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Come here for my take on money matters from a Scottish perspective
11 hours ago
Douglas added analysis to:
With a hiatus over Britain's aviation policy, the future of London's airport is often seen as an issue for Londoners.
And while it's a noisy row for those under the flight paths, the economic impact of the bottlenecks in London matters at least as much to those who fly in as those who fly out.
15:37 UK time, Wednesday, 22 May 2013
Not long off a red-eye flight from New York, I've returned to a country where the public attitude to immigration has politicians worried.
And I've left a country where it's trying to solve its own tricky immigration challenge.
11:30 UK time, Friday, 17 May 2013
There are places where you can almost touch the economic power and see global change taking place.
Standing on the Bund in Shanghai, for instance, watching the river cargo hurry to market, and looking across to the gleaming Pudong business district.
07:44 UK time, Wednesday, 15 May 2013
The search for a cure to cancer is not one for the impatient, or those short of money.
But at least one small team of Scottish researchers may be getting close to something significant.
07:55 UK time, Friday, 10 May 2013
You only occasionally get insights into the thinking of the captains of industry.
More often than not, they have a prepared line to take, and fear thinking out loud for fear of how an original thought might affect those dreaded stakeholders, not least shareholders. For Gerald Ratner, they recall, it was all over in one sentence.
13:24 UK time, Thursday, 9 May 2013
Four years ago, Edinburgh looked doomed. Its two giant banks had required enormous rescue packages.
I was fielding questions - mainly from London - about how the Scottish capital would handle the disaster for jobs, supplier companies and the self-confidence of the Scottish financial sector.
11:20 UK time, Tuesday, 7 May 2013
Douglas added analysis to:
"The questions on the energy question, which is never far from the economic part of the independence debate, are how you assess both risk and return, and how much appetite for risk - both downside and upside - Scottish voters will have when they vote in September next year.
"To watch the rate at which pounds, dollars, euros, Chinese renminbi and Korean won are being drilled into the North Sea and West of Shetland, you wouldn't think there's much concern about constitutional change.
07:00 UK time, Tuesday, 7 May 2013
Four trillion pounds: the possible value of oil and gas under Scottish waters. That's four thousand billion. It was a tantalising prospect of a lot of lucre looking out from the front of a Sunday paper this past weekend, potentially transforming the debate on Scotland's economic future.
Behind it is a projection of the oil price going as high as $270 per barrel, from the just over $100 it is trading at now.
22:37 UK time, Thursday, 2 May 2013
It's arguably the most important economic question in Scotland's independent referendum. No, not the choice of currency, nor the future path of oil revenues.
It's the question of what would happen to economic growth. Or to put a bit more simply: would Scotland be better or worse off if it were independent?
13:36 UK time, Wednesday, 1 May 2013
Douglas added analysis to:
What Vince Cable seems to have in mind is the possibility of using his department's power to ban individuals from being company directors - not only in senior financial jobs, but in any company.
And he feels constrained in taking action on that - either through criminal or civil action - while the Crown Office investigation drags on.
08:12 UK time, Wednesday, 1 May 2013
There's public pressure, an appetite for some exemplary bans and a bit of mischief-making behind Vince Cable's call for faster action on Scotland's banks.
The business secretary's mischief-making is clear from the recipient, Lord Wallace of Tankerness, advocate general in the Scotland Office and chief Scots law officer in the UK government.
12:55 UK time, Tuesday, 23 April 2013
Douglas added analysis to:
The currency Scots use matters to them, as it does in any country. People want to know their coins, notes, savings and investments are securely backed.
So the choice of the pound, the euro or a new Scottish currency is of fundamental importance to the debate on Scottish independence.
11:13 UK time, Monday, 22 April 2013
Douglas added analysis to:
My wallet currently contains pictures of Sir Walter Scott, the Forth Bridge, Culzean Castle and the Glenfinnan Viaduct.
Take note - Read more on this story
08:33 UK time, Monday, 22 April 2013
My wallet currently contains pictures of Sir Walter Scott, the Forth Bridge, Culzean Castle and the Glenfinnan Viaduct.
One of the banknotes has been signed by the Royal Bank of Scotland's Stephen Hester: others by Lord Dennis Stevenson. These date back to 2007 when Bank of Scotland, which he then chaired, was splurging high risk loans around the economy like a game of financial paintball.
21:24 UK time, Wednesday, 17 April 2013
There's an endless supply of barely-known or shell companies and international connections with which Craig Whyte can keep the Rangers' plates spinning, more than a year since he lost control of the club.
And in case money runs tight for burgeoning legal bills, there's the possibility of getting funding through the money markets.
14:11 UK time, Wednesday, 17 April 2013
Much media attention may be on a funeral in London, but let's not overlook some surprisingly positive news about the Scottish economy.
I'll leave others to ponder the irony of it, or perhaps the link to Margaret Thatcher's legacy. But if we look at this downturn, the most recent output and job figures are looking good.
18:40 UK time, Tuesday, 16 April 2013
"Fraudulent", "fanciful" and "not at all convincing": just some of the recent court findings about Craig Whyte.
It reaches the "inescapable conclusion" that if he didn't lie to his business partners, then he was either "reckless" or "negligent" in failing to tell the truth.
09:11 UK time, Sunday, 14 April 2013
Douglas added analysis to:
A new volley of statistics has been fired during the past week by the Scottish government. To what end?
Well, the political intention is clear: to kill off the notion that Scotland is incapable of paying its way.
09:10 UK time, Sunday, 14 April 2013
A new volley of statistics has been fired during the past week by the Scottish government. To what end?
Well, the political intention is clear: to kill off the notion that Scotland is incapable of paying its way.
22:25 UK time, Tuesday, 9 April 2013
A cull of pension entitlements, directorates and honours is now catching up with some of the individuals who led Britain's banks into financial catastrophe.
Fred Goodwin was singled out for vilification over his role at Royal Bank of Scotland, and the head of HBOS business lending, Peter Cummings, was alone in being fined.
Douglas joined BBC Scotland at the moment the financial crisis struck in 2008, reporting on the meltdown at RBS and the collapse of Dunfermline Building Society.
His beat also includes close attention to the offshore oil and renewable energy sectors, and he takes a mostly professional interest in whisky.
Working in Scottish journalism since 1989, he previously worked for The Herald and The Scotsman, among other newspapers.
He has covered politics from the Holyrood parliament, as well as education, the arts and the Highlands and Islands.
He is co-author of the Political Guide to Modern Scotland.
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