Date: 2025-11-17 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00000448
Organizations: Media
The breakingviews.com unit of Thompson Reuters
breakingviews.com has a deep network of financial journalists around the world reporting on the capitalist market economy
Hugo Dixon - Editor
hugo.dixon@thomsonreuters.com
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7 542 0477
Hugo Dixon is the founder and editor of Reuters Breakingviews. Before founding Breakingviews in 1999, Hugo spent 13 years at the Financial Times, the last five as Head of Lex. He began his journalistic career at the Economist. Hugo was a Brackenbury Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford, where he gained a first class degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. Before that, he was a King’s Scholar at Eton College. He is the author of the Penguin Guide to Finance and Finance Just in Time. He was named Business Journalist of the Year 2000 in the British Press Awards. In 2008, he won the Decade of Excellence Award at the Business Journalist of the Year Awards.
Can non-violent struggle bring down Syria's Assad?
Maybe not if it was purely spontaneous. But, in Syria, the campaign shows it can think strategically and organise effectively. In a style that departs from the typical Breakingviews approach, Hugo Dixon tells the tale through the eyes of a leading activist, Ausama Monajed.
Rajoy needs to tell Spain some home truths
The country's probable next PM shouldn't wait until after November's election to level with the Spanish people about the actions needed to avoid getting sucked into the euro zone crisis and to restore competitiveness. Here's the speech he should give now.
Greek deal bizarrely increases its debts
The sustainability of Athens' borrowings will improve because the new debt will be long-term and cheap. But the country's borrowings will go up by 31 billion euros and its estimated peak debt/GDP ratio will rise to 179 percent, according to a Breakingviews analysis.
Is the ECB as hard as it looks?
Working out what the central bank thinks can be like Kremlinology in the old Soviet Union. But there are signs that its line on not taking defaulted Greek debt as collateral isn't quite as hard as one might think. If so, there could be a compromise that unlocks the crisis.
James Murdoch shouldn't be kicked out of BSkyB
Some observers want to use the Murdoch clan's troubles at News International, their UK newspapers company, to run them out of town completely. But BSkyB, the pay-television group, is a separate business - and James Murdoch has done a good job first as CEO and now as chairman.
London Times should declare independence
With Rupert Murdoch on the run, The Times has a golden opportunity to reassert its editorial autonomy. Although Murdoch reneged on a promise made 30 years ago to guarantee that, the undertaking still stands. Now is the time to test it.
The way to end the Greek farce
The euro zone is tying itself in knots in an attempt to engineer a voluntary rollover of Greek debt. It would better to accept the inevitable, restructure the debt properly without waiting and put in place measures to minimise possible contagion.
Syria matters beyond Syria
Unlike in Egypt and Tunisia, protestors are facing tanks. Unlike in Libya, they are barely resorting to violence. If Syria's nonviolent demonstrators can topple such a repressive regime, many non-democratic governments - including Iran and even China - will feel vulnerable.
BSkyB directors should quiz James Murdoch
Before confirming Murdoch as chairman of the pay-TV group, independent directors should ask him searching questions about his role in cleaning up the hacking scandal at News of the World. If he is evasive, they should ask him to step aside.
Athens rescue is a pig in a poke
A deal was better than a disaster. But this rescue has the astonishing by-product of increasing Greece’s debts. It also lets private creditors off lightly while making taxpayers elsewhere in the euro zone pay through the nose. It doesn’t even mark the end of the crisis.
Europe dances with danger
The region's leaders have been consistently behind the curve when addressing problems from Italy to Greece. As credibility shrivels, they need to do much more to restore confidence. This week's summit is the last good chance.
How to minimise Greek moral hazard
Europe is looking at slashing Athens' debts as a way of solving Greece's problems. That might look like rewarding the Greeks for their profligacy, encouraging other indebted nations to ask for the same favour. Here's how to reduce the chance of that happening.
Berlusconi really must go
It's no longer about abuse of power and bunga bunga parties. His continuation as Italy's prime minister could drive the country into a financial death spiral. His own supporters are shaken and the public is afraid. But the opposition is behaving responsibly, so there's some hope.
UK enjoys its post-Murdoch spring
The media baron has held British politics in his thrall for decades, partly through fear. Now the fear barrier has been breached as outrage over phone hacking at his News of the World mounts. His power suddenly seems fragile and even his dynastic dreams may be threatened.
EDITOR
HUGO DIXON Editor
EDITORS
ROB COX US Editor
CHRISTOPHER HUGHES Assistant Editor (London)
JEFFREY GOLDFARB Assistant Editor (NY)
PETER THAL LARSEN Assistant Editor (London)
PIERRE BRIANÇON European Editor
RICHARD BEALES Assistant Editor (NY)
ROBERT COLE Assistant Editor (London)
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FIONA MAHARG-BRAVO Madrid Columnist
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NEIL UNMACK Columnist
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SARAH BAILEY Web Editor
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