Posts Tagged ‘

vince cable

’

UK GDP *pass*

Posted by Neil Hume on Jul 26 10:04. Comment.

The preliminary estimate of second quarter UK GDP is out, and it’s bang in line with expectations.

And the ONS says quarter-on-quarter growth could have been as high as 0.7 per cent without several “special factors”. More…

All we are saying, is give Murdoch a chance

Posted by Neil Hume on Jan 25 08:15. Comment.

Amazing.

Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, has decided to bend over backwards to help News Corporation win control of BSkyB.

Even though the media regulator Ofcom says the £12.2bn buyout should be referred to the Competition Commission for a six month review, More…

Cable guy unplugged

Posted by Neil Hume on Dec 22 09:19. Comment.

The market has delievered its verdict on Cablegate (Vincegate?) by marking shares in BSkyB higher on Wednesday morning:

That move reflects the fact that Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, More…

The Sky’s the limit for Vince

Posted by Joseph Cotterill on Dec 21 16:01. Comment.

What price News Corp’s bid for BSkyB?

What price a new UK Business Secretary?

You can threaten to bring down the government and get away with it. Declaring war on media barons, however?

That’s a big no-no. More…

Defence of the realm – Chip & Pin edition

Posted by Neil Hume on Dec 20 10:57. Comment.

First yoghurts and now seemingly chip and pin machines are vital to France’s national interest, according to reports out of Paris on Monday morning.

Les Echos claims the French government is opposed to the sale of Ingenico, More…

Dear Vince…

Posted by Neil Hume on Oct 12 09:30. Comment.

News Corp’s little bundle of joy

Posted by Joseph Cotterill on Sep 13 09:03. Comment.

We’ve said before that getting this deal done wouldn’t happen any time soon, even in Europe.

But there are signs that News Corp’s bid to buy out BSkyB might end up ruffling feathers closer to home — and this time could end up getting it blocked altogether. More…

Bashing Bob

Posted by Joseph Cotterill on Sep 08 08:56. Comment.

It’s tough being a Bob — or, a study in modern banker-bashing.

We said on Tuesday that Bob Diamond’s appointment as Barclays’ next chief executive was going to be read as a threat to the government over plans to force the bank to break up — since Bob could shift Barclays to America first, More…

Vince Volcker

Posted by Neil Hume on Jun 14 11:20. Comment.

As far as the post-crisis cottage industry in ‘the future of banking’ reports goes, here’s one that looks like it’s going places — in the UK, at least.

As the FT reports on Monday:
[UK Chancellor] More…

The UK banking cartel

Posted by Neil Hume on Apr 21 09:35. Comment.

There has been a profound structural change in the UK banking industry following the credit crunch. As new entrants have disappeared, the six big  lenders have strengthened their grip. They now control 85 per cent of the mortgage market and have regained significant pricing power. More…

“Eaten alive by investment bankers”

Posted by Sam Jones on Apr 17 08:16. Comment.

In fact, the quotation is worth citation in full:

I witnessed trusting and naive provincial building society executives and non-executives, who had no real understanding of securitisation or structured finance or any other aspect of the workings of global capital markets, More…

Vince Cable, loony

Posted by Sam Jones on Oct 31 13:39. Comment.

The terms of BARCs recapitalisation plan this morning were certainly odd. But as far as we were concerned, they were odd in the sense that it made more sense for BARC to have exploited the British taxpayer’s lower offer. More…