RAPID RESPONSES December 7, 2011 It’s not cricket While Forest Capie and Geoffrey Wood [History reveals breaking up a currency union isn’t hard, yesterday] think that the process of breaking up the euro could be a swift and relatively clean, the examples given do not involve the same levels of redemonination risk that a euro break-up carries. If you were [...]
History reveals breaking up a currency union isn’t hard to do – but you must be fast December 6, 2011 WHAT happens when a country changes its currency, either by creating a new one to replace the existing one or when it leaves a monetary union? A good starting point is New Zealand’s switch from sterling to the NZ dollar at the end of the 1960s. That was a simple matter of redenomination and printing [...]
Why the CBI was wrong to attack EC audit reforms December 6, 2011 AUDITING is at a crossroads. The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee, the Office of Fair Trading, the European Commission, the US audit regulator (PCAOB) and investors all have substantial concerns about the listed company audit model. John Cridland of the CBI outlined the case for resisting the EC’s new proposals in these pages last [...]
Spending your money like a sex-crazed ape December 6, 2011 I ONCE saw a documentary about the extraordinary sexual appetite of the bonobo ape. This gave me an idea for an anti-impotence drug. I plan to isolate the genes in bonobos that account for their virility, pack them into some kind of a pill and sell them off by the truckload. The idea is at [...]
RAPID RESPONSES December 6, 2011 Tax and the City Congratulations to Morning Wire for raising the issue of the threat to the City by intrusive and unnecessary EU regulation [Calls for PM to protect the City, Monday]. As a London MEP I am fighting in the European Parliament to protect my constituents’ jobs and to preserve the City’s status as [...]
Opening up the Oyster card beats charging ahead with TfL’s expensive alternative December 5, 2011 LAST week the London Assembly Transport Committee (LATC) released its report on the future of ticketing in the capital. No big deal, you might think – if you assume the Oyster card seems to function rather well. The heart of the problem is that Oyster is not only far too expensive, but has become so [...]
Why I backed the Morning Wire charity appeal December 5, 2011 IF WE’RE serious about tackling global poverty, then aid alone isn’t going to do it. It is the power of private enterprise that can tip the scales. 90 per cent of the jobs created around the world are provided not by governments but by the private sector. Currently, more than 2.5bn people have no bank [...]
Competing currencies versus freed markets December 5, 2011 THE UK hasn’t always had a floating exchange rate, and a reasonably free market in foreign exchange is not to be sniffed at. But is competition always a step in the right direction? According to Friedrich Hayek, the rational choice in monetary regimes is between one of two alternatives – either a free banking system [...]
RAPID RESPONSES December 5, 2011 Paving the way Scott Wilson outlines a new vision for transport [Time to bring our roads into the market economy, Friday]. I congratulate him on opening up the debate. However, he is effectively proposing a long term solution; in the current economic climate, acceptance by government of the need for a redistribution of large annual [...]
The coalition’s pension plan is an insult to private sector workers, not to the unions December 4, 2011 THE recent concessions by the coalition, in respect of the public sector pension negotiations, verge on an unconditional surrender to the unions, perhaps on a scale unprecedented in the history of public sector labour negotiations. The price will be paid by those who are not at the negotiating table: the private sector and the young. [...]