Pounded down

Peter Oborne has an important column this morning on just how seriously the option of printing more money is being taken by the Bank of England and the government. But what caught my eye is the fall in sterling that Oborne details:

“This systematic debauchery of the country’s finances has caused sterling to collapse. In just three days this week — Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday — the pound fell by 4 per cent. It has now collapsed by an average of 23 per cent against rival currencies over the past 12

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Closing hedge funds

Hedge funds are closing down in record numbers as disastrous returns and heavy investor redemptions continue to savage the high-rolling sector.

I've no doubt that this is true but we need to distinguish between two very different things.

The first is that some hedge funds have made bad investment decisions and are thus closing down....their clients don't seem to want to leave their money with them any more. This could quite obviously be accelerated by the current events.

The second is the more structural change in the market place. Hedge funds are a pretty new innovation and they've...

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Appalling idea of the day

Melanie Reid makes what has to be the most absurd and appalling suggestion in The Times this morning. Yes, even in these days of a Labour Government floundering in an economic crisis.

What we must do, I suggest, is introduce a new concept of universal compulsory volunteering. (As practised in the Army: “Right lads, we need three volunteers - you, you and you.”) Everyone aged 12 to 85 would have to devote a minimum of 12 days a year to the service of others - causes of any kind, as long as they are worthwhile. It might be...

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A dangerous precedent?

So, is bailing out Jaguar an urgent necessity or a dangerous precedent?  According to the papers this morning, Business ministers - marshalled, of course, by Peter Mandelson - are veering towards the former viewpoint, while the Treasury veers towards the latter.  If so, I'm with HMT on this one.  Although Mandy warned yesterday that the Government doesn't have an "open chequebook", the framework he's created - i.e. as Robert Peston puts it, "he would only save businesses that are of strategic importance to our economy and would be sound in...

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This Post Office Thing

I have to admit that I'm getting very tired of the reporting on this part privatisation of the Post Office. OK, I admit, I've a political axe to grind here but it's the same thing that was going on a month back when we were all snarling about the closures of rural post offices.

Try Seumas this morning or our own Peter from yesterday. Lots of discussion about Mandelson, whether the sell off is a good idea or not, the internal to the UK political machinations. But no mention at all of the reason why we're even discussing...

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