While I agree with the former British Tory Cabinet minister Lord Tebbitt on nearly everything, his suggestion in the wake of the Greek crisis that the Eurozone needs a centralized finance minister, withdrawing all financial autonomy from its members appears misguided. Tebbitt is correct in that many of the more dirigiste Euro-bureaucrats would like such […]

Greece’s near default and rescue by the European Union has brought one reality starkly into relief: in an age of fiscal and monetary stimulus, it isn’t only banks that can give debt investors sleepless nights. Greece is no more “risk-free” than was Lehman Brothers, and indeed Britain is no more “risk free” than Merrill Lynch. […]

When the banking system imploded in September 2008, commentators immediately feared that the result would be a credit crunch, leading to a major downturn in GDP and rise in unemployment. The US government however deployed all its resources to ensure that housing did not suffer the credit crunch it deserved, while taking its own borrowing […]

Paul Volcker’s proposal that proprietary trading should be spun off from deposit taking banks is a worthwhile step in the direction of stabilizing the financial services business. However when you consider that business in detail, it becomes clear that further breakups are necessary in order to remove the excessive risks from the US economic system.