Although it probably shouldn’t surprise anyone, it’s nonetheless interesting to see a group of International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff have reported (although this is not a statement of IMF policy, necessarily) that the US banks most active in lobbying against regulation of the financial sector are the ones who took the biggest risks over the mortgage and other [...]

Filed under: Corporate governance, Financial crisis, Recession | 2 Comments »

Buried in the companies section of the Financial Times today (possibly because it contradicts the news story which I have already blogged about), is a report of an interview with the head of Corus UK, Kirby Adams. Although probably not the most popular manufacturing boss in Britain because of his decision to mothball steel plants [...]

Filed under: Manufacturing | Comments Off

The Financial Times says Lord Mandelson’s manufacturing strategy is failing to convince manufacturing employers. But they use journalistic sleight of hand to make the evidence fit the story better, suggesting that the FT editorial line of support for tax cutting Tories rather than Labour investors has bled into the news pages. 

Filed under: Manufacturing, Recession, They Just Don't Get It | 2 Comments »

We’d like to wish a very happy Christmas and New Year to all our readers here at ToUChstone blog. It’s been an interesting year for us as the blog has grown and diversified, and we’ve enjoyed sharing our blogging journey with so many people, old acquaintances and new.
Our Christmas card this year marks thirty years [...]

Filed under: Blogging, Human rights | 1 Comment »

BBC – Peston’s Picks: Will business rescue us?
Pesto is gloomy about recovery. More arguments against cuts

Filed under: Web links | Comments Off

The Times is in bullish mode this morning. It’s editorial, ‘Creative industry‘, starts controversially: “Few phrases strike more fear into British business than ‘industrial policy’”, it opines. Really? I was heartened to read how Lord Browne, former boss of BP and for so long one of the UK’s top industrialists, praised the interventionism of Tony [...]

Filed under: Economics, Manufacturing | Comments Off

The BBC had an excellent report on the Today programme this morning (7:20) on youth homelessness at Christmas, but reporter Tamasin Ford said once again that we are currently suffering the highest youth unemployment “since records began” in 1992 “nearly twenty years ago”.

Filed under: Labour market, Media | 1 Comment »

The number of people spending their second successive Christmas on the dole will double to over 200,000 this year.
Official statistics show the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) for more than 12 months has increased from 103,930 in December 2008 to 201,015 in November 2009, and we can see the number of long-term dole [...]

Filed under: Labour market, Social exclusion, Welfare | 1 Comment »

Two key US think tanks have produced a report setting out what a financial transactions tax would raise in the US. The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts have calculated that where there is no change in trading volume, potential revenue from [...]

Filed under: Financial crisis | 1 Comment »

Climate change: back to basics
Andrew Adams cuts through the post-Copenhagen confusion to re-establish the basics around the issue of climate change with this post on Liberal Conspiracy

Tory tax allies ’subsidised’ by the taxpayer
The Guardian has found that the Tax Payers’ Alliance is using a charitable arm to allow them to claim back tax on money [...]

Filed under: Web links | 1 Comment »