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It's time for a grown-up conversation on energy

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Paul Golby is frustrated. He doesn't actually say so, but the measured tones of E.on's UK chief executive have a note of exasperation. "We are a 'no' society: 'no' to coal, 'no' to nuclear, 'no' to wind turbines. But then how do we keep the lights on?" the 58-year-old former engineer asks. "Most people just don't connect the fact that the TV runs or the fridge works with how the stuff is produced."

How to police the banking system

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Today's White Paper has two audiences. First, there is the public, who want to know whether they can trust the banks and insurance firms, and the products they peddle. For them, the Government will have plenty to offer, including a flagship scheme to offer the financial equivalent of NHS Direct – independent financial advice delivered by the likes of the Citizens Advice Bureaux and Age Concern. A pilot scheme has been running since April in the North-east and North-west and a national rollout could take place over the next year.

Canary Wharf faces City revival

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Ahead of the first banks opening there in the early 1990s, Canary Wharf in east London was touted as the brave new world of London's huge financial services industry. Over the next 15 years, many of the world's biggest banks moved their headquarters to the Isle of Dogs which became a fierce rival to the City of London.

Thirty contestants, only one winner in the Iraqi oil licence gameshow

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The auction of Iraqi oil production licences last week was truly historic – not least because it was the first such exercise ever to be broadcast live on TV.

The trainspotter now arriving in the UAE is the late golden boy

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Richard Branson's right-hand man. One of Tony Blair's favourite mandarins. Saviour of Britain's crumbling 3,500 secondary-schools estate. FTSE 100 chief executive. Coveted by Boris Johnson as his deputy mayor.

Return of the bonus

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Alistair Darling is unhappy. The spectre of City bonuses – a particular government bugbear – is back in the headlines, and the Chancellor fears that the banks are resurrecting the culture that undermined the global economy in the run-up to the crash.

Jon Moulton: His cure for the meltdown

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Doomed is a word that crops up a lot when you meet Jon Moulton. The banks are, he believes, "doomed eventually to have to shrink their balance sheets". The wider economy too, is doomed, though the worst, he acknowledges, is behind us, and we are now on a "slight upward swing".

The Big Question: Is the housing crash finally over, and is the market now recovering?

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The hunt for Madoff's money

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Step by tiny step, the giant totaliser is being filled in. As if in a charity telethon, the trustees of Bernard Madoff's fraudulent investment empire are seeking money from every source they can, in the hope of compensating thousands of the swindler's victims around the world. Last Friday, a couple of fur coats worth $48,500 and $21m of jewellery were among the items "donated" to the cause – items seized from Madoff's wife, Ruth, in the couple's financial settlement with prosecutors. Yesterday, it seemed as if we might add in $120m from an art sale by Ezra Merkin, the philanthropist who owns the largest private collection of works by Mark Rothko, after Mr Merkin buckled under legal pressure from the New York attorney-general for his role in channelling money to Madoff.

Vodafone looks to T-Mobile for link up

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

T-Mobile believes that "Life's for Sharing". A series of adverts showing Britons breaking into impromptu song in Trafalgar Square – part of the craze known as flashmobbing – promote the benefits of being together. It seems that rival Vodafone was watching.

Voda drops in for T

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Oil, shares and anger: One man vs the company he founded

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

In the British Legion club in Berkhamsted, a 29-minute train journey from London, a 73-year-old nurses a pint of Guinness. Peter Garnham jokes about his ankylosing spondylitis, a hereditary condition that causes severe curvature of the spine. "It adds to my Chuchillian look," says Garnham, who does indeed bear a passing resemblance to the great man.

Why BP went to Sweden for its new chairman

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

When BP ended its long hunt for a new chairman, the searchlight stopped in Sweden – a country whose GDP is smaller than the oil company's yearly turnover.

Ofcom has Sky in its sights

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The champagne corks were popping in west London in February, as BSkyB executives cheered their 20th year, a period of two decades which has seen a struggling satellite group become a broadcasting powerhouse. But yesterday, the bubbly went flat as Ofcom, the UK's media regulator, unveiled proposals that industry insiders said could break the group's domination of the pay TV market.

The Big Question: What's gone wrong between the Chancellor and the Governor?

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Keith Ludeman: Getting Britain moving

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Recession, recession, recession: it's all anyone seems to talk about. But not Go-Ahead chief executive Keith Ludeman. While some of his competitors are struggling with boom-time franchise agreements now looking worryingly unserviceable, Go-Ahead has just re-won its Southern rail contract, and unveiled the long-awaited High Speed One, which blasts from London to Ashford at 140mph.

Global credit: Searching for an exit strategy

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The view from the US

Bankers still trapped by the bonus backlash

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

So is he worth it? Royal Bank of Scotland will this week unveil the terms of the lucrative pay package offered to chief executive Stephen Hester as he bids to turn the ailing bank around. But details of the £9.6m remuneration package have already prompted a string of lurid headlines and some bitter attacks on RBS and its Government backers – as well as some muted support.

Henderson to the rescue at General Motors

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The clock is ticking for Frederick "Fritz" Henderson. Tapped by the US Treasury to run General Motors, the new chief executive understands that he needs to take a wrecking ball to the carmaker's rigid culture or he could be history, too. "I know I have to re-prove myself," he says.

Just watch MySpace – it's not dead yet

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

It has 127 million users around the world, including more than 70 million in the US. It brings in more advertising revenue than any other social networking site. It is the go-to website for people wanting to explore new music.

Darling vs King: Blood on the tablecloth

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

As the Cabinet was reshuffled at the start of the month, Alistair Darling was not even sure he would be delivering Mansion House speech to the City's bankers on Wednesday. Many suspect he will not be addressing them there next year, leaving him little time to fulfil his goal of imposing a new regulatory regime on the Square Mile.

Trouble down on the dairy farm

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Since the Dairy Farmers of Britain (DFOB), the UK's third-largest dairy farmers' co-operative, collapsed on 3 June, its fortunes have soured rapidly. While the majority of its 1,800 dairy farmers have managed to find new buyers of their milk, the joint receivers at PricewaterhouseCoopers have kept 200 afloat with a temporary guarantee of 10p a litre of milk.

Giovanni Bisignani: Flight path to survival

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Recent news from the airline industry is uniformly dire: a litany of bankruptcies, £1bn increases in fuel bills, and misfiring takeover plans. But in a luxury Kuala Lumpur hotel, overlooking the Malaysian capital's Petronas towers, Giovanni Bisignani, the impish director general of the International Air Transport Association (Iata), is buoyant.

The Big Question: What does working for no pay reveal about the plight of British Airways?

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The Swedish speed merchant

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The Koenigsegg CCXR is almost certainly the fastest car you have never heard of. It will accelerate from standstill to 60mph in 2.9 seconds and top 250mph, if your nerves can put up with it.