Varley's rationale

The below is the memo sent to Barclays staff yesterday from John Varley, chief executive, explaining why he didn’t go for a taxpayer bailout. Remember, Barclays badly need British shareholders to approve this deal – so it will have been written with that in mind. This email is itself a comment on the times we are living – should a CEO of Barclays really need to explain why he preferred a private refinancing to part-nationalisation? It is evidently a response to the kicking he took mainly in the weekend press. We at Coffee House...

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Entirely missing the point

John Naish hares off down the path of a very odd version of economics. No, not his basic idea, that's fine, rather, he ignores the evidence in front of us that we are already following his suggested path.

In a largely forgotten essay, Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren, he predicted that in three generations' time (the era we are entering) the “economic problem” - the challenge of creating and allocating resources so that everyone would have enough to satisfy their needs and basic desires - would be solved. Once we had passed that historic point, he thought that we...

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Tips and waiters

I have to admit that I rather like this idea.

Customers would be told whether their service charge is kept by waiters or collected by the restaurant, in an effort to improve transparency.

I spent around a decade making my living from a variety of such catering jobs and while in the US the rules are very clear, here in the UK there can be a certain amount of confusion. Greater transparency is a good thing in my mind.

It might be worth pointing out that waiters paid by tips make a great deal more money (for the same...

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Welcome to the November issue

Welcome to the November issue of Spectator Business Magazine. Ahead of tomorrow’s election which will decide who is to become the 44th president of the United States, we have a special focus on America.

James Doran takes a road-trip from Wall Street to Detroit and examines the state of the American Dream. While Felix Salmon talks to New York’s most senior commercial banker, Citigroup chairman Bill Rhodes.

Our second special report is on global healthcare. Edie Lush gets to grips with the challenges facing UK start-ups. And Matthew Lynn takes a look at the consequences...

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There are no solutions

This has become a bit of a catch phrase for me recently: there are no solutions, only trade offs. But catch phrase or not, it does encapsulate huge swathes of economics.

In some ways he is loath to point the finger of blame, saying there is no solution for boom and bust under capitalism.

"You take the rough with the smooth. It's not easy to say today, but for the most part people would say that on balance the benefits to society of capitalism far outweigh the less frequent busts that happen. Clearly this one is...

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