Articles By Christopher Fildes
December 2018 / January 2019
It's 119 years since the last southbound main line to London was built — will HS2 do any better than the Great Central Railway?
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June 2018
Disasters happen when the last man who can remember what happened last time has retired. Now is the time for new thinking
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April 2018
The 1p piece is useless, but it is less than half a century since it was bright and new
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April 2017
Mark Carney's chosen deputy was no sooner in than out
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July/August 2016
"Somehow the tax system must be brought into the age of Uber. This is now Angela Knight’s job"
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June 2016
During the Second World War, a "perpetual association" between France and the UK was proposed — in effect, the EU Mark I
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April 2016
Was the received wisdom wrong about the European exchange rate mechanism?
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December 2015
What does the Chancellor have up his sleeve this time?
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September 2015
"We should never trust the government — any government — to look after us in old age"
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May 2015
A modest proposal for reducing the National Debt
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March 2015
Imagine being allowed to own your own pension. Why, you might do something silly with it.
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January/February 2015
Lucky Osborne
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November 2014
What can we learn from the economic consequences of the First World War?
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September 2014
How to ride the feelgood factor to the election
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July/August 2014
How to train the customer
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May 2014
Banking and the First World War
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March 2014
Today’s career politicians could learn a lot from John Biffen, an MP who hated soundbites
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November 2013
Iain Martin's message in his excellent Making it Happen: Fred Goodwin, RBS and the Men Who Blew Up the British Economy is that a proper sense of fear is good for bankers.
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September 2013
‘Tax havens are distant and mysterious, and presumably up to no good. What better scapegoats could there be?’
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June 2013
‘In the 1970s, with inflation at 25 per cent, anyone who bought gold could be sent to prison’
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May 2013
The Bank of England has for a long time been hanging policy on one economic indicator and hoping for the best
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March 2013
Many in the 1970s predicted the demise of the railway. A new book by Richard Faulkner and Chris Austin tells how the foresight of a select few saved the trains
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March 2013
An arcane deal for the UK to write off a chunk of Argentina's debt in exchange for an end to squabbling over the Falklands was turned down by the British government. It would have saved a lot of trouble
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December 2012
Founder of Singapore, emancipator of slaves, discoverer of the world's smelliest flower: Stamford Raffles comes alive in Victoria Glendinning's biography
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November 2012
The gap between big business and small businesses is growing. Unfortunately Vince Cable and Mervyn King are no bridge builders
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September 2012
'The subtitle of the Financial Services Bill should be "We think Gordon Brown got it wrong"'
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July/August 2012
'Nothing in life is free, banking included... Free banking makes for a false market — it misleads both the banks and their customers and opens the door to mis-selling'
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April 2012
Occupy protestors rightly identify the City's failings, but, as Terry Smith points out, the market itself is not the enemy.
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March 2012
‘Pensions do not grow on trees and never did. That was an illusion’
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January/February 2012
Spirit of London 2012? The best thing that could happen to the Olympic Games would be to send them home
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December 2011
The euro's life began in doubt and has ended in crisis; thank god we never threw our pound into the pot
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October 2011
Government financial obstacles often start as interventions. But they have a habit of making life more difficult for the Chancellor and his aides
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June 2011
‘As Greece prepares to restructure its debt yet again, the Corporation of Foreign Bondholders must resume business’
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April 2011
Exiled tyrants need no longer fear: a luxurious afterlife awaits them in a club for failed dictators
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March 2011
Book review of The Bank of England: 1950s to 1979 by Forrest Capie
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About Christopher Fildes
Christopher Fildes writes on finance and public policy. He has been described as a "City sage and Fleet Street veteran".
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