Bashing buy-to-let landlords will push up rents and hit the UK economy hard July 23, 2015 Buy-to-let landlords have a huge advantage in the market as they can offset their mortgage interest payments against their income, whereas homebuyers cannot.” That’s how the chancellor explained his decision in the Budget to require that landlords, unlike other businesses, effectively pay tax on their borrowings – their buy-to-let mortgage. But the chancellor has made [...]
What struggling Greece can learn from the growth stars of Eastern Europe July 23, 2015 Where are Europe’s fastest growing economies to be found? They are in Eastern Europe. Over the past year, GDP has risen by 4.1 per cent in Romania, 4 per cent in the Czech Republic, 3.7 per cent in Poland, 3.3 per cent in Hungary, 3.1 per cent in Slovakia, and by 3 per cent in [...]
Don’t stitch up the primary: Londoners deserve a real choice for their next mayor July 23, 2015 This weekend, the Conservatives will be holding interviews with the candidates who want to be included in the party’s open primary for next year’s London mayoral election. The word on the street is that the list of candidates will be culled to only two or three and that Ivan Massow, despite being the second ranking [...]
With Greece, China and rate rises heightening fears, will this be a bad summer for investors? July 23, 2015 Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, says Yes It has been a pretty bad summer for the stock market so far – and we would have to have a belter of a month in August for the FTSE to claw its way back to the 7,000 mark. I do not see the macro worries [...]
The end of China’s migrant miracle could see global asset prices plunge July 22, 2015 China’s meteoric economic transformation has brought billions of workers out of poverty and into the global labour market. But recent discussion has raised the possibility that China’s “migrant miracle” (fuelled by the influx of people from the countryside to work in the cities) could now be over as the so-called “Lewis point” is reached – [...]
The EU risks damaging consumer interests in its push against Google dominance July 22, 2015 Jean Tirole won last year’s Nobel prize for economics for his work on a new type of market – and one that has grown with the meteoric rise of the internet. So-called two-sided markets arise when a company brings together suppliers and consumers. Google is a classic example: it provides browsers with web pages, and [...]
Are interest rates about to rise? Don’t bank on it yet July 22, 2015 Bank of England governor Mark Carney has set the cat among the pigeons with his recent comments on interest rate rises. From the media response, one could infer that a rate rise is just around the corner and a done deal. My response is hold on, not so fast. For the first time since the [...]
As Blair warns Labour has rediscovered losing, are its 2020 election chances slipping away? July 22, 2015 Patrick Diamond, lecturer in public policy at Queen Mary, University of London, says Yes Labour is at grave risk of throwing the 2020 election away. To win in five years, it has to understand why it suffered a devastating defeat on 7 May. The reasons are obvious: the public did not believe that Ed Miliband [...]
Universities are on the frontline in the UK’s battle against Islamic extremism July 21, 2015 Mohammed Emwazi, Michael Adebolajo, Seifeddine Rezgui – by all accounts quiet, unassuming individuals until they became ISIL’s celebrity executioner, Lee Rigby’s murderer, and author of the Tunisian massacre respectively. Insofar as any common thread binds this grim trio and all too many other recent terrorists, it is not poverty, deprivation or social isolation, but their [...]
Labour must re-embrace Canada for the benefit of all society July 21, 2015 AS HSBC mulls over whether to leave the UK, it’s time for Londoners to re-embrace Canada. Indeed, if I was mayor, I would be campaigning for major banks to stay headquartered here, unlike the current mayor. The jobs they offer directly and indirectly matter, but the damage to London’s reputation if they [...]