Category Archives: Banking Reform
Does the Bank of England make decisions that benefit one sector of society over everyone else?
The Bank of England was originally formed by a group of bankers who would balance the sum of their transfers between each other’s banks at the end of the trading day to reduce the number of transactions that would occur … Read More
The Europhoria after last nights Euro summit looks overdone to me
Overnight we have seen yet another claimed deal to save the Euro made just in time for Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti’s “We have a week to save the Euro” deadline. Expectations were not high before the summit at least … Read More
What has happened to the UK’s housing, mortgage and banking markets?
Today I wish to draw your attention to the latest data from the British Bankers Association. And no I do not mean their excuses for the manipulation of the Libor (London Inter Bank Offered Rate) benchmark by Barclays Bank. For those … Read More
The Euro fantasies of Herman Van Rompuy collide with economic reality in Italy and Greece
Yet again we find ourselves looking at a Euro area that is in another crisis,although in truth this is one long crisis now that never really goes away. And yet again we are told that a summit will fix things with all … Read More
The Bank for Central Bankers (BIS) admits its doubts about whether they do know what they are doing
Yesterday whilst much attention was focused on England versus Italy in the Euro 2012 football tournament there was some support for one of my themes. Before I move on good luck to Italy as they move to the semi-finals.And as … Read More
Why bank downgrades by ratings agencies may mean nothing at all as we see another market failure
Today opens with banks centre stage yet again. It hardly seems possible these days to keep them out of the headlines! Indeed if you used their appearances on the non-business pages of the newspapers and media outlets you would have … Read More
The UK Monetary Policy Committee seems more worried about the banks than the real economy
Last night the G-20 summit ended and the world’s leaders started to depart from the Mexican tourist destination of Los Cabos. As ever they issued a communique and I would like to draw your attention to this sentence in it which … Read More
Financial regulation: With Griffith-Jones’ appointment, Britain keeps it in the family
I was surprised and exasperated to learn last week that the UK government has rubber stamped the appointment of John Griffith-Jones, the senior partner of KPMG, as chairman-designate of the Financial Conduct Authority, one of the two financial regulators that … Read More
The Bank of England should be ashamed of itself on three counts today and pleased on one
Last night both the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osbourne and the Governor of the Bank of England gave their annual Mansion House speeches. However something was already very wrong and let me illustrate it by a conversation I have … Read More
Refining and improving Adam Posen’s proposed plan for credit easing. Reform our banks now!
Yesterday Adam Posen who is a member of the UK’s Monetary Policy Committee gave a speech suggesting a change of course for the Bank of England. This speech was a refinement of ideas that he had first put forward in … Read More
