John Kay

There is no simple answer to the question: “How should capital gains be taxed?” So there are as many different regimes as there are national tax systems and they are often, as in Britain, in a state of seemingly endless flux.

The assertion that depositors in Kaupthing and Landsbanki have a claim on ordinary people who were too prudent to put money there, or did not have any money to deposit in the first place, has little justice or legal basis.

You are the recently appointed First Minister of an independent Scotland, sitting in the elegant drawing room of Bute House, enjoying a relaxing moment after a stressful day. Then you receive an urgent call from the Governor of the Central Bank of Scotland. A few minutes later, the Governor is shown in. He explains that within a few days the Royal Bank of Scotland will be unable to roll over its facilities and will run out of cash. What do you do?

“Too big to fail” insurance is likely to leave the non-financial economy with the worst of all possible worlds – less public control of risk and greater potential calls on taxpayers.

Digital media is the future and two decades from now the book business will look very different.

In the name of free markets, we created a monster that threatens to destroy the very free markets we extol.

The most effective control is other parties’ diligence in assessing the businesses with which they deal.

When the next crisis hits, and it will, the frustrated public is likely to turn, not just on politicians who have been negligently lavish with public funds, or on bankers, but on the market system. What is at stake now may not just be the future of finance, but the future of capitalism.

Regulation as supervision can be simultaneously extensive and intrusive, yet ineffective and prone to regulatory capture. History suggests that supervision is rarely a success.