Business Comment

Inside Business Comment

David Prosser: Is Sir Ken the only one to have blundered?

Wednesday, 17 August 2011

Outlook The curious case of Sir Ken Morrison, fined yesterday for failing to tell Morrisons he had sold off his holdings in the supermarket group, is reminiscent of another recent share ownership scandal. Sir Ken appears to have simply overlooked his duty to inform the company of the disposals he made, just as, in 2008, David Ross, a significant shareholder in Carphone Warehouse, inadvertently fell foul of rules requiring him to declare he had pledged chunks of his holdings as collateral against certain loans.

David Prosser: There are 17,000 reasons for Google to buy Motorola

Tuesday, 16 August 2011

Outlook: Buying Motorola ramps up the pressure on Microsoft to buy its own handset maker – probably Nokia, or maybe even Research in Motion

Stephen King: Markets are driven by a future view – and now reality is starting to bear on it

Monday, 15 August 2011

Economic Outlook Never assume August is going to be a quiet month. In the first week, we seemed to be on the verge of a financial apocalypse.

Small Talk: Chinese shipbuilder sets course for a listing on Aim

Monday, 15 August 2011

Alternative investment market (Aim) investors have a host of options when it comes to putting money in oil and gas and mining. Up to now we've not been able to think of any shipbuilding options. But that is about to change: China's Dongfang Shipbuilding Company is due to announce its intention to float today, with dealings expected to commence on Thursday.

Margareta Pagano: Can the stock market give us the answers?

Sunday, 14 August 2011

Who knows which of our business leaders the Chancellor George Osborne listens to as he looks for fresh thinking to boost growth, but he could do worse than have a chat with Xavier Rolet, the head of the London Stock Exchange.

Sean O'Grady: A short-selling ban is short-sighted and could do more harm than good

Sunday, 14 August 2011

Economic View

Stephen Foley: Spectre of sub-prime lending is still haunting Bank of America

Saturday, 13 August 2011

US Outlook: Anyone searching for terrifying echoes of the 2008 financial crisis need have looked no further than what happened to Bank of America this week.

Stephen Foley: Griffin's dreams have fallen short

Saturday, 13 August 2011

US Outlook: When you make a fortune trading bonds from your Harvard University dorm room, and then build one of the world's most powerful hedge funds, you probably think there isn't anything you can't achieve.

David Prosser: Just the fear of a new credit crunch could be its cause

Friday, 12 August 2011

Outlook Frederic Oudea is furious about the treatment Société Générale has received over the past couple of days, as unsubstantiated market gossip wiped 20 per cent and more off the value of his bank at times. He wants regulators to investigate.

No wonder the Bank of England Governor is feeling grumpy

Friday, 12 August 2011

Sean O'Grady: The opportunity to forge a new deal in the eurozone and a 'New Bretton Woods' came and went during what we thought was the recovery.

David Prosser: Calm before the storm on mortgage arrears

Friday, 12 August 2011

Outlook It is hugely welcome that home repossessions are falling rather than rising, despite the crunch on household incomes we have seen during the first half of this year.

Nikhil Kumar: The tell-tale signs that a second credit crunch may be on the cards

Friday, 12 August 2011

It is notoriously difficult to accurately explain the ups and downs, but one of the key factors underlying the volatility on global stock markets over the past week has been some alarming moves in the indicators that flashed red during the credit crunch. And though those indicators may not yet be back in the danger zone, some have begun to turn a worrying shade of pink in recent days.

David Prosser: Murdoch in no mood for compromise

Friday, 12 August 2011

Outlook Rupert Murdoch is not for turning. There is no need for him to consider stepping down as both chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, he has told investors, his son James has the company's confidence too, and there is no case for changes to the board at all.

David Prosser: Virgin still looks lonely but there is no sign of a partner

Thursday, 11 August 2011

Outlook It has not been a bad few days for Virgin Atlantic. On Tuesday, Sir Richard Branson's airline announced it had been successful in heading off a potentially humiliating strike by its pilots. Yesterday, Virgin was able to reveal it has returned to the black over the year just gone. All very satisfactory, one might think.

David Prosser: The Bank and the Fed united in hesitancy

Thursday, 11 August 2011

Outlook We may be running out of policy levers. That is the underlying message from the pronouncements of central banks either side of the Atlantic over the past 36 hours, even if the US Federal Reserve's promise of low interest rates to come for the next two years enabled stock markets the world over to break the cycle of sell-offs yesterday.

David Prosser: Apple risks another bruising encounter

Thursday, 11 August 2011

Outlook Is that the sound of a backlash we hear? Apple's rise to global domination began with a cult following for its products among the cool kids – many of whom now appear to be getting increasingly fed up with the company.

David Prosser: How the eurozone's political leaders let Trichet down

Wednesday, 10 August 2011

Outlook Jean-Claude Trichet must be counting the days. His term of office as President of the European Central Bank comes to an end in October (assuming there is no succession crisis because his planned replacement, Mario Draghi, opts to stay in Italy to sort out the problems there). In the meantime, he is spending every day defending a policy in which no-one thinks he really believes.

David Prosser: Dudley back in hot water over Russia

Wednesday, 10 August 2011

Outlook It is now three months since BP was forced to give up its deal with the oil giant Rosneft amid a seemingly intractable legal dispute with its existing Russian partner TNK-BP – or, more specifically, with AAR, which owns 50 per cent of that operation.

David Prosser: Making banking just a little bit safer

Wednesday, 10 August 2011

Outlook Slowly, the net is tightening. The discussion paper published by the Financial Services Authority yesterday on banking reform sets out how large banks will have to put "living wills" in place by the middle of next year. The premise is that banks should have to set out in advance how they could be wound down, in the event of a crisis, with the minimum possible impact on financial stability and the wide economy.

David Prosser: It is bond investors' verdict on S&P that really matters

Tuesday, 9 August 2011

Outlook: David Beers, the boss of Standard & Poor's, is surviving the mud-slinging. His assertion yesterday that there is a one in three chance of a further downgrade of the US's credit rating was not the statement of a man rattled by the attempts to ridicule his work, which have been continuous since Friday night's shock.

David Prosser: Another way to reward the fat-cat directors

Tuesday, 9 August 2011

Outlook: So the waterbed principle applies to executive pay too.

David Prosser: Britain's banks are running very scared

Tuesday, 9 August 2011

Outlook: D-day for Britain's banks is 12 September. That is when Sir John Vickers is due to unveil the final report of his Independent Commission on Banking. And with time running out to influence Sir John's thinking, it is clear the banks are increasingly spooked by the possibilities.

Stephen King: US downgrade just confirms what we already know – its economy is in a mess

Monday, 8 August 2011

Economic Outlook: The US budgetary position is a mess – in much the same way that the Pope is Catholic and bears do their business in the woods.

Sean O'Grady: If the US can't bail out the world, then who do we turn to? Mars?

Sunday, 7 August 2011

So here we are. The debt endgame. The reckoning. The pain postponed is about be endured.

Hamish McRae: Leadership is what we should get, but competence would do for now

Sunday, 7 August 2011

Summertime but the living ain't easy. It has been particularly uneasy for José Luis Zapatero, who had to break his holiday and return to Madrid to crisis talks about the soaring interest rate on Spain's debts. But actually it has not been a bundle of fun for anyone involved in the financial markets – investors, of course, but particularly the political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic.

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