By Ian Fraser in Doha (Originally published on Qfinance blog, Oct 1st, 2009) Big loser: Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nehayan of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority Transparency has turned out to be something of a doubled-edged sword for the world’s $3 trillion sovereign wealth sector. Analysts suggest that sovereign wealth funds, which last year decided [...]
By Ian Fraser in Doha (Originally published on Qfinance blog, Oct 1st, 2009) There is a danger that central bankers including Jean-Claude Trichet of the European Central Bank and Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates too low and for too long—just as their predecessors did after the terror attacks on the [...]
By Ian Fraser in Doha (Originally published on Qfinance blog, Oct 1st 2009) Morality and business ethics were on the agenda at the closing session of the Qfinance global debates on the future of finance held in Doha. Qfinance is a comprehensive website and reference book on finance and the future of finance, published by [...]
October 6th, 2009 Does anyone know why Gordon Brown’s government created UKFI as a hands-off organisation with zero interest in pushing for real change at the two basket-case Scottish banks it owns? Why UKFI has done nothing to root out the corruption that became endemic at Bank of Scotland Corporate and probably elsewhere? Or why [...]
October 3rd, 2009 Here’s the video made during “Tomorrow’s civil economy” event, organised by the Carnegie UK Trust, at which I was one of the speakers. The event, part of the Festival of Politics 2009, was held in the Holyrood Parliament on August 22nd. Morag of the Carnegie UK Trust sent me the link to [...]
October 3rd, 2009 Sir Victor Blank, the former Lloyds Banking Group chairman whose career is unlikely to recover from his decision to acquire HBOS last September, has once more been seeking to justify his own folly. Lloyds TSB’s acquisition of HBOS is today widely regarded as the worst takeovers in banking history –worse even worse [...]