1. The Treasury hedge fund

HM Treasury today becomes perhaps the biggest hedge fund in the UK: it is investing £25.5bn in Royal Bank of Scotland shares and £5.7bn in Lloyds shares, financed almost exclusively by borrowing. It's probably quite good business. If we're past...

02/11/2009 | 137 Hits | Read more...

2. Tories bash the rich

George Osborne's speech to the Conservative Party conference contained a striking number of eye-catching proposals. What he appeared in the round to be proposing was a programme of national sacrifice to reduce debt and create a culture of saving....

06/10/2009 | 182 Hits | Read more...

3. The future is a merger

It has started, as it inevitably would: the process of companies trying to reduce their costs as we come out of recession by merging with businesses in their own industries - or what are known as in-market mergers. Today we've had the announcement...

07/09/2009 | 73 Hits | Read more...

4. The real G20 breakthrough

Just out of interest, which do you think is more important: limiting how much bankers are paid, or strengthening banks so that they are better able to absorb losses on loans and investments and less likely to run out of cash when creditors demand...

07/09/2009 | 74 Hits | Read more...

5. The end of a retailing era

In the first three months of 2009, Marks & Spencer's sales in the UK - where it's the clothing market leader - fell by 0.3% and its profit margin shrank by 1.75 percentage points. Which is why the pre-tax profits for M&S's last...

31/03/2009 | 109 Hits | Read more...