We are now three years into the granddaddy of all financial crises, yet it has still not yet been given a name. Other crashes and catastrophes have a handy handle – the Russian debt crisis or dotcom bubble – but what should we call this one.
(more…)

With hindsight, Bradford & Bingley obviously had no value when the bank collapsed in 2008 so there is no compensation for shareholders. But why were the owners of shares asked to inject new capital just before the crash?
(more…)

The public-sector job cuts have started.
(more…)

If you want to know what Britain will look like after the election, look at Greece now. Or if that seems too far away, look at Ireland. The politicians must now introduce the austerity measures that they were too scared to mention during their campaigning.
(more…)

Gordon Brown’s days as UK prime minister may be numbered but he will leave a legacy for the inheritor of 10 Downing Street. The bank shares he bought amid against much opposition will go some way to squaring the country’s finances in future years.
(more…)

Are these overgeared pyramids really the people to be buying Britain’s banks?
(more…)

Travellers expect their airlines to foot the bill for their enforced grounding. Airlines want governments to compensate them for their losses. Where are governments meant to find the money? Taxing travellers, presumably.
(more…)

In the United States the miscreant Northern Rock executives would gave received jail sentences longer than their life expectancy. In China they might have been executed. But even a £500,000 fine is exceptional in Britain, which is only just taking financial collapse seriously.
(more…)

The accounting watchdog has ordered Ernst & Young to explain its role in how Lehman Brothers hid $50bn of debts, but the regulator has a conflict. It is trying to increase the choice of audit firms so cannot do anything that reduces the current Big Four to just three.
(more…)

The time to set up a rescue fund is during the fat years, not the thin years when they are needed. That’s why it is sensible to think of such funds now: by the time the wrangling over their format is finalised we may again have the financial fat to fill them ready for the next thin period.
(more…)