Treasury Committee chairman Andrew Tyrie asks Bank of England to revise code of conduct August 24, 2015 Treasury Select Committee chairman Andrew Tyrie has asked Bank of England governor Mark Carney to reexamine the rules governing the Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC). Tyrie wrote to Carney yesterday about the naming of Gertjan Vlieghe, a senior economist at the hedge fund Brevan Howard, to the MPC. He said Vlieghe’s appointment, and the “subsequent [...]
Russia has banned Wikipedia today in what activists are calling an attack on open internet August 24, 2015 In yet another blow against open internet in Russia, authorities banned Wikipedia today, ostensibly over drug-related content. Officially, this is about a Wikipedia page essentially explaining how to make charas, a kind of cannabis. Kremlin’s surveillance authority Roskomnadzor has been trying to get the page removed, threatening to ban the whole website unless it complied. [...]
Austerity is simply bad economics: It’s the current Conservative government – not Jeremy Corbyn – whose spending policies are extreme August 24, 2015 Republican US presidential candidate and Ohio governor John Kasich recently argued that when he gets to the "pearly gates", what will matter is not how much he cut spending, but how much he helped the poor. Austerity is all about spending cuts, which hurt the poor and the vulnerable. This makes the UK government’s [...]
Lloyds Banking Group sell-off continues as government reduces stake to 13 per cent August 24, 2015 The government has sold a further one per cent of its stake in Lloyds Banking Group, taking its total holding to less than 13 per cent. It has now realised £14.5bn from the share sale, which began in December last year and will end no later than 31 December. All sales are used to [...]
Chancellor George Osborne kicks off his own European tour to try and win the EU over on Cameron’s reforms August 24, 2015 Chancellor George Osborne is embarking on a whistle-stop tour of three European capitals today, in an effort to secure support for Prime Minister David Cameron’s EU reform agenda. Osborne is set to visit Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen to hold meetings with key members of the Finnish, Swedish and Danish governments, including Finnish finance minister Alexander [...]
Jeremy Corbyn backed by anti-austerity lobby August 23, 2015 More than 40 academics and activists, including a former member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee (MPC), have signed a public letter supporting hard-left Labour leadership hopeful Jeremy Corbyn. In an attempt to counter mounting criticism that the Islington North MP is too extreme in his views, the signatories, including former MPC [...]
Who’s supporting corbynomics? August 23, 2015 John Ross, Socialist blogger A former economic adviser to Ken Livingstone, Ross was reportedly paid a six-figure salary during Livingstone’s time at City Hall. He now writes on a blog called the Socialist Economic Bulletin, which states that it is published by Livingstone, although his most recent post was back in May after the General [...]
Putin is about to win his cynical bet in Ukraine: The West is truly dead August 23, 2015 I am becoming worryingly convinced that Vladimir Putin must be a big fan of this column. Just a few days on from me revealing that he is odds-on favourite to become the super-villain in the next Bond caper, the Russian President confirmed my worst suspicions. Falling back on one of his late-Roger-Moore-era stunts, Putin piloted [...]
City Matters: The five key commitments the City wants from the next mayor of London August 23, 2015 We only have to wait until the end of September before we know who is going to represent the two main political parties in the race to become the next mayor of London. These aspiring London politicians with ambitions to succeed Boris Johnson are gearing themselves up for a busy few months. From now until [...]
Labour frontrunner Jeremy Corbyn calls current levels of corporate pay “ludicrous” August 23, 2015 In an interview today, Jeremy Corbyn attacked corporate pay and claimed bankers need to wake up to Britain's “gross inequalities”. Speaking to the FT, the Labour frontrunner described the salaries and bonuses out by some businesses as “ludicrous”, and said he is investigating every organisation. I do think the salary level and the bonus [...]