“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.
(more…)

If land is valuable because they aren’t making it any more, the value of equities ought to be about to plunge. The markets are set to be flooded with shares in coming years.
(more…)

If the Financial Services Authority is to disappear after the general election, then chairman Lord Turner seems determined to destroy the financial services industry first. Not only does he propose taxing it into oblivion, he thinks Britain would benefit from being less dependent on the sector.
(more…)

The debate over top pay is not only whether bankers should be capped when footballers are not. Any company offering incentive payments to its salesforce should be wondering if it has got the formula right.
(more…)

The UK government has spent a fortune of our money rescuing the banking sector. Doesn’t it seem reasonable to recover the money from the sector itself. Is it time for a new windfall tax on banks?
(more…)

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?
(more…)

Nevermind whether the government wanted Sir Victor Blank to chair Lloyds Banking Group; why would he want to head a nationalised industry?
(more…)

ABNAmro and HBoS have both brought down the banks that bought them but they are completely different. Royal Bank of Scotland’s mistake was to overpay for a good bank; Lloyds’ error was to buy a lousy bank.
(more…)

There is something perverse about a recession-hit company being bullied by a bank whose own finances are in a far worse state. When it comes to renegotiating loans, borrowers should exploit the banks’ weaknesses.
(more…)

Is the corporate sector going to hell in a handcart – or has the bond market misjudged the risk of default? Unless business goes bust en masse, bonds yielding 10 per cent look a good buy and a bad sell.
(more…)