Israel weathers financial crisis

Israel receives little credit for its economic achievements. So it was a nice surprise to find Stanley Fischer, governor of the Bank of Israel, as the star turn at a luncheon for global economic policymakers at last month’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting in Washington.

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Lloyds bid turns to Middle East

Lloyds Banking Group, the product of the disastrous forced marriage between Lloyds and HBOS, has a serious problem.

The 43 per cent government-owned bank has been told by the European Commission that it must disgorge 632 of its branches and the back-up systems so as to satisfy rules governing state subsidy.

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Britain, we need to get building

You don't need to be an economist to understand that investment in the nation's infrastructure is grossly inadequate.

Willie Walsh, chief executive of IAG, the holding company for British Airways, frequently takes to the media to express his concerns about the lack of runway capacity in the south-east of Britain.

Drought orders across great swathes of the country provide a sharp remainder of

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British businesses must stop selling out

The overseas takeovers of British-based enterprises roll on. Among the latest UK companies to find a new home is Staines-based NDS, originally an Israeli start-up, bought last month by California's Cisco Systems for $5 billion in what was claimed to be Israel's biggest high-tech deal yet.

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Tesco's troubles can turn around

Tesco may have run out of Jewish chief executives but as a supermarket group it has remained true to its roots.

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Osborne, be bold in the Budget

In many ways George Osborne has been a disappointing Chancellor. The toxic inheritance of Labour's debt mountain, together with the rigours of coalition politics and the crisis in the Euroland, have left him with little room to manoeuvre.

But none of this really explains his failure to seize the high ground in rebalancing the UK economy away from finance and underpinning growth.

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Arkush was driven by passion, not cynicism

First, a confession: I was not present when Jonathan Arkush delivered his excoriating critique of the JLC. After sitting through a couple of hours of procedural gobbledegook about votes for the under-35s, it seemed to me time to return to my day job.

But unlike other BoD members, I did have exclusive access to Mr Arkush as we sat next to each other on a flight to Israel.

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Negev economy gets boost

The most recent report by the OECD, the Paris-based watchdog of developed nations, generally gives the Israeli economy a clean bill of health.

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Glenstrata giant - it won't be that easy

Proposed and completed mergers of mining giants do not have a happy history in modern times.

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Do bonuses fuel antisemitism?

Let me be clear from the start. The bankers who have been, and will continue to dominate news bulletins; Stephen Hester, chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Bob Diamond, chief executive of Barclays, are not Jewish.

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New pay rules just won't work

You do not have to be a socialist to think that pay in Britain's boardrooms has gone off the scale.

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Trad retail suffering but online has pain, too

Translating the high-street headlines at the start of a new year is like navigating a maze.

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Food supremo retains her global appetite

No modern takeover in Britain caused so much public furore as the February 2010 purchase by American food giant Kraft of Cadbury.

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Could a BIB promote growth?

The search continues for a big idea to help rebalance the British economy and restore growth. In his autumn statement, George Osborne proposed some £40bn of "credit easing" to get cheaper credit flowing to small and medium-sized enterprises along with a boost for infrastructure spending to create jobs and investment in new capital projects.

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It's time to tax those bankers

The 'Occupy Wall Street' and 'Occupy London' movements are too easily dismissed as the actions of a bunch of middle-class cranks without a real cause. But like the 'Cottage Cheese' protests in Israel and the spontaneous youth protests in Barcelona, they are civil disobedience with real meaning.

The global crisis has placed sharp income disparities in the spotlight.

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