the outlook for 2013. Where I had expected some guarded optimism, instead I heard a chilling analysis - 23rd December 2012
 * Sants is a risky move for Barclays - and he knows it - Hector Sants is not an economist by education. Nor is he a banker or a politician. In fact, he studied psychology and philosophy at Oxford - 16th December 2012
 * At last, someone takes the financial crisis seriously - Mark Carney, the new governor of the Bank of England, would do well to listen to the advice of his deputy, Charlie Bean - 9th December 2012
 * At last, someone who backs the wealth creators - Now then, what’s that very pleasant smell? Ah yes, it’s the fresh air emanating from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills - 25th November 2012
 * This phoney moral war on foreign company tax - Sir Roger Carr, the president of the CBI, is correct on the issue of corporation tax. “If you want different results, you have to have a different set of rules.” - 18th November 2012
 * Mick the Miner’s Herculean labours over Glencore - As Hercules found, there wasn’t much point cutting the head off the Lernaean Hydra because two more would grow back in its place - 11th November 2012
 * Barclays knows action must follow warm words - Ahead of any big event in his business life, Antony Jenkins likes to get in the mood by listening to music. Rock, if the new chief executive of Barclays needs to be “pumped up” as he describes it. Jazz or a little light classical if he needs a calmer, more thoughtful approach - 27th October 2012
 * The British companies leading the UK back to growth - Britain's mid-sized businesses, a key driver of growth and jobs, are optimistic about the future and It is time for the Government to nurture them - 21st October 2012
 * Now then, what else can we attack Germany for? - Like penalties and towels on sunloungers, when it comes to inconvenient failings it is always a good idea to blame the Germans. Greece had a go at it last week, with protesters in Nazi uniforms out in force to greet Chancellor Angela Merkel - 14th October 2012
 * Mr Cameron, this is no way to treat business - As anyone who has worked in the public sector (and I have) will know, total and utter Horlicks come as no great surprise - 7th October 2012
 * Bank bashers - it's time to put away those mallets - He didn't quite say it, of course, but Bob Diamond's oft reported claim in January 2011 that the time for remorse was over caused a wince of pain in even the most ardent financial services fan - 23rd September 2012
 * How investors can ride this QE wave of monetary stimulus - If anyone was unsure why the chairman of the Federal Reserve has been nick-named “Helicopter Ben”, they should have a clearer idea now - 16th September 2012
 * Glimmer of hope over this Heathrow shambles - Yet another review and yet another new minister – but at least we are now travelling in the right direction - 9th September 2012
 * If Barclays’ new chief needs to be 'safety first’ then Antony Jenkins fits the mould - And then there was one(ish). Antony Jenkins, the chief executive of retail and business banking at Barclays, is the leading contender to be the replacement for flashy Bob, the former CEO whose surname seemed to reflect his style – Diamond - 19th August 2012
 * David Cameron should learn lesson of Circle - After the mess of G4S, Circle health is the type of company David Cameron should be encouraging - 5th August 2012
 * Call it right and Russia will be BP’s pot of gold - One of the risks of wrestling a bear is that they have a tendency to give you a bloody nose - 29th July 2012
 * Libor scandal: the righteous wail of the anti-Bob bandwagon - There must be a time in any chief executive’s life when by far the easiest option is to just pack up and go home - 2nd July 2012
 * Business is starting to get tired of Europe - It was an article of faith not often tested that businesses liked the European Union - 17th June 2012
 * Chancellor George Osborne should do a U-turn on Heathrow and build a third runway - Execute sufficient U-turns and one ends up going around in circles - 3rd June 2012
 * Why Cameron wants a war on how we work - There are essentially two views of the relationship between the employer and the employee - 21st May 2012
 * Sir Mervyn King’s successor must show humility - Is Sir Mervyn King a tyrant? I only ask because the answer to that question will be one of the most important facing anyone who cares about the future of the City and, by extension, the UK economy - 23rd April 2012
 * Bob Diamond – a pay row about the wrong issue - When I interviewed Bob Diamond in September 2010 for this newspaper, I said that the chief executive of Barclays Bank was guilty in many people's eyes of the offence of "running a bank whilst being American" - 16th April 2012
 * Will we fall in love again with ‘too cold’ Tesco? - On Good Friday, when many people were in church or at least at that other temple with a religious Bank Holiday following, the garden centre, Phil Clarke was in Tesco checking the colour of meat - 8th April 2012
 * Sir Mervyn - come clean on the bank crisis - To learn from any crisis, financial or otherwise, two essential things must happen. There must be a full and frank admission of what went wrong and there must be a fundamental change in the ways of behaving to ensure - as far as is possible in an imperfect world - that such a calamity never happens again - 2nd April 2012
 * James Murdoch, BSkyB and the issue of honour - In Edinburgh in 2009, James Murdoch gave the MacTaggart Lecture. This is the media industry's "big event" of the year and all the top figures from the sector were there, including Jana Bennett, the president of BBC Worldwide, and Dawn Airey, the chief executive of Five - 25th March 2012
 * Budget 2012: Why Chancellor George Osborne is right to cut the 50p top rate - Eleven years ago an incandescent Gordon Brown reportedly stole into Tony Blair’s den in No.10, faced the Prime Minister and railed: “You’ve stolen my f*****g Budget." - 18th March 2012
 * Why Heathrow is a test of the Prime Minister's leadership - Like Basil Fawlty not mentioning the war (“I think I said it once, but I got away with it”), the third runway at Heathrow has become a “non-subject” in polite society - 4th March
 * At last, a call to arms for UK manufacturing - The value of machine tools used every year by the People's Republic of China may not seem of immediate relevance to Britain's manufacturing future. Until, that is, you compare it to the value used in Britain - 26th February 2012



Articles: 2011

 * George Osborne has opened the door to tax cuts - In the rarefied world of tax collection, Tolley's Tax Guide has an almost biblical status - 13th November 2011
 * Beware - Brussels sharks are circling the City - Over-the-counter Derivatives Regulation, Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, Short Selling Regulation, Market Abuse Directive, Energy Market Abuse Framework - 16th October 2011
 * 28 – red letter day for James Murdoch at BSkyB'' - Who would have thought that two weeks ago James Murdoch would, to all intents and purposes, be re-applying for his job as chairman of BSkyB? - 17th July 2011



Articles: 2010


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Articles: 2001
