Economy

Monday

Peter Hoskin

Brown puts on his gloomy face for the world stage

From our UK edition

How peculiar.  After all the economic optimism coming out of government recently, all the talk of recovery by the end of the year, Brown's going to warn that the worst of the recession may be yet to come in his meetings with G8 leaders this week.  The Times has the full story here, but this snippet from the Dear Leader's address in France today gives you the idea: "If we do not take the necessary action now to strengthen the world economy and put in place the conditions for sustainable world growth, we will be confronted with avoidable unemployment for years to come." So does this mean he's losing faith in the "green shoots" strategy, by which a grateful nation will hail him for leading the UK out of recession?  No, I rather suspect not.

Sunday

Fraser Nelson

Pure Balls | 5 July 2009

From our UK edition

According to the Sunday Times, poor old Shaun Woodward is getting the blame for inspiring Brown’s mendacious “Labour investment v Tory cuts” line. As if. This is the work of Ed Balls, and his trademark belief that the public can be easily fooled on such issues because their eyes glaze over when you mention statistics. A quick chronology: when the 10 percent figure came out in my Daily Telegraph piece it was Ed Balls who seized on it (his wife did so earlier that day with the Standard) and used it in a letter to Michael Gove demanding where those 10 percent cuts would be made. He used my figure as if it were official Tory policy.

Peter Hoskin

More blows against Brown’s spending narrative

From our UK edition

It's public spending time again, dear CoffeeHousers, with a couple of eye-catching articles in  today's papers.  The first is a comment piece by Steve Bundred, chief exec of the Audit Commission, on the necessity for extensive spending cuts.  If you recall, Bundred claimed a few days ago that health and education shouldn't be ring-fenced from cuts, and here he repeats the point, adding a snappy conclusion: "So don't believe the shroud wavers who tell you grannies will die and children starve if spending is cut. They won't. Cuts are inevitable, and perfectly manageable. We should insist on a frank and intelligent debate about how and where they will fall, which will then enable everyone to make more sensible plans.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Pimp My Ride: Amish Style

From our UK edition

Actually, this is rather a touching, sad story about the Amish and the impact first rising prosperity and then, of all things, a run on an Amish bank in Indiana. Nonetheless, it seems that the Amish are no more able to resist shiny baubles and status symbols than the rest of us. Plus, the idea of what one might term the Cosmo-Amish and their tricked out buggies is, you know, amusing: Some Amish bishops in Indiana weakened restrictions on the use of telephones. Fax machines became commonplace in Amish-owned businesses. Web sites marketing Amish furniture began to crop up. Although the sites were run by non-Amish third parties, they nevertheless intensified a feeling of competition, says Casper Hochstetler, a 70-year-old Amish bishop who lives in Shipshewana.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Ireland today, Britain tomorrow

From our UK edition

It was Brian Lenihan yesterday and in a fortnight it will be Alistair Darling's turn to announce the bad news when he delivers his emergency-in-all-but name budget. Or bloodget. Lenihan, the Irish finance minister, did his best to spread the pain around, announcing tax increases and cutting spending while leaving many of the most difficult measures to next year's budget. The Irish economy is forecast to contract by 8% this year and, even after the cash-saving and raising measures announced yesterday, the government will run a deficit of 10.75% of GDP. Eye-watering and sobering stuff.  In the Irish Times Mark Hennessy writes: For weeks, the Cabinet has debated the options in detail unlike any previous cabinet. Eventually, it decided that it could not cut more than €3.

Saturday

Martin Bright

The Darling Buds of April

From our UK edition

I have stolen the headline to this post from a breakfast discussion held by "reputation management firm" Fishburn Hedges, where I was a guest speaker this week. Me and my fellow panelists were there to talk about the budget  (coming your way on April 22nd) and give some idea of how the media gears up to the great day. I suggested that part of the problem with newspaper Budget coverage is that political journalists know very little about economics. Robert Cole, a senior writer at the Times and the man who has run the paper's Budget coverage for many, many years, explained the excitement of the day and his biggest fear - theat nothing happens. Alistair Smith, who runs the media operation for Barclays explained how the big financial institutions gear up their response.

Friday

Alex Massie

RBS: All fur coat and no knickers

From our UK edition

Such is the disrepute into which Scotland's once all-conquering bankers have fallen that the favoured put down at Edinburgh dinner parties these days is "My husband pays your husband's salary". A period of silence on the part of these erstwhile Masters of the Universe would be most welcome. This injunction, it seems, also applies to their spouses. That sound you hear is the noise of a righteous middle-class populism. These are disconcerting, humiliating times to be a Scottish banker. Nowhere is this more keenly felt than at the Royal Bank of Scotland's headquarters at Gogarburn on the western outskirts of Edinburgh. RBS's downfall and subsequent nationalisation-in-all-but-formal-name has made it open season on bankers in Scotland's capital.

Monday

Alex Massie

New American Leadership, Same American Leadership Style: Do As You Are Told.

