Matthew Lynn is a financial columnist and author of ‘Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis’ and ‘The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031’
We might have thought Trussonomics was dead and buried for a generation after its author’s short-lived premiership last autumn. But all of a sudden it has a high-profile, if slightly unexpected, convert: Sir Keir Starmer. In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, Starmer was sounding a lot like Kwasi Kwarteng last
Hollywood will be backing him en masse. The major newspapers will be rooting to put him back in the White House. And most of corporate America, in between filling in the forms for the next round of ‘green subsidies’, will be quietly hoping for another four years of lavish spending and protectionism to keep out
It was, admittedly, not quite as thrilling as an action sequence from Call of Duty. Even so, the statement put out by Bobby Kotick, chief executive of US video game publisher Activision, following the UK’s bizarre decision to block the company’s acquisition by Microsoft was about as bloodthirsty as any ever put out by a
The chip maker ARM decided against listing its shares in London, despite plenty of arm twisting from the government. The building materials group CRH decided last month that New York was a better place for its equity to be traded, leaving the FTSE for good. The mining giant BHP has moved its listing from London
The director-general has been forced to stand down amid allegations of misconduct. There are allegations against others inside the organisation of harassment and even rape. And a culture of bullying and misogyny has been revealed. It is just possible that the CBI could be in worse shape. It could have been engaged in satanic rituals, perhaps, or
It could be next month. It might be next week. Or it might well happen over the weekend. But today’s collapse in the share price of Deutsche Bank, and the huge rise in the cost of insuring its debt against default, means it is probably only a matter of time before there’s an intervention. It
He has plenty of money. He earns a substantial amount from his investments. And he gets a City firm to prepare his returns rather than doing them himself at close to midnight after a couple of fines from HMRC like the rest of us. In truth, there were not a lot of surprises when the
It would be enough to buy Tesco twice over. Or Barclays, with almost enough change left over to buy Lloyds as well. Even by the standards of the financial markets 50 billion Swiss francs (£45 billion) is a lot of money. And yet, as it turns out, it is not enough to save Credit Suisse.
It will be yet another bailout for failed bankers. It will simply encourage yet more risk-taking in the City. It only impacts a tiny number of tech companies and venture capital funds, and anyway we can’t afford it. As the London arm of Silicon Valley Bank – which has gone spectacularly bust over the weekend
It would have been bad enough if just one major British company had decided to list its shares in New York rather than London in the space of a single week. But two? First it was the chip-maker Arm, one of the UK’s very few major technology companies. Then came the building materials giant CRH.
Our growth rate has been miserable. We have not invested enough. And over thirteen years the Conservatives have cut spending too much, damaged our trading relationships with our major neighbours, and made a mess of the tax system. These were Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s major criticism of Tory economics today in a speech in which
One of the major exchanges has gone spectacularly bust. Billions of investor’s money has been lost. There have been allegations of widespread fraud, and one of the biggest corporate trials in modern history is set to dominate the business pages over the rest of the year. The collapse of the FTX, and the arrest of
We are not leading the world in deregulation, or in creating new ‘green industries’. We certainly don’t lead in tax-cutting, or innovation, or technology. Still, there is one respect in which the British economy can claim to be ahead of everyone else. Rising prices. When the world is caught up in an inflationary spiral, the
It would raise the money needed to fix the health service. It would make sure the burden of paying for Covid fell on the broadest shoulders. And because it would do little more than bring the UK back into line with its major industrial rivals, it wouldn’t even have any impact on our competitiveness. When
It was self-indulgent, whinging. Dull in places while completely batty in others. All the usual insults will be hurled at former prime minister Liz Truss for her essay defending her short time in Downing Street, published today. Perhaps it would be better for her to retire gracefully from public life and let some ambitious young
It is ‘obscene’ and ‘an insult to working families’, according to the TUC. If there was one thing more predictable than the doubling of profits of the energy giant Shell – given that the stuff it sells has soared in price over the last year – it was the storm of protest that it ran
It will be a charter for fraudsters. It will usher in an open-season mindset for money launderers and criminals. And it will drag down the reputation of the City. There will be plenty of critics of today’s government decision to push forward with a regulated cryptocurrency market in London. In the wake of the FTX
Davos was back with a bang this week for the first full-scale winter conference since the pandemic. And yet, the occasion marked something more significant than just a week of power breakfasts and champagne receptions. ‘Davos Man’ is back in charge of the global economy – and for better or worse everyone better get used
It will cover a generous pay rise for the nurses. It will bail out the NHS. It will put the public finances back on track, and, even better, it will make the country more equal. The Labour party has a simple solution to most of the problems the UK faces. It will abolish ‘non-dom’ status,
We haven’t lowered tariffs on food. We haven’t done many new trade deals, and certainly not one with the United States. Hardly any rules and regulations have been repealed, and if anyone thought it was going to help fix the NHS then the winter crisis will have disappointed them. Six years since we voted to
