Any lingering doubts about the devastating impact of the coronavirus on Britain’s households and economy over the coming months were last night fully erased by the Prime Minister’s address. In effectively locking down our high streets, the leisure industry and all social venues and contact, he has also shuttered the economy. The British people have … Read more
Gordon Brown has most loudly declared what needs doing, but still the international response to the coronavirus crisis is flaccid and in danger of blowing up the whole post-Second World War economic order. For those who might have forgotten, Bretton Woods in 1944 and the creation of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank were … Read more
Yesterday it was made clear that Boris Johnson’s Government is going for broke. It is sparing no effort as it battles to stop the coronavirus sending Britain’s hardwon prosperity over a cliff and turning what is now an inevitable recession into a depression of a kind not seen since the 1930s, with large and enduring … Read more
ALEX BRUMMER: Andrew Bailey’s potent cocktail is bigger and bolder than anything done by the Fed or the ECB By Alex Brummer for the Daily Mail Published: 21:51 GMT, 19 March 2020 | Updated: 22:12 GMT, 19 March 2020 One of the remarkable aspects of the near three years of uncertainty over the UK’s departure … Read more
As the Covid-19 crisis erupted, few would have predicted that central banks would end up front of stage. The ongoing volatility on financial markets has given them a key role. In his third day as Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey displayed the assertiveness which he never quite discovered in his previous job … Read more
The scale of the Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Covid-19 rescue package for Britain’s hard-pressed businesses — big corporations and smaller enterprises — is startling in both its scale and ambition. At its core is a promise to help the bigger corporations survive the crisis with £330 bn of easy credit from the Bank of England that … Read more
Retail never leaves the spotlight at present. The coronavirus always was going to highlight the corporate blunders of the past. Dixons Carphone is doubtless speaking the truth when it says that its ruthless decision to close all 531 Carphone stores was not virus-related. But one has to ask whether chief executive Alex Baldock would have … Read more
Andrew Bailey’s first day as governor of the Bank of England saw a promise of ‘prompt action’ to deal with the financial fallout from the Covid-19 crisis. His pledge is a fresh signal that all is not well with the global monetary plumbing. The American central bank, the Federal Reserve, has intervened twice since last … Read more
The folly of serial sell-offs: Doing the splits can leave the mother ship vulnerable, says ALEX BRUMMER By Alex Brummer for the Daily Mail Published: 21:51 GMT, 16 January 2020 | Updated: 21:51 GMT, 16 January 2020 At first blush, there looks to be very little in common at FTSE 100 quoted firms ABF, Pearson … Read more
The current crash on financial markets feels very different to those of the past. Even though the fallout for ordinary citizens from the 2008 banking crisis devastated incomes, it was not a matter of life and death in the Western democracies. Social safety nets, and the fact that most who live in developed countries enjoy … Read more