November 29th, 2009 Why is everyone so shocked that Dubai is likely to default on some or all of its $80bn to $280bn mountain of debt? Markets are apparently “spooked” but given the U.A.E. emirate’s behaviour in recent years, surely a default either by the country itself or by one of its state-owned enterprieses has [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: November 28th, 2009 Item Club reveals extent of slump and says output won’t recover until 2015 Scotland’s financial services sector has been condemned to a “lost decade” of zero growth as a result of the near collapse last autumn of its two largest banks, RBS and HBOS, according [...]
November 26th, 2009 Stephen Hester, chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, has once more put the boot in to his predecessor Sir Fred Goodwin. Hester was yesterday grilled by the economy committee of the Scottish Parliament as part of its inquiry into the banking crisis. In answer to a question from the Christopher [...]
November 23rd, 2009 Since the banking and financial crisis erupted in July 2007, the group which has perhaps got off the lightest are the auditors. I have a written several articles and blog posts questioning whether ‘Big Four’ accountancy firms — Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers — stoked up the crisis by signing [...]
November 23rd, 2009 About two months ago I wrote a blog post that concluded “Yes, it seems that the game may finally be up for Goldman” (see Is the game up for Goldman? published October 4th, 2009). Well it looks like things are unravelling faster than I expected for the US-based investment bank. The bank’s [...]
November 21st, 2009 Neelie Kroes: A woman of principle, image courtesy of Vrouw & Media God, I wish there was someone in high office here in the UK who had the principles and moral compass of the European competition commissioner Neelie Kroes. Instead, we’re having to make do with spineless individuals likes Alistair Darling and [...]
November 19th, 2009 How independent is Scotland’s justice system? Not very, according Ian Hamilton QC, who has written a powerful blog post on the matter. He focuses on the role of the Lord Advocate, who currently serves the dual role of chief prosecutor in Scotland and chief legal adviser to the Scottish government. In the [...]
November 19th, 2009 In this video Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, urges China to play a bigger and more active role in reshaping the global economy. It’s all about the People’s Republic accepting the responsibilities that go hand-in-hand with its bigger role on the world economic stage. Strauss-Kahn, a former French [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: The Independent on Sunday Date: November 15th, 2009 This article has been removed at the request of HSH Nordbank, which has informed me that certain claims in the original published article — including the German bank’s level of exposure to Kenmore Property Group (£26m not £300m) and the claim that it [...]
November 12th, 2009 It’s becoming increasingly apparent that the world of insolvency has become an unregulated free-for-all where it no longer seems to matter in whose hands property or assets end up. Even supposedly reputable accountancy firms such as Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PwC have been known to ‘stitch-up’ insolvencies to suit narrow [...]