President of the EU Commission, José Manuel Barroso, recently proposed a “Tobin tax” for the EU. Named after the brilliant economist James Tobin, this tax is on transactions in financial markets. Its deceptive attraction is that it is levied at … Continued
The ever excellent Peterson Institute for International Economics has a blog post today on the solution to the USA’s crumbling transport infrastructure, namely tolls. Resistance to raising taxes makes it all but impossible for the federal or state governments to … Continued
After the embarrassment created by former IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn you might expect his successor to be particularly careful about her words in the area of male-female attraction. But according to a blog at the journal Foreign Policy, you … Continued
It’s nice to see the Chinese government making constructive noises about helping the Eurozone and Italy in particular, if only because I speculated about Beijing coming to the rescue earlier this year in class. I also put the idea to … Continued
I wasn’t the only one to have a go at Jamie Dimon (see this post from June). Paul Krugman, a rather more distinguished blogger than me, has been trying to poke fun at him too. But Dimon’s latest outburst takes … Continued
Jamie Dimon is the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase Inc. I’ve sometimes described JPMorgan Chase (hereafter “JPMorgan”) as the world’s least bad bank – in line with my view that most banks are not very good at what they … Continued
Yesterday Google revealed a campaign to steal users’ passwords that “appeared” to originate in China. This, though denied today by the Chinese government, is hardly the first time that China has been accused of various “cyber-crimes”. All I can say … Continued
Three Eurozone countries are being “bailed out” at present: Greece, Ireland and Portugal. In each case the country’s government has been lent money by public sector organisations (IMF, European Central Bank (ECB) and EU member states) because the private markets … Continued
I’m reading an excellent new book called “Red Capitalism: the fragile foundation of China’s extraordinary rise” by Carl Walter and Fraser Howie which provides some very detailed and fascinating background to the current state of the Chinese banking system. It’s … Continued
Two forces fuel the growth of financial services. First, the growth of household income leads to demand for basic banking then saving and pension products. This in turn drives the growth of commercial banks and institutional savings businesses like pension … Continued
How do you sum up the future of finance in 10 minutes? Well I’ve been asked to do just that for an event in Cambridge on 22 October, which is part of the annual Festival of Ideas (http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/whatson/ideasfestival/). The Festival … Continued
On Saturday I accompanied a group of MFin students to see the belated “Wall Street” sequel. This was strictly for entertainment – not part of the syllabus. The consensus was it was pretty average. Moderately entertaining, with some good attention … Continued
Today Jérôme Kerviel was found guilty in the trial over his unauthorised trades for Societe Generale, the unwinding of which caused huge losses. He faces three years in prison and (this is surely the French sense of humour) he must … Continued
I mentioned in a previous blog that we hosted a day of complexity experts here in Cambridge. I wasn’t at the seminar but was lucky enough to be introduced to Eric Beinhocker, the author of The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, … Continued
I’ve been reading a fascinating, if rather grim, book called The Secret State, by the distinguished British historian, Peter Hennessy. Based on interviews and a range of declassified official files, it’s a detailed picture of the secret arrangements made in … Continued