In Germany, banking is harnessed and put to work pulling the community forward instead of taking it for a ride. Doing the same at here at home means we must accept, or champion even, the decline of the old model of investment banking. The German, government-owned development bank KfW offers a potential alternative. Formed in 1948 as part of the Marshall Plan as a central loan corporation. By the...

Making economic policy when the convention wisdom is wrong and is against you is not easy, as Labour is finding. But conventional wisdom can shift rapidly. This week has seen some signs that may be happening. Labour still has work to do in crafting its economic policy however. Bill Gross, the manager of the world’s largest bond fund, has changed his view on austerity. Having criticised the UK for...