February 28th, 2011 Charles Ferguson’s movie about the financial crisis, Inside Job, released in the US in October 2010, richly deserved to win ‘Best Documentary’ at last night’s Oscars. Amid all the flimflam about actresses’ dresses and the other flaky stuff one’s subjected to around Oscars’ time, the Academy Award for Inside Job is an […]
February 27th, 2011 “The greatest evil is not done in those sordid dens of evil that Dickens loved to paint but is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clear, carpeted, warmed, well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their […]
February 24th, 2011 Stephen Hester, who has the unenviable task of rebuilding RBS after Sir Fred Goodwin’s eight-year reign ended so ignominiously in October 2008 — always comes across as as a measured and likable performer in media interviews. This one with Channel 4 News’s economics editor Faisal Islam is no different. In sharp contrast […]
February 21st, 2011 The Bank of England’s Andy Haldane gave a fresh perspective on the causes of the global financial crisis and ran through the bank’s favoured cures at a recent lecture he gave to the Irish think tank the Institute of International and European Affairs. Haldane, the BoE’s executive director of financial stability, who […]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: February 20th, 2011 A CORPORATE whistleblower’s eight-year battle over his claims that Scottish Widows policyholders were deprived of £1.5 billion during the Lloyds takeover is to be the subject of an English high court hearing. Graham Senior-Milne, a former internal auditor at Lloyds TSB and Scottish Widows, is […]
February 18th, 2011 “Greed, greed, and more fecking greed.” This video was available on YouTube last year. Then it disappeared. But it is now back up. It is well worth a watch, although some might find the language a little strong. Thanks to Chris Skinner of the Financial Services Club blog for alerting me to […]
February 15th, 2011 Here’s edited highlights of the (London) Times’ exclusive story about General Petraeus’s imminent departure from Afghanistan. There seems to have been a bit of a power struggle:– General David Petraeus, the most celebrated American soldier of his generation, is to leave his post as commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan. […]
February 14th, 2011 In episode 120 of the Keiser Report, hosts Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert expose the myopia of mainstream media and mainstream investors. Here they explore the likely impact of anthropomorphic global warming and quantitative easing on the global economy. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke is, once again, lambasted as the world’s financial terrorist-in-chief.
February 12th, 2011 By Adam Ramsay, who blogs at Bright Green Scotland. “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting”. I was recently reminded of Milan Kundera’s famous quote. And how apt. Because more than anything else, this government is hoping that we forget. They are praying that we don’t […]
February 9th, 2011 Dominic Morris, who took over as director of public policy at Lloyds Banking Group in December 2009, appears to be one of the best connected men in Britain. A former private secretary to both Margaret Thatcher and John Major, Morris sent out an email to all his contacts to let them know […]