Is the Bank of England governor being run by a wily banker or a fanatical economist going for broke? Mervyn King’s attempt to increase the quantitative easing programme to £200bn looks like a losing gambler doubling his stakes.
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Now that it’s clear the government’s car scrappage scheme has stimulated sales, everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon with state subsidies for everything from fridges to washing machines. But will car sales stay high, or has the £2,000 hand-out simply pulled autumn sales into summer?
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Government should be a lender of last resort, not first resort. That is why the state was right to offer help to refinance Jaguar Land Rover – but on terms so onerous the motor group chose the private sector instead.
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Banks should name their highest-paid non-directors, according to Treasury minister Lord Myners. Why? To better inform shareholders? So that customers can switch bank? Or merely to satisfy some prurient public interest?
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When the recession is over, the great debate will not be on what caused it – there is no great argument on that – but on whether quantitative easing helped end it.
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Who says you can’t fool all the people all the time? Aviva (LON:AV) has managed to fool everybody over its dividend – including, unfortunately, itself.

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The government’s car scrappage scheme certainly seems to have provided a boost for vehicle sales, but who exactly is buying? Dare I say it, but could someone be on the fiddle?
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The debate now is not whether to cut pay but how to do it. British Airways asked its staff to work for no pay; now the CBI is proposing people are paid for doing no work.
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Stephen Hester is set to become Britain’s first £10m nationalised industry boss and all he has to do is double the share price of Royal Bank of Scotland. In a bear market and from a bombed out value, that surely can’t be that hard?
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If 164 Lloyds TSB bank branches were being closed it would hardly be headline news. Axing the whole Cheltenham & Gloucester chain has attracted undue attention, but there would be no point in the HBoS merger if there is not rationalisation. (See LON:LLOY).
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