Proposed laws to reform the insolvency industry are long overdue. Under the changes, liquidators will require a licence and creditors will be able to remove poorly performing practitioners. The reforms…
Islamic dietary law requires that certain methods be used when preparing meat, such as that a Muslim be the one butchering the animal.
Reuters
For many Muslims, adherence to Islamic dietary laws, known as halal, is an intrinsic part of their everyday lives. Even those who are relatively lax with other rituals of the faith tend to adhere to halal…
The heart of the matter. The container port at Long Beach.
sunslate
Efforts to build a more effective trading regime between Europe and the USA can reasonably be called positive, both for growth and the ease of doing business. Currently, however, negotiations include proposals…
Any banking system reforms must target all institutions.
AAP
Banks borrow short and lend long. So if all of a bank’s depositors suddenly want their money, the bank would be unable to pay them. A bank may have made great loans but it can only unwind these loans slowly…
There are high hopes that the new head of the Fed, Janet Yellen, will change the culture at the central bank and the lenders it regulates.
IMF/Flickr via CC BY-NC-ND
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has her work cut out for her if she hopes to change the culture at the world’s most important central bank. Media reports abound with evidence that the financial industry…
Marijuana is legal in some states, but that doesn’t mean that banks can deal with the proceeds.
Rick Wilking/Reuters
In nearly half of US states, marijuana business is booming. Although marijuana is illegal under federal law, 23 states have legalized some marijuana use. Colorado and Washington even allow recreational…
Pre-Nobel. Tirole at the IMF.
International Monetary Fund
Jean Tirole has won a deserved Nobel prize. The French economist from Toulouse 1 Capitole University has made some significant contributions to almost all fields in economics, but it is his work in the…
Failing to communicate change.
Facundo Arrizabalaga/PA Wire
There are mixed messages from the International Monetary Fund. The UK gets a pat on the back for its recovery, but the fund warns of darker clouds ahead in its latest World Economic Outlook. Overall, the…
Why is the City keeping its suffering under wraps?
Robin Hawkes
Roger McCormick, London School of Economics and Political Science e Chris Stears, School of Advanced Study, University of London
The major international banks are being lumbered with more and higher fines as the fallout from the financial crisis continues. Our research as part of the Conduct Costs Project at the CCP Research Foundation…
Insider. Martoma arrives at court.
Justin Lane/EPA
When Mathew Martoma, the former portfolio manager of SAC Capital, was sentenced to nine years in prison for insider trading last week, much of the comment was about how harsh the punishment looked. It…
The news was taken badly by some bankers.
thehutch
Imagine having to wait seven years before you could be sure that what you were properly paid for your job. If it sounds like a bad deal then maybe it’s time to spare some empathy for bankers at UK financial…
Fire aboard the Deepwater Horizon.
US Coast Guard/handout/EPA
Easter Sunday will mark the fourth anniversary of the BP oil well blowout in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Eleven workers on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform died and almost five million…
Superannuation: you give, they take.
Paul Kelly/Flickr
The main reason superannuation costs are too high in Australia is both simple and horrendously complex: it’s the only service we buy where we give the service provider our money to look after. It’s true…
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann says there’s no compelling reason the government should own Medibank Private.
Alan Porritt/AAP
On Wednesday, the federal government announced the sale of Medibank Private. On Thursday, the government announced the membership of its competition review panel. Ironically, selling Medibank may finally…
When the EU-US summit kicks off in Brussels this week, the prospects of a new trade deal will be jostling for attention with events in Ukraine. The long-term implications might even be more far reaching…
Maybe the Left should take a leaf out of farage’s book on immigration.
Ben Birchall/PA Wire
The theoretical underpinning of the modern global economy has broken loose. The so-called Washington consensus based on neoclassical, laissez-faire economics has encountered a sustained challenge from…
Do official inquiries and reports make any difference to how we run and regulate the NHS? It’s a year since Robert Francis published his findings following the high profile failings at Mid Staffordshire…
Lessons to learn for housing policy.
Chris Carlson/AP
The US has wasted its “sub-prime” mortgage crisis. The story of how and why this has happened is of interest not only for its own sake, but for the broader themes it reveals. I am a theoretically trained…
“It takes me about two hours to assemble a team of financial geeks and lawyers to devise a product or a transaction that would bypass any regulation coming our way,” a senior French banker said to me in…
Distinguished Professor of Practice, Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration, and Director of the Regulatory Studies Center, George Washington University