Patrick Hosking

Business

The business - Patrick Hosking can't take Oliver Letwin seriously

• 08 December 2003

Oliver Letwin, the shadow chancellor, cannot expect to be taken seriously while he draws a wage from N M Rothschild, which has as many as 92 corporate clients

Business

The business - Patrick Hosking argues Brown is right on pensions

• 01 December 2003

Tax relief on pension savings is meant to encourage middle earners to set aside enough so that they won't be a burden on the state, not to give the very rich another way to avoid tax

The business - Patrick Hosking hopes John Prescott gets gazumped

• 24 November 2003

Prescott proposes to make it compulsory for house sellers to get their own surveys done. But what buyer will believe a report that the vendor has paid for? Asks Parick Hosking

Business

The business - Patrick Hosking thinks we live beyond our means

• 17 November 2003

The country is living beyond its means, but nobody makes a fuss. We have just recorded the worst monthly trade deficit ever and the stock market barely blinked

Business

The business - Patrick Hosking hears some mortage whoppers

• 10 November 2003

The Bank of England has a hopelessly rationalist view of human nature. Investment markets (and, boy, is property seen as an investment now) just don't work like that

Business

The business - Patrick Hosking sheds no tears for Michael Green

• 27 October 2003

Carlton's Michael Green deserved to be ditched. Not because he made bad TV, but because he was a bad capitalist: £1,000 invested in his company 15 years ago is now worth £1,046

Business

The business - Patrick Hosking reports plans for a PO credit card

• 20 October 2003

When bailiffs are already chasing £5bn in debts, it seems odd for the Royal Mail, an arm of the state, to launch yet another credit card. Nevertheless, we should wish it well

The business - Patrick Hosking on lies, damn lies and statistics

• 13 October 2003

So growth is twice as high as forecast earlier this year. But this is not the first time that official statisticians have got it wrong. Conspiracy or cock-up?

The business - Patrick Hosking

• 06 October 2003

How fortunate for Rupert Murdoch to have Lord St John of Fawsley as senior non-executive director of BSkyB. He believes in the principle of heredity

The business - Patrick Hosking on Gordon Brown's grisly choice

• 29 September 2003

Since income tax rises are ruled out by manifesto promises, Gordon Brown faces a grisly choice: a tax on jobs or a tax on the poor. Anything else would bring in peanuts