From our UK edition

Times change, of course. It wasn't so long ago that the American left wondered why Democrats in Congress couldn't "stand up" to the Bush administration in the way that, say, France and Germany opposed the American-led War in Iraq. Now that the worm has turned in Washington, of course, everything is different. Why won't those annoying europeans do as they're told? This time it is the failure of Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, among others, to endorse the Americans' "solution" to the financial crisis that is irritating pundits in Washington and New York. Hence, Michael Tomasky*: "confidence has never been especially great here in the states that, even with Obama's massive worldwide popularity, European nations would just do what America wants." Oh noes!

Thursday

Alex Massie

Why Germany Won’t Play Ball

From our UK edition

It's not just Gordon Brown who wants the rest of europe to splash some cash to get us out of the mess we're in. There are plenty of commentators on the American left - Paul Krugman for one - who also fret that unless european countries join the massive stimulus bandwagon they threaten to delay, or even cancel, everyone's recovery. Enemy number one, obviously, is the Germans. But as Tyler Cowen points out, the Germans might have some good reasons for their reluctance to go on a spending spree. They remember the costs of German unification and can recall how spending massive quantities of money wasn't a magic cure-all then either: The two countries united, lots of money was spent and lots of money was borrowed...The results were less than wonderful.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

The Problem with Working Hard

From our UK edition

So El Gordo is in New York today, ostensibly to drum up support for his G20 gabfest. According to the Telegraph's report: At a breakfast for business leaders, Mr Brown said that values such as “honesty, integrity and working hard” may have been absent from the financial system in recent years. One might agree about honesty and integrity but the problem with the financial sector is not that people there abandoned the "value" of "working hard". Quite the contrary. They worked too hard. We might not be in quite this mess if there'd been less hard work and more leisurely lunches and 4pm finishes. Greed and incompetence were problems but so too as a culture that prized, nay demanded, 17 hour work days. That is, long hours and very hard work were part of the problem...

Monday

Alex Massie

A Hungarian Lesson for Gordon Brown

From our UK edition

This seems an idea worth copying, doesn't it? Hungary's Prime Minister said today he is resigning because of his government's low popularity amid a worsening financial crisis. Ferenc Gyurcsany, of the ruling Socialists, told the party's congress that he considered himself a hindrance to further economic and social reforms. Alas, I can't imagine Brown being quite this, er, bold or noble.

Thursday

Alex Massie

France’s Spring

From our UK edition

People protest during France's second nationwide strike in two months, to demand a boost to wages and greater protection form the crisis, on March 19, 2009, in Marseille, southern France. Photo: GERARD JULIEN/AFP/Getty Images It's springtime which means that even if there weren't an econmic crisis our friends in France would be taking to the streets. This is as it should be. My one year old godson, I'm pleased to say, is already a veteran of street action, having been wheeled out to protest against proposals for primary school reforms. Even rites of passage happen earlier these days. Anyway, the good news for Sarkozy is that the Socialists are in no position to benefit from the public's sour, fretful mood.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Corporate hari-kiri

From our UK edition

Things could be worse for RBS executives. They could be AIG executives receiving advice from Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa): "The first thing that would make me feel a little bit better towards them is if they would follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say I’m sorry and then either do one of two things: resign or commit suicide." Grassley added, "In the case of the Japanese, they usually commit suicide before they make any apology." Happily, "An aide later explained he does not actually want executives to kill themselves." Well, that's ok then!

Monday

Alex Massie

Green Jobs? Really?

From our UK edition

Could there be anything nicer and popular than "green jobs"? Gordon Brown and Baack Obama has determined that a "green" job - all fresh and wholesome and wrapped in the (endlessly recyclable!) promise of a "sustainable" future - is better than any other kind of job. Including, probably, the one you have right now. Also: Green is the Future. Apparently. To which you might say, "aye right" and your suspicions might not be misplaced. Here's Michael Levi in Slate: Green jobs seem to be an ideal solution. But just because "green" and "jobs" are both in demand doesn't mean that policies focused on creating "green jobs" make sense.

Thursday

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Gordon’s Apology?

From our UK edition

Photo: Peter Nicholls/WPA Pool/Getty Images This item from Martin Bright (Welcome, Comrade!) risks leaving one speechless: Now word reaches The Bright Stuff that the man who has never knowingly apologised for anything is preparing his very own "mea culpa". I am told that Whitehall officials have been ordered to make a compilation DVD of Obama's various apologies to the American TV networks to be studied by the Prime Minister. The idea of Gordon Brown practising a humble self-deprecating manner in front of the mirror based on what he has seen on his training DVD doesn't bear thinking about. But then again... maybe it does. So...

Tuesday

Martin Bright

Who’s sorry now?

From our UK edition

President Obama showed that it was possible to apologise with good grace over his appointment of Tom Daschle and now the masters of the financial universe are falling over themselves to follow his lead. Somehow he turned the fact that he "screwed up" to his advantage, though how many times he can get away with this ruse in future is open to question. The sight of the men from RBS and HBOS making their excuses for "screwing up" the economy of an entire country was pretty hard to watch. The difference is that people like Obama. At times like this you have to turn to the tabloids to fnd an expresssion of real fury. Sue Carroll put it rather well in her Mirror column today. I wonder if the bankers were reading her before they went before the Treasury Selct Committee today.