Business Comment

Hamish McRae: Lower interest rates are no magic bullet, but given time they will work

Another month, another Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee meeting – and another interest rate cut? Well, we will learn today, but if we don't get a quarter-point now, expect it to come through in June instead. The path is clearly down, with rates at 4 per cent by December now on the cards and maybe even lower.

Inside Business Comment

Jeremy Warner's Outlook: With the rates dilemma never more acute, the Bank doesn't know which way to go

Friday, 9 May 2008

You don't need to wait until next week's publication of the quarterly Inflation Report to know why the Bank of England yesterday left interest rates on hold. Inflationary pressures are refusing to abate, and whereas further out a fast slowing economy should cause prices to ease, it looks perverse to be cutting interest rates into a worsening medium term inflation outlook.

Jeremy Warner's Outlook: Carphone faces up to DSG International

Friday, 9 May 2008

Watch out DSG International. As if things were not already bad enough for the Dixons, Currys and PC World retailer, here comes Best Buy, the "big box" consumer electronics giant from the US, to attack the soft underbelly of the European market. What's more, it has wisely chosen to launch its assault in partnership with Charles Dunstone of Carphone Warehouse fame, one of Britain's most canny and successful entrepreneurs.

Jeremy Warner's Outlook: Currie in the frame for FSA chairmanship

Friday, 9 May 2008

Decision time approaches in the contest to become the next chairman of the Financial Services Authority – if indeed the search for what is regarded as one of the least enviable top jobs in the City can be described as a "contest". A shortlist of just two is said to be before the Chancellor.

Jeremy Warner's Outlook: Ministers cannot win case for green taxes if they won't apply them to green causes

Thursday, 8 May 2008

It is little surprise that Defra has so firmly rejected proposals from the European Commission that revenue derived from auctioning emission permits be earmarked for spending on climate change initiatives. As on everything to do with the growing burden of business taxes, ministers have got their heads buried in the sand.

Jeremy Warner's Outlook: Business must again make case for Europe

Thursday, 8 May 2008

The euro is coming up for a series of 10th anniversaries. Understandably, there was little fanfare for yesterday's – the 10th anniversary of the Council of Ministers formally giving the single currency the go-ahead – especially in Britain, where the euro long ago vanished as a mainstream issue of public debate, or even of public interest beyond the shocking realisation of how much this year's Continental holiday is going to cost.

Jeremy Warner's Outlook: A knighthood for Glaxo's JP, please

Thursday, 8 May 2008

Sometimes support comes from the unlikeliest of sources. While British-born bosses queue to take their companies overseas, citing oppressive levels of corporate tax, the Frenchman who runs GlaxoSmithKline says he is staying put. Gordon Brown, he insists, understands globalisation better than anyone and is more than prepared to listen to industry's concerns.

Jeremy Warner's Outlook: With utility bills likely to rise another 30-40 per cent, oil still has the power to shock

Wednesday, 7 May 2008

Oil prices again hit new records yesterday, making the once implausible Goldman Sachs forecast of a "super-cycle" that would drive them to $200 a barrel or more seem alarmingly credible.

Jeremy Warner's Outlook: Not much of a Woolf at the BAE door

Wednesday, 7 May 2008

Can the arms trade ever be given an ethical face? It seems a contradiction in terms, yet that hasn't stopped BAE Systems, stung by allegations of corruption over the Al Yamamah arms contract with Saudi Arabia, from commissioning Lord Woolf, a former Lord Chief Justice, to examine its conduct and suggest areas for improvement.

Stephen King: Give globalisation a human face

Tuesday, 6 May 2008

Most economists believe that globalisation is a good thing. By breaking down barriers between nations, globalisation leads to a more efficient allocation of labour and capital. Greater efficiency implies higher output and higher output, in turn, makes us all better off. That, at least, is the theory. Globalisation, however, incorporates a core paradox. It reduces income and wealth inequalities between nations yet it seems to increase these inequalities within nations.