Business Comment

Inside Business Comment

David Prosser: The Swiss can hold the line for only so long

Wednesday, 7 September 2011

Outlook It is all-in for the Swiss National Bank then. Having raised the stakes several times already with currency market interventions aimed at driving down the overvalued franc, the central bank swore yesterday to do all that it takes to keep the value of its currency above SFr1.20 against the euro.

David Prosser: Merkel must fill the leadership vacuum at the centre of the euro crisis

Tuesday, 6 September 2011

Outlook: In Greece itself, the backsliding on the detail of the deal is such that negotiators have left the country so that all sides can cool off

Hamish McRae: We weren't ready to accept the truth that economic news would be so bad

Monday, 5 September 2011

Economic Outlook: Euro-watchers have been so focused on the nightmare of sovereign debt that the interest rate debate has faded into the background

Mark Leftly: Weak coalition ducks decision on bank reform

Sunday, 4 September 2011

What neither advocates of banking reforms nor those that oppose them wanted, or needed, was for the detail of the next regulatory framework to be uncertain.

Hamish McRae: Whatever the data tells us, one thing is for sure: there's trouble ahead

Sunday, 4 September 2011

Economic View

Stephen Foley: News Corp investors should reject Murdoch's minimalist shake-up

Saturday, 3 September 2011

US Outlook: Rupert Murdoch's message to the corporate governance campaigners snapping at News Corp could not be any bolder if he had written it on the front page of one of his tabloids: Stick it up your punter.

Stephen Foley: Obama may have to create jobs himself

Saturday, 3 September 2011

US Outlook: It is as if the US labour market hired a PR team.

David Prosser: The end of commission is just a new beginning for Hargreaves Lansdown

Friday, 2 September 2011

Outlook Stock market investors really are a fickle bunch. Just a few weeks back, the Financial Services Authority's unveiling of a new regulatorypolicy on commission payments saw more than a quarter of Hargreaves Lansdown's value disappear during a single session. Yesterday, after the financial adviser and stockbroker announced better-than-expected trading figures, half those losses were made good in the space of a couple of hours.

More volatile perhaps, but market fluctuations are following a familiar pattern

Friday, 2 September 2011

Hamish McRae: There is strong evidence that cuts in public spending do not do nearly as much damage to long-term growth as increases in taxation.

David Prosser: Own goal looming at Manchester United

Friday, 2 September 2011

Outlook It's not been a bad start to the season for Manchester United: the team is top of the table, the manager has been lauded for some smart transfers completed well ahead of the chaotic end to the transferwindow, and now the business has unveiled record profits – even that horrible debt pile has started to come down rapidly. All in all, this is a healthy backdrop against which to launch the initial public offering in Singapore that the club's owners are thought to be considering.

David Prosser: The industrial slowdown is global

Friday, 2 September 2011

Outlook If you want proof of the interconnectedness of the global economy, the speed with which disappointing manufacturing figures flashed up around the world yesterday provided it in spades. Britain's dismal purchasing managers survey came halfway through the cycle – it was preceded by nervous numbers from China and particularly the eurozone, and followed by downbeat data from the US. In a world fearful about the outlook for the next year, exports are shrinking everywhere one turns and the circle is becoming vicious for manufacturers.

David Prosser: The Waterstone's story may not have a happy ending

Thursday, 1 September 2011

Outlook James Daunt is a brave man. Having been appointed managing director of Waterstone's just three months ago – after the book chain'spurchase by the Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut – he is dumping the central plank of the sales pitch it has been making for the past decade.

David Prosser: Today Japan, tomorrow America?

Thursday, 1 September 2011

Outlook So when are you selling Fresh & Easy? That was the first question put to Tesco's chief executive, Phil Clark, yesterday following his announcement that the supermarket is getting out of Japan, having failed to crack the market there. After all, the US has been a much more high-profile international failure than Japan for Tesco, so if Mr Clark is the pragmatist he says he is, an exit must surely follow.

David Prosser: The chief executive who set an example

Thursday, 1 September 2011

Outlook It is easy enough to throw mud at fat-cat executives who desert a sinking ship with generouspay-offs – and goodness knows there have been enough of them over the past couple of years – so we should be gracious on the odd occasion when someone does the right thing. Step forward Jamie Buchan, chief executive of Southern Cross.

David Prosser: Dudley's only Russian option now is the onehe wanted least of all

Wednesday, 31 August 2011

Outlook BP could not have expected Rosneft to wait forever. Still, it is always painful to see one's former partner stepping out with someone else, let alone a major rival – and all the more so given that BP and Rosneft were just about to exchange vows before a troublesome member of the audience announced it certainly did know of a lawful impediment to the wedding. Sadly, BP's Russian partners at TNK-BP could not be persuaded to forever hold their peace.

David Prosser: The disproportionate damage banks can do

Wednesday, 31 August 2011

Outlook Having written at length in yesterday's Independent about why there should be no delay in implementing the reforms about to beproposed by Sir John Vickers' Independent Commission on Banking, there is no need to dwell for too long on CBI boss John Cridland's assertion that to introduce them at a such a delicate moment in the economic cycle would be "barking mad".

David Prosser: Housing is affordable – once you've bought it

Wednesday, 31 August 2011

Outlook On yesterday's warning from the National Housing Federation that home ownership rates are going to fall back to the levels of the 1980s, it is worth pointing out again that the affordability of housing has not been so good for many years.

David Prosser: Why we must snuff out the bankers' attempts to prevaricate on reform

Tuesday, 30 August 2011

Outlook: The British Bankers Association intends to campaign for a delay in implementing of Sir John Vickers' proposals, whatever they might be

Stephen King: The magicians of monetarism have very few tricks left up their sleeves

Monday, 29 August 2011

Developed economies are ending up with economic permafrost, where attempts to kick-start growth bump into economic reality

Ben Chu: Why Merkel can't admit to her voters that the euro is worth paying for

Sunday, 28 August 2011

Economic View

Mark Leftly: Apple will grow to cover the Jobs-sized hole

Sunday, 28 August 2011

Only the departure of a particular man from a particular role at a particular company could have stolen the business headlines from stock market chaos, a surging gold price and the eurozone crisis.

Stephen Foley: Washington battened down for a storm in a Starbucks coffee cup

Saturday, 27 August 2011

US Outlook: Howard Schultz has brewed up a storm with his pledge to withhold campaign contributions to US politicians until they stop their destructive squabbling and put a proper budget deal in place – a budget deal that cuts the national debt in the long term with the mix of cut and tax rises that every economist says are necessary, and also gives an urgent boost to the economy now.

Stephen Foley: The Fed doesn't have a patent on stimulus

Saturday, 27 August 2011

US Outlook: Ben Bernanke's speech in Jackson Hole could be summed up this way: It's not all about me, you know.

Stephen Foley: Mr Buffett's bathtime would have been long

Saturday, 27 August 2011

US Outlook: For a man who says his company doesn't need to raise cash, Bank of America's Brian Moynihan has sure raised a lot of cash this week.

David Prosser: Britain's tawdry tax deal with Switzerland is a charter for tax evaders

Friday, 26 August 2011

Outlook Just how pleased should we be that George Osborne has persuaded his Swiss counterparts to pay some compensation for the fact that billions of pounds of British tax dodgers' money is parked in secret bank accounts in their country? Well, about as pleased as we would be if someone had robbed a British bank, fled to Switzerland and then got away scot-free apart from the inconvenience of the local authorities handing back some of the proceeds.

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