Opinion

Britain is replacing its heroes with wildlife and, judging by the reaction, you would think the Bank of England has announced that Winston Churchill is being retrospectively defeated by a hedgehog. Out go Jane Austen, JMW Turner and Alan Turing and in comes a barn owl, a bumblebee, a puffin and a hedgehog, although the…

I just watched Sakari Oramo conducting the Last Night of the Proms. It is a massive annual jamboree at the Royal Albert Hall in London and, among all the music, spectacle, flags and celebration, it was something he said that stayed with me. There was a special tribute to Dolly Parton, and Oramo used the…

On Tuesday, 11th September 2001, I was flying back from Nice, France, after a conference. We arrived home and switched on the television. What we saw was horrific. At 8:46 that morning in New York, 13:46 in the UK, the first aircraft crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Seventeen minutes later,…

UBS versus Switzerland: when a bank becomes too big for its country There is a delicious irony developing in Switzerland. The country that spent generations building its reputation around the strength, discretion and stability of its banks now finds itself arguing with its largest bank over whether making that bank safer will make it weaker….

For centuries, we’ve designed the world for the able-bodied and called everyone else disabled. Today, technology is quietly rewriting those rules. It is making finance, communication, work and everyday life adapt to people, rather than forcing people to adapt to systems. Increasingly, I think disability tells us less about the individual than it does about…

Andy Burnham’s first day in power started on Monday and, immediately, as the new Prime Minister of Britain, Jamie Dimon, CEO and Chair of JPMorgan Chase gives him an ultimatum: increase our taxes and we’re off. JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon warns of ‘consequences’ if Andy Burnham taxes banks Dimon casts doubt over JP Morgan’s London…

We often think wars are won with missiles, tanks and soldiers. In reality, they are won with banks. Every shell that is fired, every drone that is launched and every factory that shifts from producing washing machines to artillery shells has to be financed by someone. Governments issue debt. Central banks manage liquidity. Commercial banks…

For years I thought cryptocurrency was a fascinating financial experiment. It challenged banks, questioned governments and forced regulators to think differently about money. What I hadn’t fully appreciated was that it wasn’t just disrupting finance. It was quietly becoming a force in politics and government, as I blogged the other day, and it’s now gone…

I just had my American Express Business Card suspended without warning or explanation. It turns out that they need to re-onboard me due to Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulations. Strange. I’ve been a customer for 25 years and they need to re-establish if I really am me. So much for trust. More than this, they…

The BBC has run many reports about how people accidentally become money mules through their ignorance: It’s not easy money. This scam wrecks your credit I got quick cash in my account but it was too good to be true I became a money mule by mistake A key point here is that, in statistics…