How the government is helping SMEs access the finance they need August 12, 2014 Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the lifeblood of our economy. They employ close to 14.4m people (almost 60 per cent of total UK private sector employment), with almost 4.6m people now self-employed. But many SMEs suffered after the financial crisis, due in part to the lack of availability and flexibility of bank lending. This [...]
Maliki’s ignominious exit is good for Iraq – now let’s hope he goes quietly August 12, 2014 As is often the case, Nouri al-Maliki’s Iraqi government found itself abandoned by even its oldest friends in the end. As the internal revolt within his Dawa Party to replace him as Prime Minister gathered pace, Maliki found his old buttresses of support had quietly buckled. The Americans had finally given up on him in [...]
France is the home of liberalism – it’s high time the country rediscovered this August 12, 2014 Who wrote that the state is “that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else”? Milton Friedman? Ayn Rand? Surely an Anglo-Saxon libertarian? Not at all. It’s Frederic Bastiat, a French economist and politician who fiercely fought the protectionist camp over the liberalisation of the grain trade in the [...]
As London house prices show signs of cooling, are fears of a bubble overplayed? August 12, 2014 Rob Wood, chief UK economist at Berenberg Bank, says Yes. Rapid rises in house prices would be a threat if they turned into an uncontrollable bubble accompanied by a rapid debt build-up. So it is good news that London house price inflation seems to be slowing down. And that slowdown has its roots in action [...]
How BuzzFeed’s $850m valuation shows there’s money in those cat lists August 11, 2014 BuzzFeed, the spiritual home of lists, cats and OMG labels, has just secured a further $50m (£30m) in investment, reportedly seeing it valued at an impressive $850m (£506m). When you consider that the Washington Post was bought by Jeff Bezos for a paltry $250m (£149m) last year, this is a figure that should make you [...]
Obama’s got it right: Why it’s in the West’s interest to help the Kurds out August 11, 2014 “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” For the second time in this doleful summer, the Islamic State (IS) has astounded the world. Following its stunning success in June – snatching and then consolidating territorial gains in eastern Syria and western Iraq into a terrorist state the [...]
Our policymakers’ hostility to low-cost flying is hurting the worst-off August 11, 2014 It’s that time of year when the City’s offices seem empty. For many families with children, these weeks represent the last opportunity of the year to get away for a well-earned break. Yet while two-thirds of MPs will use this period to fly abroad, policies they have implemented make it less likely that their constituents [...]
Why the sharing economy could live up to the hype August 11, 2014 This was the summer the sharing economy truly hit London. First, we had black cabs bring Whitehall to a standstill with protests over the introduction of Uber, an app that allows you to call a cab wherever you are. Next, plans were announced to remove laws controlling short-term rentals, opening up the door for Airbnb [...]
Has Ofgem over-regulation hindered energy market competition and led to higher prices? August 11, 2014 Peter Atherton, an energy analyst at Liberum Capital, says Yes. The recent intervention by former regulators, suggesting the energy industry is “over-regulated”, has highlighted concerns that many of us who analyse the UK power market have had for some time. The suspicion is that Ofgem has lost its way in recent years: no longer acting like an [...]
Banking brain drain: Four unintended consequences of post-crisis regulation August 10, 2014 Since the financial crisis, governments have made wide-ranging changes to the way financial institutions are regulated. In particular, regulators have focused on the amount and type of capital that banks and other financial institutions must hold, and set new standards as to how they must interact with consumers and markets. This has given rise to [...]