Business Comment

Jeremy Warner: Recession may be over but not the pain

Outlook All of a sudden, the green shoots of economic spring seem all around us. Some of them may even be turning into smallish shrubs, if not quite yet fully grown bushes. According to estimates published last night by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, which is second to none in the accuracy of its forecasts for the UK economy, March marked the trough of the recession, with the economy actually growing in April and May.

Inside Business Comment

Jeremy Warner: Bank needs true outsiders on financial stability

Thursday, 11 June 2009

Outlook Nobody is going to disagree too much with the four directors appointed yesterday from the Court of the Bank of England to the newly created Financial Stability Committee. Roger Carr, Sir David Lees, Mark Tucker, and Harrison Young all no doubt make worthy guardians of banking stability.

Jeremy Warner: Sky in the spotlight as Setanta teeters

Wednesday, 10 June 2009

Outlook Ofcom's efforts to force BSkyB to make its sport and other premium content available to rival pay TV providers on a wholesale basis have been so long drawn out that whatever the eventual outcome, it will come too late to save Setanta, the sports broadcaster which is threatening to collapse into administration under a mountain of unpaid bills. Setanta stopped taking new subscriptions yesterday. Not that there were many anyway, but it would seem to be the beginning of the end.

Jeremy Warner: C&G; pays the price for Lloyds banking merger

Wednesday, 10 June 2009

Outlook So farewell then Cheltenham & Gloucester, whose high street brand dates back to the mid-19th century but, like so much else, is now falling victim to the relentless march of "progress" – in this case the cost-cutting integration of Lloyds TSB with Halifax Bank of Scotland.

Jeremy Warner: Horlick applies the due diligence to herself

Wednesday, 10 June 2009

Outlook Well there's a thing. The mystery bidder for Bramdean Alternatives turns out to be none other than Nicola Horlick herself, the "super-mum" who already manages the fund.

Jeremy Warner: Best not to count on those green shoots

Tuesday, 9 June 2009

The case for a double-dip recession is all too easy to make

Jeremy Warner: Taxpayer gets £2.3bn payback from Lloyds

Tuesday, 9 June 2009

Outlook: Once confidence goes, there is almost no amount of capital that can guarantee a bank's safety

Jeremy Warner: Tories must engage in Europe to defend the City

Tuesday, 9 June 2009

Outlook: The supposed government-in-waiting seems not properly to recognise the dangers

Margareta Pagano: More balls, please, at the Treasury

Sunday, 7 June 2009

With the economy in such a shocking state, Labour's only hope is a sharp U-turn on public spending – but does it dare?

Hamish McRae: We must seize the opportunity to radically rethink our government

Sunday, 7 June 2009

Economic View

Jeremy Warner: Rio Tinto – another lesson in the perils of empire-building

Saturday, 6 June 2009

Outlook: The Chinese are fuming and some shareholders are still demanding Tom Albanese's head on a platter. But in the round, Jan du Plessis, Rio Tinto's chairman, seems to have negotiated a satisfactory finale to the tale of corporate woe that began with Rio's top-of-the-market acquisition of Alcan two years ago.

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