1. We'll pay for banks to be virtuous

I've talked before about the fallacy of composition arising from all banks discovering virtue and prudence at the same time. If all banks increase their holdings of liquid assets, shrink their reliance on wholesale finance and lend less relative...

06/10/2009 | 649 Hits | Read more...

2. What future for media and journalism?

I presented the Richard Dunn Memorial Lecture at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival. Here's the text. It is an honour to be giving a lecture in memory of Richard Dunn. I never met him but he was - by all accounts - both...

29/08/2009 | 141 Hits | Read more...

3. What RBS's results say about QE

If you want to know why quantitative easing may not be working - in the sense that it hasn't led to a conspicuous increase in lending - this morning's financial results from Royal Bank of Scotland give a pretty good clue. I'll explain.   In...

07/08/2009 | 152 Hits | Read more...

4. What was HBOS doing?

Lloyds Banking Group's first half results are witness to the quite astonishing risks taken by HBOS, the bank that Lloyds agreed to buy and rescue - in very controversial circumstances - in the autumn of last year. It was HBOS's business loans -...

05/08/2009 | 149 Hits | Read more...

5. Who'll be shot when banks misbehave?

As the Treasury select committee says, the "who-gets-fired" test is a pretty good way of ascertaining whether there are clear lines of responsibility in any organisation or group of organisations. That said, most of our personal experience would...

31/07/2009 | 126 Hits | Read more...