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David Prosser: Champagne all round as the banks get back to business

Comment

Inside Business Comment

Sean O'Grady: Who'll be the next victim? Take your pick

Saturday, 28 November 2009

Comment

Sean O'Grady: So what on earth is a safe investment now?

Saturday, 28 November 2009

Whether Dubai defaults on its debts or not, the episode serves as a stark reminder to markets with short memories that there is no such thing as safe sovereign or quasi-sovereign debt. History, a much-neglected discipline among market participants, tell us that nations have more often reneged on their obligations than not, and spectacular examples occur about once a decade.

Stephen Foley: Retailers relax as shoppers return on Black Friday

Saturday, 28 November 2009

US Outlook: If you are the head of a retail chain in the US, you'll have been talking for months now about the continuing cautious state of the consumer, the prudent approach you are taking to planning for the holiday season and your limited expectations for the coming, critical weeks of trading. Don't be fooled.

Stephen Foley: The end of a petty quest for revenge

Saturday, 28 November 2009

US Outlook: The fact that Hank Greenberg is getting back a Persian rug and some photos of him meeting Chinese leaders, as part of his ceasefire with AIG, tells you all you need to know about the insurance industry's most pathetic feud.

Hamish McRae: Dubai crisis will prompt investors to look critically at sovereign debt

Friday, 27 November 2009

Economic Life: Dubai made the classic mistake that the maturity of the debt did not matter as it could always be rolled over.

James Moore: Water boys the winners with Ofwat?

Friday, 27 November 2009

Outlook Northumbrian Water's response to Ofwat's final decision on how much it can squeeze out of its customers over the next five years was a really quite outstanding piece of corporate verbal diarrhoea which said absolutely nothing.

James Moore: Mr Bolton with Chinese characteristics

Friday, 27 November 2009

Outlook When Anthony Bolton speaks, it usually pays to listen. Quite literally, given the way Fidelity's Special Situations fund performed when he was in charge of it.

David Prosser: How to hold the bankers to account

Thursday, 26 November 2009

Outlook It is difficult to find much to disagree with in the recommendations made today by Sir David Walker for reform of the way banks are run. Yet those who hoped Sir David's report, commissioned in the wake of the worst financial crisis in living memory, would be a watershed in banking accountability and disclosure will be disappointed. There's plenty of worthy stuff in there, but not much drama.

David Prosser: Dubai slides further into financial crisis

Thursday, 26 November 2009

Outlook All is not well in Dubai, once a gleaming advertisement for the global economic boom. Dubai World, the state-owned conglomerate that includes the property developer Nakheel (responsible for the Palm Jumeirah) and DP World (the buyer of P&O's ports business), wants creditors to give it a six-month standstill on its $4bn of debt. Yesterday's announcement of that request sent much of the Middle East into a panic, with the cost of insuring against Dubai defaulting on its debts rising by a third almost immediately.

David Prosser: This bank error is not in your favour

Wednesday, 25 November 2009

Outlook So it is D-day for the banks, from whom an enormous weight could be lifted this morning, if the Supreme Court rules that the Office of Fair Trading has been exceeding its powers by investigating their unauthorised borrowing charges. At a stroke, such a ruling would end the campaign, lead by The Independent, for compensation for millions of people overcharged since 2001.

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• Christina Patterson: Very nice - but forgiveness is overrated

Sometimes, as Lydon sang, in his post Sex Pistols band, 'anger is an energy.'

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The enquiry already seems like a sideline as the queues dwindle.

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