Labour leaders have often been eloquent in articulating a vision of the kind of society they want; it is explaining how that vision is to be realised that seems to be the problem. We have seen a further demonstration of this sad truth at this year’s Labour conference. Ed Miliband had good things to say […]
Posts under ‘Finance’
Why trust Labour to implement austerity when Tories do it with more conviction?
Sep 25th, 2014 by Bryan Gould.
Why the Scottish uprising will not lead to independence
Sep 18th, 2014 by Ann Pettifor and Jeremy Smith.The Scottish campaign for independence is effectively an uprising against the British state and its collusion with the globalized, mobile finance sector and supranational corporations. It is a protest against an economic and political system increasingly centralised and aloof—a protest bound to spread to other equally neglected regions. It is a campaign to end allegiance […]
Share:
The economic ‘recovery’ won’t hold till election next May
Sep 15th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.Fortunately for Osborne, Scotland is keeping the parlous state of the economy out of the news. UK manufacturing export orders have now turned negative for the first time in nearly 2 years, dimming any expectations that manufacturing and exports would lead the way in any upsurge. The immediate reasons blamed are the flagging Eurozone economy, […]
Share:
Where’s accountability over Shaun Wright, Rotherham child care, police apology 3 years late?
Sep 3rd, 2014 by Michael Meacher.I never expected, having called for bankers, doctors, business executives, MPs, police, media to be held to account for serious wrongdoing by sacking and/or prison in the worst cases, that the imperative for such accountability would be so quickly manifested. On 26 August Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, was finally forced to apologise, […]
Share:
Twenty-two days that changed the world
Aug 30th, 2014 by Ann Pettifor.Review of The Summit by Ed Conway, published by Little, Brown, 2014 In this carefully researched book Ed Conway tells a gripping human tale about the July 1944 Bretton Woods Conference – “the biggest battle of the Second World War – fought behind closed doors”. He provides remarkable insights into the personal, geopolitical and intellectual dynamics that […]
Share:
Unrepentant banks put up two fingers to regulators
Aug 28th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.Today it is reported that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has imposed a fine of £14m on RBS for deficient mortgage record-keeping and poor advice to borrowers. It has still not imposed any penalty on RBS for its far more serious offence regarding the sale of US mortgage-backed securities. By contrast, only last week the […]
Share:
Holding public figures to account must lead to prison in worst cases
Aug 25th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.Once again it is instructive how they do things in the US, the citadel of capitalism, which is so very different from the secretive British State which protects its elites even from their worst wrongdoings. The Bank of America has just been fined $16.7bn for misleading investors in its mortgage-backed securities, a colossal sum which […]
Share:
To catch people like Rebekah Brooks & Bob Diamond we need strict liability
Aug 18th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.In her memo to her own staff over the hacking scandal Rebekah Brooks wrote “We were all appalled and shocked when we heard about these allegations yesterday………I have to tell you that I am sickened that these events are alleged to have happened…………..Not just because I was editor of the News of the World at […]
Share:
Making the punishment fit the crime – in the US, not the UK
Aug 11th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.Most people in this country have no idea how leniently the banks have been let off the hook for all their multiple and massive misdemeanours compared with the US and the EU. This week in the US the big banks have been told that if they are to meet government demands for new terms to […]
Share:
An inquiry into the banks at last. Great – or is it?
Jul 31st, 2014 by Michael Meacher.A new official inquiry into the banks is announced just when Osborne announces that the banking crisis is finally over. In fact it’s still coming to the boil – how does he manage to keep on coming up with these gags? Just 6 years late, you might think. But that’s the least problem. The real issue is […]
