Blog Profile / Telegraph.co.uk Finance Blog
| URL : | http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Business & Finance | |
| Posts on Regator: | 2051 | |
| Posts / Week: | 12.7 | |
| Archived Since: | April 19, 2010 | |
Blog Post Archive
As the market panic demonstrates, central banks are stuck on a treadmill of money printing
Oh what a tangled web central bankers weave when they practice to deceive…Last night's panic in Tokyo, where the Nikkei dropped a stomach churning 7 per cent, demonstrates just how difficult it's going to be for the world's central banks to exit their loose money policies. It's not even as if Ben Bernanke, chairman of [...]
France says 'non' to globalisation
If you want to know what's wrong with the French economy, the findings of this survey say it all. Out of 59 countries surveyed by the Swiss business school, IMD, France has the most negative attitude among business executives both to globalisation and the need for economic and social reform. Basically, the French have got [...]
Why doesn't the IMF stop wasting everyone's time and focus on the real issues
The IMF seems to have rowed back a little in its article IV annual healthcheck on the UK economy from the position it was adopting last April. At the IMF's annual meeting in Washington, the fund's chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, said the UK Chancellor, George Osborne, was "playing with fire" by continuing to pursue austerity, [...]
House prices quadrupled during the typical mortgage term
House prices quadupled during the last quarter century and soared by more than 60pc in real terms after inflation is taken into account. No wonder bricks and mortar remain the biggest asset owned by many members of my generation. But home ownership has fallen by almost a tenth since it peaked more than a decade [...]
The best thing we could do for gay people is to stop talking about them as a breed apart
The standard of debate in last night's Commons debate over gay marriage was impressive. Whatever one's feelings, it was clear that members had given the issue due consideration. Tim Loughton's skewering of the random selection of £4bn as the cost of instituting civil partnerships for conventional couples was particularly enjoyable, but the contributions of those [...]
Bubblenomics is back. Markets have become completely detached from economic reality – and it's going to get ugly
There can be no doubt about it. Bubblenomics is back. The stock market is at dotcom highs. House prices are rising. Markets reckon interest rates will remain at 0.5pc for at least another three years, despite official forecasts for GDP growth to have been a solid 2pc for two years by then. And a single [...]
Schizophrenic investors expect slump: bet on boom
The latest poll of Morgan Stanley's top clients from across the world says it all. Chief economist Joachim Fels tells us that not a single investor at the bank's Florence forum thought the world economy would rebound with any strength later this year. Just a quarter expect a return to trend growth. Some 57pc think [...]
Millions of savers with £750bn at risk if Scotland votes for independence, according to Treasury
Millions of savers with billions of pounds in Scottish financial institutions could be at risk of an Icelandic-style collapse if Scotland votes for independence next year, according to new Treasury analysis. This is based on the fact that Scotland’s financial services industry has grown to dominate the rest of its economy to such an extent [...]
Ed Miliband has the potential to be a great prime minister
In a short time, I shall be leaving the country for at least two years (stop cheering). When I return, Ed Miliband will be the prime minister. Whether this constitutes an achievement for a Labour leader is open to debate. The legalised gerrymandering which the Coalition parties have, through their mutual dishonesty, ensured will be [...]
The referendum debate may yet have strengthened Cameron's hand in Europe – but Tories should be wary of becoming the Don Quixote of EU politics
There are a lot of issues driving the recent Tory debate over the EU referendum bill including Cameron’s leadership-style, the rise of Ukip – and the related tug-of-war over whether to 'energise the base' or hug the centre, coalition frustration, dwindling conservative membership. All of these are legitimate issues to discuss. Equally, the EU referendum [...]
Why won’t regulators act to end the multi-billion pound scandal of widows without pensions?
Hundreds of thousands of women will die in poverty during the decades ahead because of an irrevocable financial mistake their husbands have made or are about to make. This is a scandal which many people in the City know about but which generates billions of pounds profit for insurance companies, so those in the know [...]
Mark Carney's at risk of looking more Clark Kent than Superman
After 20 years and 82 press conferences, Sir Mervyn King yesterday delivered his last Inflation Report – the innovation he introduced to the Bank of England and arguably its most influential publication. He will appear before MPs one last time and is sure to speak publicly before his 10 year term expires at the end [...]
How you can help free 6m young savers with £5bn trapped in zombie funds
Parents and grandparents who believe it is wrong to take candy from a baby now have the chance to help millions of youngsters getting rotten returns from Child Trust Funds (CTF). The government is belatedly consulting the public about whether it should allow 6.1m children with CTFs worth a total of nearly £5bn to [...]
House prices: first-time buyers surge by 20pc despite predictions of doom
First-time buyer numbers surged by a fifth last month as rising house prices and the end of the mortgage famine prompted more people to escape generation rent. The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) reports that 19,100 loans, worth a total of £2.4 bn, were advanced to first-time buyers in March, while total homeloans increased by [...]
Metropolitan liberals sneer at white, middle-aged Dan Brown. Would they be so scathing if his books were written by an African woman?
Many of the smart-alecks who have taken to print to attack Dan Brown don't write as well as he does. What constitutes good writing? At a very basic level, it's something people can read. I would wager that most of us have, in the last few days, felt our eyes glaze over while reading yet [...]
The UK is up to its neck in debt, but here's the thing: we just don't care
Dominic Raab, Conservative MP for Esher & Walton, has an interesting piece in this morning's Telegraph saying we should be careful not to blame Brussels for our own, home made problems, and in particular excessive indebtedness. Yet a survey by the Office for National Statistics, published this morning, finds that to the extent that we [...]
Dave's operation needs some New Labour thuggery
What Dave needs is some bullies. The politics of the European vote have been brilliantly analysed by Ben Brogan; there is nothing to add on that score. What remains is to ask how the leader of a great nation has allowed this farce to transpire. Any sense of a hierarchy within the Conservative Party and [...]
Retirement in the red: one in 10 pensioners worries about mortgage debt
More than one in 10 pensioners is worried about mortgage debt, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). As rising numbers retire in the red, should we worry about pensioners following the government's lead and living beyond their means? House prices are high and rising but so are the debts attached to bricks [...]
I am become death, destroyer of worlds
I've been accused by some of irresponsibility for highlighting IMF forecasts which, if right, plainly indicate that Spain is insolvent, and will need a big sovereign/banking debt restructuring at some stage. This leads to the obvious conclusion, spelt out in the headline to my blog, that you should get your money out while you still [...]
Spain is officially insolvent: get your money out while you still can
I'd not noticed this until someone drew my attention to it, but the latest IMF Fiscal Monitor, published last month, comes about as close to declaring Spain insolvent as you are ever likely to see in official analysis of this sort. Of course, it doesn't actually say this outright. The IMF is far too diplomatic [...]