Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
Larry Elliot

Creator

Larry Elliot

Mark Carney’s Financial Stability Board wants banks to hold more capital to cushion themselves in a crisis.

2008 all over again and the banks’ fail-safe will be you

Banks issued bail-in bonds hoping pension funds would buy them, but hedge funds, private banks and retail investors have snapped them up.

Capitalism is about profit, not charity

Big banks, energy giants and internet multinationals won’t change their bad behaviour by themselves – they must be forced to play nice.

Cyprus: Shackled to a zombie economy

As Europe stumbles from crisis to crisis, it might be a good time for Cyprus to ditch the currency.

Mervyn King.

UK banks may face 60bn shortfall

Bank of England policymakers have ordered British banks to make a more "honest" assessment of hidden losses on their balance sheets.

Whoever wins the US election between President Barack Obama and contender Mitt Romney will find themselves standing at the edge of a fiscal precipice.

US economic woes to be election deciding factor

Whoever wins the US election between President Barack Obama and contender Mitt Romney will find themselves standing at the edge of a fiscal precipice.

The World Bank has offered a sobering look at a world where temperatures are allowed to increase past the 4C mark.

World faces tough choices on food

The past decade has seen the end of cheap oil, the magic growth ingredient for the global economy since World War II.

Battle won but fiscal war not over

Battle won but fiscal war not over

Europe’s leaders are claiming victory in the eurozone crisis after agreeing to new deals that halve Greek debt.

Greece: The new Lehmans

Greece: The new Lehmans

If Athens reneges on its debts it will shatter the markets’ confidence in the eurozone project.

Recovery may run out of steam, says IMF

Recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s is weak, unbalanced and runs the risk of running out of steam the International Monetary Fund warns.

Twilight of American century

Twilight of American century

As deflation and depression loom, the United States could be at a historical turning point.

A challenging baptism

Monetary policy is being eased everywhere, with the expectation that the Fed will join Japan in having a policy rate below 1% by the end of the year.

Don’t bet on a soft landing

Scroll the film forward a year. It’s January 2007 and time for Davos again. Only one topic of discussion interests the ”fat cats in the snow” (as Bono calls them) — that’s how on…

Breaking with the herd

The story of Europe’s pampered cows is a familiar one but always worth retelling. Each head of cattle in Europe gets a subsidy from the taxpayer worth ,20 a day at a time when…

Toothless in Georgia

The G8 is taking a long, hard look at itself — and not before time. The meetings have been held every year since 1975 and real — as opposed to synthetic — triumphs have been few…

Oil laps UK shores

Air fares are up. Petrol prices are up. The leaders of the 2000 fuel protest in Britain have been making minatory noises. None of this was in the script a year ago, when United…

Has Big Al lost the plot?

For the best part of 20 years Alan Greenspan has symbolised the stupidity of ageism. He became chairperson of the United States Federal Reserve at 61; his golden years in charge…

Religion is good for economic growth

Shopping is the new religion and supermarkets look like churches. Perhaps not. The assumption is that God and economic growth don’t mix, and never have done, for didn’t the Bible…

US buying bubble could burst the world economy

US stock markets have rallied since the end of the war in Iraq, but with the country’s trade deficit running at more than -million an hour, analysts warn that an economic crisis…

A guru but not a god

Many believe he is invincible, but when it comes to market forces Alan Greenspan is a mere mortal.