Jeremy Warner: Europe's banks still need plenty of medication

If we seem to be past the worse for the British and American banking systems, the same cannot be said for continental Europe, where according to the European Central Bank, eurozone banks are facing a further $283bn of additional losses this year. As the ECB now itself acknowledges, economic recovery is being severely hampered by lack of confid...- 16/06/2009, Jeremy Warner

Jeremy Warner: West Bromwich saved for the nation?

Outlook West Bromwich Building Society seems to have won a reprieve. By persuading holders of £182.5m of subordinated loans to convert their debt into instruments that would qualify as core tier 1 capital, West Bromwich hopes to avoid enforced merger with someone else, or the even more unpalatable end of falling victim to the Government's shi- 12/06/2009, Jeremy Warner

Jeremy Warner: Bank needs true outsiders on financial stability

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.- 11/06/2009, Jeremy Warner

Jeremy Warner: Horlick applies the due diligence to herself

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.- 10/06/2009, Jeremy Warner

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

A bunker mentality has engulfed Downing Street which has sidelined virtually all serious government. While Westminster burns, all manner of mischief is being hatched in Brussels, some of it with serious long-term consequences for the City and the UK economy. No one seems to care. Everyone in Government is too busy contemplating their own navel...- 09/06/2009, Jeremy Warner

Jeremy Warner: Best not to count on those green shoots

So the recession is over, and Alistair Darling, whose Budget forecasts for the economy were ridiculed as optimistic to the point of delusion, may even turn out to have been too pessimistic. So says the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). OK, so perhaps not quite, but there is a growing consensus in the City that the economy ...- 09/06/2009, Jeremy Warner

Jeremy Warner: Sir Alan Sugar – you're hired!

Outlook: It seems unlikely that Sir Alan Sugar would be hiring Gordon Brown as his apprentice were the Prime Minister to appear on his TV show. Lacking in people skills, sulky, non-team player, makes enemies easily, and incapable of controlling a budget, Mr Brown would have been fired in the first episode. Picture the scene. Sir Alan; "I ...- 06/06/2009, Jeremy Warner

Jeremy Warner: Ronson – Ernest's Alzheimer's was my idea

Outlook: Those who still wonder, as I have from time to time, about the origins of Ernest Saunders' Alzheimer's need look no further. The answer is contained in an autobiography published this week by the property developer Gerald Ronson, Leading From The Front. Back in the early 1990s, Mr Ronson served time in Ford open prison along with Mr Sa...- 06/06/2009, Jeremy Warner

Jeremy Warner: Rio Tinto ditches its Chinese connection

Outlook Now do keep up. A year is a long time in politics, to misquote Harold Wilson's famous remark, but it seems to be a positive aeon in the mining industry. Fast back 12 months and the commodities sector was still booming, with prices at record highs and Rio Tinto confident in its rejection of a generously valued bid from BHP Billiton.- 05/06/2009, Jeremy Warner

Jeremy Warner: House price correction is not over yet

Outlook One swallow does not a summer make, and although there has been quite a lot of positive data on the housing market of late, it would be unwise to read too much into yesterday's unexpectedly strong Halifax house price survey.- 05/06/2009, Jeremy Warner

John Rentoul: Is Balls the right man to replace fall-guy Darling?

Number 111 in my series of questions to which the answer is No. The headline on Jeremy Warner's Outlook column on Tuesday; although, slightly against the rules of this game, Warner's own implied answer is also No. - 04/06/2009, John Rentoul

Jeremy Warner: Temasek loses its touch on Barclays

Outlook Temasek, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund, seems to have lost the plot. Unlike Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, who has just made a killing from his investment in Barclays, Temasek apparently chose the bottom of the market earlier this year to offload its stake in Barclays, thereby clocking up a loss on the investment of - 04/06/2009, Jeremy Warner

Jeremy Warner: Abu Dhabi turns a fast buck on Barclays

Outlook I was a fierce critic of Barclays' decision last autumn to ignore shareholder pre-emption rights by bringing in Middle Eastern investors on favourable terms to provide new capital. - 03/06/2009, Jeremy Warner

Jeremy Warner: Is Balls the right man to replace fall-guy Darling?

Alistair Darling may not have been much of a Chancellor, but from the moment he delivered his first, disastrously framed, pre-Budget report in the autumn of 2007, when he stole Tory ideas on inheritance tax and non-doms in support of a snap election that was never to be, he was only obeying his master's orders. In any case, there are few Chanc...- 02/06/2009, Jeremy Warner

Jeremy Warner: There's a thing: We've won the IMF's praise

Outlook Even the International Monetary Fund, it seems, now concedes Britain is getting at least something right in its management of the economy. There was faint praise in an IMF report card issued yesterday for Britain's handling of the banking and economic crisis, not that this is likely to help Prime Minister Gordon Brown very much in his que- 21/05/2009, Jeremy Warner