The Great Debate UK
Osborne unveils a momentous project
-Laurence Copeland is a professor of finance at Cardiff University Business School. The opinions expressed are his own.
We were promised a Budget that would be a game-changer, and that’s exactly what we got today – ambitious, dramatic, and presented with conviction and confidence (as it needed to be).
The Chancellor had four objectives in view:
1. To cut both the deficit (the additional borrowing) and the level of the debt over the life of the parliament, starting now
2. To make a virtue of necessity, by cutting benefits and taxes that create the insidious poverty trap, making it worthwhile for more people to join (or rejoin) the labour force
Banks, borrowing, bonds and Britain’s budget
-Laurence Copeland is a professor of finance at Cardiff University Business School and a co-author of “Verdict on the Crash” published by the Institute of Economic Affairs. The opinions expressed are his own. Join Reuters for a live discussion with guests as UK Chancellor George Osborne makes an emergency budget statement at 12:30 p.m. British time on Tuesday, June 22, 2010.-
George Osborne must be thankful to Don Fabio and his boys for ensuring that Wednesday’s tabloids will have other things to think about than the Budget, because it is going to be one of the toughest ever.
Breaking up banks is no silver bullet
– Hugo Dixon is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own –
Breaking up the banks is no silver bullet. Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic — including two of the party leaders fighting the UK election — want to separate so-called casino investment banks from utility lenders. But such simple rules would create arbitrage opportunities and rigidities without curbing excess risk-taking.
UK should resist temptation to dump bank stakes
– George Hay is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own –
The UK’s forced investments in the banking sector are in rude health. The 41 percent holding in Lloyds Banking Group and 70 percent stake in Royal Bank of Scotland are comfortably above where the government bought the equity. But that doesn’t mean whoever wins next week’s general election should charge into a sale.
Tight UK election is bad news for bankers
– Peter Thal Larsen is a
Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own –
Britain’s bankers were already braced for an uncomfortable election. But the U.S. fraud allegations against Goldman Sachs, combined with the rise of the Liberal Democrats, have given bank-bashing renewed impetus. The popularity of the attacks means they could resonate well beyond the current campaign.
Punishing investment bankers: the nanny-state goes global
- Laurence Copeland is a professor of finance at Cardiff University Business School and a co-author of “Verdict on the Crash” published by the Institute of Economic Affairs. The opinions expressed are his own. -
In a previous blog, I expressed the fear that in the aftermath of the financial crisis we were going to see either the innocent punished or guilty men convicted of the wrong crimes, or maybe both.
Greenspan and the curse of counterfactual
- Laurence Copeland is a professor of finance at Cardiff University Business School and a co-author of “Verdict on the Crash” published by the Institute of Economic Affairs. The opinions expressed are his own. -
Suppose that, instead of appeasing Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler at Munich in 1938, Neville Chamberlain had taken Britain to war, what would today’s history books say about the episode?
The UK should not waste its fiscal crisis
– The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own –
The UK should not waste its fiscal crisis. As Britain embarks on its election campaign, this is a perfect opportunity to engage in radical tax and spending reforms designed not just to restore the country’s fiscal balance but to boost its long-term productivity and competitiveness.
Bankers’ bonuses: the fish stinks from the head
- Laurence Copeland is a professor of finance at Cardiff University Business School and a co-author of “Verdict on the Crash” published by the Institute of Economic Affairs. The opinions expressed are his own. -
The awful thing about lynch mobs is they so often hang an innocent man, leaving the guilty totally untouched. In the case of the banks, the danger is acute. As I have already argued, hedge funds and private equity are being unfairly targeted, especially in Europe. But there is another, even less popular class which is likely to end up in the firing line, for no good reason and with consequences which could be damaging for all of us.
Banks too big to fail, but not too big to change
- Chris Morling is managing director of money.co.uk. The opinions expressed are his own. -
With Britain’s biggest banks widely tipped to report record profits this month debate over banking reform rumbles on. But why have proposed reforms ignored the concerns of the retail banks’ disillusioned customers?
