Published on
18 April 2016
In recent weeks, newspapers and media at large have been speaking about the biggest leak in contemporary history. The Panama Papers amount to 2.6 terabytes of information or 11.5 million documents on offshore tax havens. The records constitute the internal database of Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm, and were published by the International Consortium […]
Published on
9 July 2015
Over the past three months we have seen numerous reports on migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa to Italy and moving on to the English Channel at Calais with Dover in sight – in some cases succeeding in the latter crossing, too. In virtue of the historic sequence of the two crossings, both involving […]
Published on
19 November 2012
Posted in Europe, World Affairs
Leaving aside the definite articles and one might, according to taste one’s economic and political points of view,place inverted commas over almost all the termsin this blog’s title. Letus perform the exercise. ‘Euro-Crisis’ This is not, in fact, the crisis of a currency, but rather that of a wholeculture, one spanning the EU as well […]
Published on
18 June 2012
Posted in Europe, Political Economy, World Affairs
The recent Spanish ‘bail-out’ has had a mixed reaction from the global markets. Stock markets in Europe and the U.S. fell, and Spanish borrowing costs rose, after the first post-bail-out trading day. It is fortunate for the Spanish populace, already subject to austerity measures, that the bail-out did not come with the same conditions as […]
Published on
4 May 2012
Posted in Conscience, Ethics in Business, World Affairs
The annual meeting of Barclay’s Bank shareholders held last week, drew comment in the press. There was concern and dissatisfaction over executive remuneration. This follows similar expressions of concern by shareholders at Credit Suisse. A majority of shareholders of the insurance company Aviva, moreover, have voted against a remuneration report for senior executives. In all […]
Published on
26 April 2012
Posted in Culture, Social Commentary, Virtue, World Affairs
Let us consider today matters that have received much press coverage recently, coverage manifesting a dearth of virtue among senior figures in media and government. While politicians are universally acknowledged to be only human, those with positions of great influence should be expected to act virtuously and to set an example to ordinary individuals. […]
Published on
16 March 2012
Posted in British Politics, Europe, Political Economy, Social Commentary, World Affairs
From a guest blogger: Draghi is fuelling inflation like the Bank of England. Greece cannot ever repay even the reduced debt after last week’s managed default and target of 120% of GDP by 2020. Greece must leave the Euro. The election this year may precipitate this. Then Portugal (public debt at 93%, and private debt […]
Published on
17 February 2012
At present it is hard to feel anything other than gloom about economic news. Unemployment fugures are high and firms struggle to access much-needed finance. The current global orthodoxy for governments is that of ‘necessary cuts’. Deepening ‘doom and gloom’ the credit rating agency Moody’s has this week noted a negative outlook for the UK […]