Australia's worst book retailing chain, RedGroup (parent of Borders and Angus & Robertson) went into administration yesterday. There are a few reasons for this: 1) RedGroup was a highly indebted private equity portfolio company; 2) Australian retail spending has been weak-ish in general for the last year or so; 3) Books have been particularly hard-hit … Continue reading Friends don’t let friends buy gift cards
Category: Financial arcana
It being Sunday, or Monday, or one of those kind of days, and this being a Journal of Record [*], I thought I'd put out the kind of quiz that only my readers could answer. What do the following UK-headquartered banks: * HSBC * Lloyds Banking Group * Standard Chartered * RBS ...have in common … Continue reading It’s a Jolly Fun Bank Quiz
Here's Felix Salmon Justin Fox standing in for Felix Salmon, on the economic impact of the socialist Truman government's evil confiscatory tax policies: During the Korean War, Congress enacted an excess profits tax meant to keep military contractors from, well, profiteering. In its infinite wisdom, Congress defined excess profits as anything above what a company … Continue reading More fun with marginal tax rates
From Financial News: Not a single trading team from Tullett Prebon, the London-based broker which told employees they cold move abroad for tax reasons in one of the clearest signals of an exodus from London has moved, almost a year after the offer was made. It is the second development in a week that suggests … Continue reading Data point on taxation and labour mobility
The suggestion that the NSW government had done nothing wrong would normally seem unlikely, irrespective of context. Even more so when the context is a $2.6bn capital investment project that’s at risk of collapsing, requiring a massive government bailout, or both. However, the funding shortfall threatening the public-private partnership (PPP) to build 78 new Waratah … Continue reading Waratah trains: why the NSW government isn’t at fault
So there's an interesting piece on Bloomberg quoting the Sunday Times saying that Fosters Group, the Aussie wine and beer company, might sell its beer operations (branded Carlton & United Breweries, confusingly enough) to SABMiller. This makes sense. Since I was working as a drinks industry reporter getting on for ten years ago, I've been … Continue reading Finding a new Foster home
Yes, I know MGM (or, more accurately, the latest in a long bunch of shysters to own the rights to the MGM name and to make James Bond movies) are in serious financial trouble. But if I was in serious financial trouble, and I owned a money tree, but I couldn't afford to harvest the … Continue reading Why isn’t there a new Bond movie?
So, on BP, let's assume that it gets so busted by compo claims that its entire US business gets liquidated and sold to Exxon (as seems to be the current, insane narrative: "we'll pretend BP are evil rather than the same as everyone else, so we don't have to stop the drilling and the oil … Continue reading Technical BP question, or ‘lazy crowdsourcing’
I’m a Keynesian who believes in fiscal expansion in tough times, and I'm a market-favouring leftie who believes in progressive taxation (whilst trying to minimise disincentives to work at all levels). However, I’m embarrassed by Richard Murphy of TaxResearch.org.uk, and the way in which the press tend to print his daft views as a serious … Continue reading On third-columnists, deliberate or otherwise
While there's been a lot of commentary on the British Airways strikes, the analysis (whether pro-company or pro-union) tends to miss two major points. The business model is unsustainable - but that's the management's fault, not the unions' BA’s model before the global financial crisis was to charge a fortune for excellent service in Club … Continue reading Those British Airways strikes