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No Free Lunch

The No Free Lunch column is written by Alistair Blair, who is a past winner of the Business Writer of the Year award, who has also worked in investment banking and fund management.


Recent articles

The darker side of share buy-backs

NO FREE LUNCH: Buying back shares is either a sensible way of deploying surplus capital, or a cheap trick to boost earnings momentum, and a sign that a company has run out of ideas

16 July 2008

Buy-backs 1: The case in favour

NO FREE LUNCH: The basic principle is sound

09 July 2008

So richly rewarded

NO FREE LUNCH: HBOS is busy selling new shares at a fraction of the price it bought back old ones. And guess what? The guys that preside over this mess are awarding themselves huge bonuses!

02 July 2008

Where are the bankers' bodies?

NO FREE LUNCH: The likes of HBOS, RBS and Barclays spent billions buying back shares, only to issue new ones at a fraction of the price. How have their bosses managed to stay in their jobs?

25 June 2008

Irrational exuberance

NO FREE LUNCH: Most people's expectations of stock market returns are far too optimistic - and that's before fund managers take their obscene cut. Luckily, there is another way

18 June 2008

Steady Teddy

NO FREE LUNCH: A 20-year journey with a long way to go

11 June 2008

Bradford & Generous

NO FREE LUNCH: The new meaning of "fully underwritten"

04 June 2008

Attention Lord Turner

NO FREE LUNCH: Adair Turner is odds-on to be the new chairman of the FSA. If he is, here's an item that should go straight to the top of his in-tray

28 May 2008

Disenfranchisement

NO FREE LUNCH: Our weekly columnist investigates the nonsense that passes for corporate democracy

21 May 2008

Also Sprach Evelyn

NO FREE LUNCH: A senior Rothschild airs doubts

14 May 2008

Your opinion

How safe is my money (1)

READER QUESTIONS: Are Isas covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme?

  • 13 May 2008
  • Written by:
    Moira O'Neill

How safe is my money (2)

READER QUESTIONS: If money is held in an offshore account, does it have the same protection as it would onshore?

  • 13 May 2008
  • Written by:
    IC reader questions

Bargain Shares

Simon Thompson picks six stocks with good prospects, huge asset backing, and bombed-out share prices!

Find out which they are, and track their share price performance, here