Queen of Shops Mary Portas has proved one thing with her study of Britain’s ailing high streets: there is no obvious answer. More street markets may increase footfall but they may also steal customers from shops that pay rents and rates.
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How do you pay for a £20bn airport in the Thames estuary? Sell the old one at Heathrow. There’s one snag though: the reason that land round Heathrow is so valuable is because there’s an airport there: close it down and the value collapses.
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The concept of a job for life has gone: is home-ownership going the same way? And does it matter if owner-occupation levels fall in future?
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When so many foreign companies want to list their shares in London, why is an English football club looking to float in Singapore? Manchester United prefers to play away rather than face a home crowd.
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Europe needs to learn the law of averages. If junk-bond Greece thinks it can unite with AAA-rated Germany to raise new capital it will find that the credit rating – and the cost of the finance - is somewhere between.
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If gold could have ruby anniversary, it is now. It is 40 years since the gold standard was abolished on 15 August 1971 and bullion has celebrated with a record price of more than $1,700 an ounce. Surely the next move must be down?
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Defaulting on its debt will not help the Greeks. What the country has to do is live within in means and bankruptcy achieves nothing if the profligacy continues. Rioting in the streets, striking or changing government will alter nothing.
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Companies are at last sufficiently confidant to start reducing the cash they hoarded during the recession. But too many are making the mistake of buying-in their own shares instead of paying out the surplus funds as dividends.
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After 24 hours of bad publicity, Gary Hoffman has agreed to forfeit the £500,000 he was to receive from Northern Rock while on garden leave. Quite rightly: otherwise he could have been in line for three jackpot payouts from the nationalised bank.
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Directors used to fear disruption of their business from concerted trade union action. Tomorrow’s threat could be from investors using the same tactics. The new stewardship code signed by most top British investing institutions allows them to gang up on companies to impose their demands.
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