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.
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President Obama’s call to make banks shed risky trading – effectively a new Glass-Steagall Act – is not off the UK agenda, despite being dismissed by government ministers. The architect of the plan, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, is coming to the House of Commons to outline his plan.
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The government’s losses from Black Wednesday are legion, but already quantitative easing has cost us more than that doomed attempt to save sterling in 1992. The QE losses have reached £8bn and the Bank of England hasn’t yet started to unwind the programme.
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If a 50 per cent tax on bonuses is not enough to stop bankers boosting their own pay, what does it take?
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What better monument to financial folly than the tower opened in Dubai at the start of 2010?
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Commercial property values are rising again and no-one should be more pleased than the owners of Britain’s banks – ie, us. Balance sheet write-offs could soon be replaced by write-backs.
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Let the banks pay their inflated bonuses – but force them to back each £1bn awarded with another £1bn of new capital. It could be a better brake on bonuses than a windfall tax on the banks or higher income tax for the bankers.
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Nevermind that the Bank of England kept secret for a year its massive loan to HBoS and RBS (LON:RBS), why on earth did it choose to break its silence on the day Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) announces its record rights issue?
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If banks shouldn’t be “too big to fail” how small must they be before we allow them to collapse? It’s the question the Bank of England’s governor must answer.
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“Is it time for a new windfall tax on banks?” asked this blog back in the summer. It seems so. The Westminster press briefing is that the chancellor is considering a banks tax in his pre-budget statement.
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