Tag: Finance
Could Napoleon have coped in a credit crunch?
The financial innovation that was once the means of spreading risk is now an unmanageable source of instability.
Surplus capital is not for wimps after all
John explains why capital is the stuff you have to protect yourself and why banks can never have enough of it.
Banks got burned by their own ‘innocent fraud’
There are only a few basic kinds of deception and self-deception in finance. John illustrates some of the key mechanisms.
Public assistance must protect the taxpayer
Mr Paulson has taken the bad bank for US taxpayers and left shareholders with the good bank. Mr Darling should do the opposite
Why pain is good – in both medicine and finance
John describes the vital role that pain - the gift no-one wants - plays in the evolution of business and finance.
We let down diligent folk at the Halifax
John returns to his experience as a Halifax director to retrace the rocky road to last week's rescue takeover.
Taxpayers will fund another run on the casino
Following John's debate with Martin Wolf on financial services regulation, he explains why modesty about what such regulation can achieve is in order.
Brown’s rules are a flawed basis for policy
The Treasury's fiscal principles - the golden rule and the sustainable investment rule - have failed for reasons similar to those that explain the failure of targets in other areas of the public sector.
Fannie Mae and the limits of public obligation
The gap between the assumed responsibilities of government for financial services regulation and its effective powers grows ever more costly. Fannie Mae and Equitable Life are the latest examples.
Metaphors in free fall: the anti-bubble named
On 25 June, John offered a bottle of champagne for the best word for the opposite of a market bubble. This week, he reviews readers' many entries and announces the winner
