Owen Tudor

Although it probably shouldn’t surprise anyone, it’s nonetheless interesting to see a group of International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff have reported (although this is not a statement of IMF policy, necessarily) that the US banks most active in lobbying against regulation of the financial sector are the ones who took the biggest risks over the mortgage and other deals which caused the crisis. Their paper explores the evidence behind the…

“anecdotal evidence [which] suggests that the political influence of the financial industry contributed to the 2007 mortgage crisis, which, in the fall of 2008, generalized in the worst bout of financial instability since the Great Depression.”

And it finds them guilty. Politicians should take note that anti-regulators really should not be trusted, and the paper concludes with a suggestion that financial sector lobbying should be reined in. It would be interesting to see the same work on the activities of those lobbying against regulation carried out in the UK – perhaps the Government’s better regulation unit could be tasked with the job?

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Owen Tudor

Buried in the companies section of the Financial Times today (possibly because it contradicts the news story which I have already blogged about), is a report of an interview with the head of Corus UK, Kirby Adams. Although probably not the most popular manufacturing boss in Britain because of his decision to mothball steel plants on Teesside (see Community’s campaign pages), he indicates that there is all to play for in developing a progressive, interventionist consensus on manufacturing strategy, rather than maintain the generation-long assumption that the market knows best.

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Owen Tudor

The Financial Times says Lord Mandelson’s manufacturing strategy is failing to convince manufacturing employers. But they use journalistic sleight of hand to make the evidence fit the story better, suggesting that the FT editorial line of support for tax cutting Tories rather than Labour investors has bled into the news pages. 

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We’d like to wish a very happy Christmas and New Year to all our readers here at ToUChstone blog. It’s been an interesting year for us as the blog has grown and diversified, and we’ve enjoyed sharing our blogging journey with so many people, old acquaintances and new.

Our Christmas card this year marks thirty years of the Amnesty International (UK) trade union network. During 2009, we’ve taken steps to strengthen the links between the work of the TUC and Amnesty. Unions and human rights go way back though. Indeed Amnesty International founder, Peter Benenson, had actually worked many years earlier for the TUC, and had been sent to Spain in the early 50s to observe the trial of some trade unionists persecuted by the Franco Government. (His complaints to the judge were so effective the case against them was, unusually, dismissed and they were set free.)

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• BBC – Peston’s Picks: Will business rescue us?
  Pesto is gloomy about recovery. More arguments against cuts

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Tim Page

The Times is in bullish mode this morning. It’s editorial, ‘Creative industry‘, starts controversially: “Few phrases strike more fear into British business than ‘industrial policy’”, it opines. Really? I was heartened to read how Lord Browne, former boss of BP and for so long one of the UK’s top industrialists, praised the interventionism of Tony Benn, of all people, earlier this year. “If the Government had not got involved, a lot of vital infrastructure would have been produced outside of Britain”, Browne reminded us.

Nevertheless, The Times editorial gets over its poor start with a thought provoking piece about the way in which the UK might pay its way in the global economy of the future.

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Nigel Stanley

The BBC had an excellent report on the Today programme this morning (7:20) on youth homelessness at Christmas, but reporter Tamasin Ford said once again that we are currently suffering the highest youth unemployment “since records began” in 1992 “nearly twenty years ago”.

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John Wood

The number of people spending their second successive Christmas on the dole will double to over 200,000 this year.

Official statistics show the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) for more than 12 months has increased from 103,930 in December 2008 to 201,015 in November 2009, and we can see the number of long-term dole claimants continuing to rise into the new year.

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Owen Tudor

Two key US think tanks have produced a report setting out what a financial transactions tax would raise in the US. The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts have calculated that where there is no change in trading volume, potential revenue from a financial transactions tax would come to $353 billion annually. Under a scenario assuming a 25 percent decrease in trade volume, potential revenue would total $265 billion annually. And under a scenario in which there is a 50 percent decrease in trading as a result of a financial transactions tax, potential revenue would come to $177 billion dollars a year. The report, “The Potential Revenue from Financial Transactions Taxes,” analyzes the potential revenue generated by financial transactions taxes across a range of financial assets.

Meanwhile, as it’s nearly Christmas, US campaigners have used the iconic Frank Capra film “It’s a Wonderful Life” to draw attention to the continuing class struggle over financial reform.

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• Climate change: back to basics
  Andrew Adams cuts through the post-Copenhagen confusion to re-establish the basics around the issue of climate change with this post on Liberal Conspiracy
• Tory tax allies ‘subsidised’ by the taxpayer
  The Guardian has found that the Tax Payers’ Alliance is using a charitable arm to allow them to claim back tax on money from some of their funders. Wonder when we can expect the TPA’s outraged press release on this new use of hard-pressed taxpayers’ money?

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