The Treasury should not grieve too greatly at companies such as J Sainsbury (LON:SBRY) paying early bonuses to avoid the new top income tax rate. By paying during the 2009/10 tax-year the exchequer will receive 40 per cent tax now rather than 50 per cent later, and time can be more valuable than money.
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Perhaps it was just a pre-election publicity stunt, but the prime minister celebrated International Women’s Day by threatening action against companies that do not put more women on their boards. That’s rich from a man whose 22-member cabinet contains just four females.
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Profits warnings are common during recessions but the oddest seen so far comes from Goldshield Group. The new owner has looked at the books and said that for several years the pills company’s profits may have been understated. Yes, understated.
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Should a company remain independent when almost two-thirds of its shareholders want to sell it? The business secretary thinks so. Lord Mandelson has added his name to those who think the minority should outvote the majority on takeovers.
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Supermarkets are probably the most competitive business in the UK. Why then are they being lumbered with an ombudsman, a new supplier code and all the compliance bureaucracy that goes with them?
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A report detailing the gap between Britain’s rich and poor has been met with universal shock and promises to narrow the divide. But why? Isn’t inequality not only inevitable but desirable?
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So now we know the price of principles. Less than 10 per cent. For an extra  £1bn from Kraft Foods, Cadbury’s (LON:CBRY) directors have melted like Dairy Milk on a warm day and crumbled like a Flake bar.
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Banks have done few favours for small companies since the credit crunch. Now the government – which has no love of banks either, having ruined the national accounts to rescue them – is looking for ways to cut out the traditional lenders.
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Instead of giving City shareholders a ticking off for selling UK companies abroad, Lord Mandelson might like to consider the benefits of sorting out the country’s financial problems by realising assets. Foreign takeovers go a long way to balancing our national books.
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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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