An Alpine haven disappears
India has done well to rework its tax treaty with Switzerland to obtain information on Indians hiding their money in Swiss accounts. However, the new openness will come into force with prospective effect. Past transgressors cannot be brought to book with the new double taxation avoidance agreement that complies with the norms prescribed by rich [...]
A wonderful equities rally
Indian equity prices have more than doubled in the 12 months after the main indices hit a bottom on 9 March 2009. Back then, optimism was rare. Western banks were still wobbly, trade was collapsing and output was shrinking. Most people were quick to dismiss the rally as nothing more than a dead cat bounce. “The global markets have staged [...]
Mr Mukherjee’s bad idea
Now that we have said so many good things about Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget, it is time to say some nasty things too. We don’t like the idea of the finance minister chairing a Financial Stability and Development Council. Mr Mukherjee’s Budget speech said the Council would “monitor macro prudential supervision of the economy, [...]
Rolfe Winkler & Rob Cox: Pandit poised
It wasn’t long ago that Vikram Pandit was fighting for his job as chief executive of Citigroup. Regulators, politicians and shareholders all had him in their sights. But Pandit is still in charge and, to judge by his latest appearance on Capitol Hill, deftly managing the balance between shareholder interests and those of the American taxpayer. [...]
Dispelling Greek myths
The Greek economic crisis continues to test the political will of all involved. The country's budget deficit is €300 billion. It owes $75.5 billion, $64 billion, and $43.2 billion to French, Swiss, and German banks respectively. George Papandreou, the centre-left Prime Minister, has proposed public expenditure cuts and savings measures to reduce [...]
Kanika Datta: Moral hazard comes to football finance
Goldman Sachs’ chief economist Jim O’Neill is an unlikely name to figure in discussions among football’s TV pundits and bloggers. But that’s just where you can spot his name these days. That’s because he’s at the centre of a hostile takeover attempt on Manchester United, one of the world’s richest and most successful football [...]
John Foley: Beast of the East
HSBC and Standard Chartered are battling to be Asia's favourite Western bank. Both weathered the financial crisis better than rivals in the developed world, and emerged with stronger balance sheets. In valuation terms, they are even - both trade at a multiple of 10 times estimated earnings for 2011. Despite the apparent tie, however, full-year [...]
Shyamal Majumdar: Banking on talent
"Employer of choice” is not a branding that the country’s largest bank is used to. But it finally happened last month when the State Bank of India (SBI) figured in the list of the top 10 employee-friendly Indian organisations in a Business Today survey. It was a surprise as the hurdles were many. The public sector legacy means that the [...]
A.I.G., Greece, and Who’s Next?
As Greece has tottered on the brink of fiscal chaos, threatening to drag much of Europe down with it, Wall Street’s role in the fiasco has drawn well-deserved scorn. First came the news that Greece had entered into derivatives transactions with Goldman Sachs and other banks to hide its public debt. Then came reports that some of those same [...]
M Rajshekhar: The bazaar view of development
There is a reason why most interventions in rural India — by the government and companies — struggle. They underestimate how rural communities will respond. To elaborate, the recently concluded panchayat elections in Chhattisgarh saw a new trend. Wannabe sarpanches spent far more than before on campaigning. Stories about candidates calling [...]