James Moore



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Full name: James Moore

Area of interest: Business, economic and financial affairs

Journals: The Independent

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Website: Independent/Business Comment

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Column info: Business, economic and financial affairs

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Section: Business

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Articles: 2011

 * 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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 • Damian Reece (The Daily Telegraph) • Mark Kleinman (The Sunday Telegraph) • David Wighton (The Times) • John Waples (The Sunday Times) • John Willman (Financial Times) • Deborah Hargreaves (The Guardian) • Ruth Sunderland (The Observer) • ? (The Independent) • Margareta Pagano (The Independent on Sunday) • Michael Williams (Wall Street Journal Europe) • Alex Brummer (Daily Mail) • Stephen Kahn (Daily Express)'''