April 16th, 2012 In this speech the economist and author John Kay examined how the financial sector continues to make — or claims to make — returns-on-equity which are way in excess of any reasonable estimate of cost of capital. Kay, a visiting professor at London School of Economics, examined various possible reasons but then focused on [...]
By Ian Fraser Published: QFINANCE Date: March 9th, 2012 The “Washington Consensus” ought to have been consigned to the scrapheap of history by now. The consensus – also known as neo-classical economics – supported global macroeconomic policy including financial (de)regulation and central bank policy, for most of the past three decades. But the Panglossian assumptions about financial [...]
January 7th, 2012 I was surprised and disappointed when I opened my copy of The Economist on Friday morning. The magazine is running a feebly-argued propaganda piece headlined “Save the City” as its cover story. The piece vaunts the “skills” that are to be found in the City of London and seeks to persuade us [...]
October 30th, 2011 Calls for a radical rethink of the political and economic system from the “HBOS whistleblower”, Paul Moore, could not have come at a more appropriate time. Moore — who was personally fired by HBOS chief executive Sir James Crosby in November 2004 after seeking to warn the bank’s board that its sales-mad [...]
October 5th, 2011 David Cameron displayed an astonishing lack of understanding of the banking sector in his interview with Sarah Montague on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme on Tuesday morning (as I’m afraid did Sarah, given her blinkered obsession with “bonuses”). If Cameron’s stumbling performance was due to ignorance, then it’s simply inexcusable. If [...]
October 3rd, 2011 So it was endemic fraud and the collapse of the rule of law—not global imbalances or government and regulatory failure—that destroyed the financial system. In a keynote speech given at the Post Keynes conference in Denmark earlier this year, the Keynesian economist James K. Galbraith of the L.B.J. School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at [...]
September 27th, 2011 There has been much speculation that the “trader” who appeared on the BBC News channel yesterday may be prankster, and perhaps even a member of the Yes Men. If true, this would be a huge embarrassment for the BBC. Self-styled “independent trader” Alessio Rastani created quite a stir with yesterday’s astonishing interview, [...]
August 11th, 2011 When my ex-boss Roger Neill launched the Centre for Creativity at City University London in winter of 2009, he staged a “Big City Brainstorm” which pulled together a diverse group of people – including several from the City of London. Roger and other people behind the CfC wanted to find ways of addressing [...]
August 4th, 2011 It must have seemed a good idea at the time. The Smurfs were welcomed by the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street last Friday, July 29th, to ring the opening bell. This may have been a good move for Sony Pictures, which has a movie to plug but it has turned [...]
June 26th, 2011 In this RSA Animate, Professor David Harvey examines the causes of the global financial crisis and suggests it is time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live in a system that is responsible, just, and humane. Whilst I do not subscribe to Professor Harvey’s underlying Marxist conclusions [...]