First week in power, and already the Cameron/Clegg government faces defeat in negotiations on new European Union rules for hedge funds. But this is not a case of start as you mean to go on: it is not early evidence that the new administration will be more isolated in Europe than the previous...

Paul Volcker has an almost mythical status as the last unambiguously successful chairman of the US Federal Reserve, wise counsellor to President Obama and the man who supposedly knows how to fix the global financial system. He’s even lent his name to perhaps the boldest of Obama’s...

There’s been a dramatic increase in the costs for BP of its efforts to contain the oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico from a damaged deep-sea well. BP this morning estimated the cost to date as $450m, up from a $350m estimate published on Monday. That implies that the daily costs are...

The Tories may have won the most votes and have secured the most MPs, but some in the City may well see the Tory-Lib Dem coalition as something of what they would call a reverse takeover by the Lib Dems. Because much of is emerging as the new government’s policies towards the banks and...

The Tory and Lib Dem negotiators are reaching the final stages of policy negotiations. Any agreement on ministerial jobs will come later. This is what I’ve learned would be some important elements in their joint economic and business policy: 1) The £6bn of additional spending cuts...

The 10-year benchmark gilt is falling sharply at the opening. It is now down 0.8, after a weak close last night. This will make for a tricky auction of £2.25bn of gilts – think of it as the government borrowing £2.25bn – later today. I’ll elaborate on the causes and...