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Listed below are comments made by cityNickDrew between Monday, 18th May 2009 and Thursday, 6th August 2009.

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• Charging for online news 9:08pm on 06 Aug 2009 Papers that have genuinely unique content like the FT and the Economist have failed to make fees stick. New Corps doesn't have anything comparable - certainly not in the UK - and will fail too.
• Who'll be shot when banks misbehave? 11:37am on 31 Jul 2009 We just don't call people to account in this country.
  
  Compare and contrast with the USA: Jeff Skilling of Enron was gaoled for 24 years and fined $45 million, for 'deceiving investors'. OK, it's a different jusrisdiction, but to whom might that apply in the UK ? I exepct we could all come up with a few suggestions.
• If markets don't work, what will? 12:42pm on 28 Jul 2009 The CFTC seems to find evidence that oil-price formation is unreliable - just as here at home the FSA apparently concludes the opposite.
  
  Obviously we await both reports with bated breath: but based on track-record I'm inclined to listen very carefully to the CFTC.
• Can non-execs cure banks' madness and badness? 09:19am on 16 Jul 2009 <RICHPOST>Non-execs just don't see themselves in that role, as neatly captured in <a href="[Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]"><b>this recent vignette. They are, <i>de facto</i> part of the money-making system, not the risk management structure.<BR /><BR />The answer must be to reinforce their fiduciary responsibilities, either in law (which shouldn't be necessary, of course) or by making an example of a few, in some high-profile litigation.<BR /><BR />Either way, the supply of non-execs would be considerably diminished: they have enough difficulty getting insurance as it is. </RICHPOST>
• Treasury patches up regulatory system 09:19am on 08 Jul 2009 This dithering on macro-prudential regulation is pathetic. There are excellent practical examples elsewhere in the world, both formulaic and discretionary: and no change to Basel II is required.
  
  The Governor of the Central Bank of Thailand knows more about this than Gordon Brown or Alastair Darling. Puts them to shame.
• Royal Mail in a falling market 8:59pm on 02 Jul 2009 So it was pure politics from the beginning, as well as at the end - who'd have thought it ?!
  
  And it leaves things even worse than before.
• Mandelson and markets 10:15pm on 01 Jul 2009 So the price of Mandelson's (unusually) lame politicking is that the Post Office will languish and, when eventually something must be done (the Pension, proper competition regulations), it will be in an even worse position to respond.
• Why banks must be allowed to die 09:15am on 26 Jun 2009 Should be allowed to die ? The banks know the score, and they always have.
  
  They choose to play on regardless, confident that politicians who don't know, will pick up the pieces. With Brown at the helm, who's to say they are wrong ?
• Corus, jobs and electricity usage 5:09pm on 25 Jun 2009 The reduction in electricity (and gas) demand has been noticeable for many months now - mainly industrial demand, but also residential to a small extent. It is going to result in Big Trouble for some of the utilities who specialise in supplying the industrials.
  
  The problem, as highlighted here, is that the suppliers buy on long-term contracts with minimum-bill quantities, but most industrials do not. So when they (unilaterally) slash their demand, the suppliers are left sitting on a surplus, probably out-of-the-money.
  
  Another turn of the screw.
• Victor Blank may be proved right (eventually) 10:06am on 18 May 2009 "Being right eventually" may take a while for Victor, and in the meantime his government-encouraged acquisition of some extremely troublesome retail banking 'assets' could prove very painful.

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