Britain’s banking mission impossible

Barry NeildSeptember 19, 2012 06:29

LONDON — The Bank of England is advertising for a new governor for the first in its 316-year history. But experts say few can live up to the job description.

Michael GoldfarbSeptember 13, 2012 12:24

Letter from London: Liverpool no longer bears its cross alone

The Hillsborough soccer tragedy was a major event in recent British history. This week’s reaction to a two-year inquest into the incident shows why.

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People in Liverpool take part in a vigil for the victims of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster after the disclosure of an independent report into the incident. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

LONDON — David Cameron's apology for the gross failures of his predecessors reflects the magnitude of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, when 96 supporters of the Liverpool soccer club were crushed to death during a match in the northern English city of Sheffield.

British soccer goes for broke

Michael GoldfarbAugust 23, 2012 06:00

LONDON — One of the most successful teams in English sporting history, Arsenal have lost their place at the top since big-money foreigners began buying English teams. Now they struggle to finish within the top three or four because the best players have left for other teams that pay vastly higher salaries.

Michael GoldfarbMarch 9, 2012 13:32

Tensions between Italy and Britain over failed hostage rescue attempt

British raid in Nigeria led to deaths of two hostages held for more than nine months by Boko Haram

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Briton Chris McManus, who was killed yesterday in Nigeria when British Special Forces tried to rescue him from his captors. (-/AFP/Getty Images)

Success has many fathers, but failure?

Yesterday's failed attempt by British Special Forces to rescue a pair of British and Italian men held hostage by Nigeria's Islamist Boko Haram for the last nine months has led to diplomatic repercussions.

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has expressed genuine anger at not being informed about the raid in advance. "The way the British government has behaved is quite inexplicable. To have failed to inform or consult Italy, with regard to a military action which could have such consequences," Napolitano said.

Michael GoldfarbFebruary 15, 2012 09:09

European austerity by the numbers: in or out of the euro zone today's figures are grim.

Statistics prove yet again: cutting alone will not help an economy

this story is part of globalpost's continuing coverage of world business. for more visit our new business page.

The European economic numbers flow across my computer screen, not quite as quickly as the ticker tape crawl at CNBC or Bloomberg, but there are a lot of them and virtually every one is bad. And in or out of the euro zone, they all point to the same thing: austerity isn't working.

In Greece: the economy contracted by 7 percent in the last quarter. Since austerity budgets began to be implemented two years ago Greece's debt had jumped from 115 percent of GDP to 166 percent of GDP, the Guardian reports.

In Britain: Unemployment is at 8.4 percent according to the Office of National Statistics, a 16 year high (I have reported on other sources of unemployment statistics here).

Michael GoldfarbFebruary 7, 2012 12:23

Syria: France, Britain and Italy recall ambassadors

European countries play what cards they have against Assad regime.

There is not a lot European countries can do to stop the Bashar al-Assad regime's onslaught against its own people - especially in light of this weekend's vetoing of a Security Council resolution by Russia and China.

Recalling ambassadors from Damascus for consultation is about the only card they can play. That is exactly what Britain, France and Italy have done. No word about the German government's intentions. But police in Berlin have arrested two men suspected of spying for Syria.

Michael GoldfarbFebruary 1, 2012 04:23

Britain, Argentina: more Falkland's anniversary saber rattling

As anniversary of war approaches, Britain sends another warship to patrol waters around the Falkland Islands

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Prince William puts his helicopter pilot game face on at maneuvers last year in Canada. The heir to the throne's deployment to the Falkland Islands has angered the Argentine government. (Pool/AFP/Getty Images)

The 30th anniversary of the start of the Falkland war is just two and a bit months away. Most of the time this sort of anniversary sees old foes extending the hand of - if not friendship - at least respect and honor for the dead.

But not this time. As I blogged two weeks ago, the leaders of the two countries, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Argentine President Christina Kerchner were involved in some nasty rhetoric.

Now, the nastiness is escalating. Kerchner has arranged with neighbor Mercosur countries in South America to impose a ban on all Falklands flagged boats landing on the continent.

Iva Roze SkochFebruary 2, 2012 13:22

Sex shop clients forced to use back door

A British sex shop has been forced to install a secluded back entrance after clients were subjected to loud cheers from a nearby pub.

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The front door goes "ding" and customers of the Apsley sex shop now prefer the back door. (Spencer Platt/AFP/Getty Images)

Not many sex shops in the world specifically urge their customers to use the back door.

But in Apsley, Hertfordshire, it was apparently for the greater good of the community.

I almost spat out my morning coffee when I read this story in The Telegraph today, but in truth, they are talking about an actual back entrance.

As it turns out, the only adult shop in Apsley was receiving so many ribald jeers from the The Bull pub opposite, they had to install a more discrete side door.

According to the story, customers looking to enter the shop were given a shock as the “Bull busters” across the road — consisting mainly of inebriated construction workers — reacted with friendly banter and a loud "wa-hey!"

Landlady Nicola Green, 47, was quoted as saying: "As soon as you open that door it goes 'ding!' When that bell goes people in here cheer, so the shop moved the entrance round the side.”

Wait, it gets better.

According to one customer interviewed by The Telegraph, the whole "ding thing" got so embarrassing — especially in the summer months when people were drinking outside the pub — the shop started losing customers.

Michael GoldfarbJanuary 30, 2012 06:48

Austerity: Cause and predictable effect

Post-Davos consensus growing among enlightened commentators: policy makers haven't got a clue

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There's a general strike on in Belgium today. The predictable effect of austerity cuts to services and wages. (VIRGINIE LEFOUR/AFP/Getty Images)

this story is part of globalpost's continuing coverage of world business. for more visit our new business page.

Davos is not a place where policy gets made or treaties get negotiated, as I wrote last week. If it has a benefit, it is that the World Economic Forum gets a bunch of the one percent in a single place for a concentrated period of time and allows thoughtful commentators an equally undiluted opportunity to assess what they are thinking.

The result this morning is three excellent essays by commentators working in the mainstream press.

At The New York Times, Paul Krugman makes much of a chart published last week by British think tank, National Institute of Economic and Social Research (here, scroll down right column). It shows that the current economic downturn in Britain is now longer than that of the Great Depression, if you measure the length of time it takes to return to pre-downturn economic output.

Michael GoldfarbJanuary 26, 2012 14:19

Davos takes on euro zone crisis

Old arguments about how to solve the euro zone crisis are re-hashed at World Economic Forum annual meeting

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Davos: the euro zone crisis followed the leaders to the Alps (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images)

this story is part of globalpost's continuing coverage of world business. for more visit our new business page.

Davos. The name, the place, what it stands for is a challenge to an ideal of journalism. It seems to be one of those events that become a story not because of any intrinsic news value but because a bunch of famous people get together and allow journalists to mingle among them.

There are many national leaders at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos but no treaties are signed, nor are there joint declarations of policy made. That would be news and worth reporting. There are titans of industry in Davos, but no products are launched or companies acquired. That, too, would be news etc.

It can't be news because the comments about the year to come actually shape events. I came across this article from The Washington Post a couple of years ago on Google about some famously wrong predictions made by the rulers of the planet at the World Economic Forum. It's pretty amusing. (For that matter, did anyone at Davos in 1996 or 97 predict there would be something like Google (founded in 1998) and that a search engine would upend all previously known models of information aggregation and dissemination?

Anyway, the leaders are at Davos, journalists are tweeting like fan-boys and girls about rubbing shoulders with them.