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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

A close shave with the King

COMMENT: King of Shaves is promoting a bond direct to investors via press adverts. Alistair Blair professes himself amazed at the chutzpah of it all

30 June 2009

Fewer words, more sense

COMMENT: Annual reports contain far too much legalese and fluff, and not enough of the information investors require. And it's unlikely to get better

16 June 2009

Performance pitfalls

COMMENT: We all know that past performance is not always a guide to the future. But some new pensions research shows just how bad a guide it can be

10 June 2009

The call to arms

COMMENT: A bill on directors' remuneration in the Lords has attracted remarkable support - but it needs more. Alistair Blair explains what you can do to curb excessive boardroom pay.

02 June 2009

No messing around with shareholders...

COMMENT: A new book enlists Mother Teresa and the Pope in arguing that troubled banks should be automatically nationalised

27 May 2009

The wrong targets

COMMENT: The scale of parliamentarians' expense-fiddling is peanuts compared with what goes on, largely unchallenged, in the boardrooms of UK plc

20 May 2009

Fool's Gold

COMMENT: Alistair Blair reviews Fool's Gold, Gillian Tett's new book about the credit crunch

13 May 2009

Shock and awe at Axeon

COMMENT: AG's press release crowed about Axeon's "promising and exciting future"

29 April 2009

The perils of absentee shareholders

COMMENT: Lord Myners is projecting some kind of "merrie governance"

22 April 2009

Deja vu at BT

COMMENT: It's hard to escape the conclusion that BT is still a plodding incumbent

15 April 2009

Your opinion

Does the UK need a Glass-Steagall Act?

THE BIG QUESTION: Former Chancellor Nigel Lawson argues that High Street banks shouldn't be allowed to own investment banks. The British Bankers Association disagrees.

  • 1 July 2009
  • Written by:
    Jonathan Eley

Do you believe in 'peak oil'?

THE BIG QUESTION: It's an issue that's divided the oil industry since it was first proposed in the 1950s - has the world's oil production capacity already entered terminal decline?

  • 23 June 2009
  • Written by:
    Jonathan Eley

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