The sun shines on retail again

The speed with which retail has bounced back from the "Great Recession" is impressive. The high street was hard hit by the aftermath of the global credit crisis, consumer spending fell off a cliff and a number of retailers, including Woolworth, Zavvi, childrenswear chain Adams and footwear group Stylo went into administration.

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Labour caution paying off

Ahead of next month's election, the Conservatives aim to position themselves as the party of probity and cuts and Labour as the stewards of recovery and investment.

The big theme for the Tories has been the desperate need to deal with Labour's legacy of deficits and debt. David Cameron and his economic spokesman George Osborne, adopting increasingly apocalyptic language, argue that unless the next government starts to bring those debt levels down immediately - a budget is promised within 50 days of taking office - then Britain could lose its coveted 'AAA' credit rating.

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The fund that avoids the herd

Fund management groups come in all shapes and sizes. One boutique manager which is punching above its weight, with funds spanning the globe from Russia to Japan, is Hammersmith-based Neptune Investment Management.

Founded in 2002 by Rugby and Oxford educated Robin Geffen, Neptune has demonstrated an ability to succeed in the most difficult market conditions.

And despite Geffen's traditional English public school background he remains conscious of his Jewish heritage.

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Even Sandler may not polish Pearl

Many of us, of a certain vintage, have a "with profits" or endowment policy stuffed into a bottom draw somewhere. Before the age of ISAs, VCTs and index linked funds, these were regarded as the ideal safe investment.

Over time they fell out of fashion for a variety of reasons, most notably in the late 1990s and early "noughties" when it was discovered that they were unlikely to pay off the mortgage as promised by the financial adviser who had sold them.

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It's a dynasty drama at Rothschild plc

No dynasty is more associated with Anglo-Jewry and Israel — through the works of the Hanadiv Foundation — than the Rothschilds. So changes in the flagship London-based bank NM Rothschild remain of much fascination throughout the Jewish world.

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Finally, politicians boss the banks

This weekend, finance ministers from the Group of Seven most advanced nations will gather in the town of Iqualit, just South of the Canadian Arctic Circle, to try to put some order into the chaos of banking regulation. The return to fat profits, bonuses and greed at the global banks, just 15 months after the ‘Great Panic’ of 2008 has been so swift that it has left politicians and policy-makers in the starting traps.

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Boss who's Next on the retail-guru radar

His entry in Who’s Who is just four lines long. He is a retailer with an empire which rivals Sir Stuart Rose’s M&S and Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia.

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Watch out for this year's playmakers

As world economic leaders seek to consign the great panic and recessions of 2007-09 to the dustbin of history this year, expect Jewish policy-makers and business people to be an important part of the story in 2010.

Many eyes will be focused on Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board — America’s central bank — to see if and when he calls an end to the age of easy money.

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The bankers deserve to pay the price

No area of business garnered as many headlines in 2009 as the banks.

As the global financial situation has steadied after the great panic of 2008, there has been a speedy bounce back to health of most financial groups — with the notable exception of RBS. This has resulted in an intense focus on the return of the bonus culture.

It is the re-emergence of hefty bonuses which resulted in the unveiling of a “supertax” on bank bonuses in Alistair Darling’s Pre-Budget Report.

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Why Bolland is ideal for M&S

The choice of Marc Bolland of grocer Wm Morrison to be the next chief executive of Marks & Spencer has been treated in the media and by the stock market as a second coming. Since executive chairman Sir Stuart Rose unveiled his successor as chief executive last month, the reaction has been wholly positive and the group’s shares have soared towards 400p, almost double the low point at the worst of the great panic a year ago.

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