Nigel's nice business
NIGEL Lawson thinks of mass share own- ership as part of the Government's central theme of popular capitalism. The City (I was saying last week) too easily thinks of it as utopian in theory and a nuisance in practice — stocks and shares would be a nice little business if it weren't for the customers. This week Mr Lawson has taken up the charge: 'The growth in small shareholdings is not an irksome problem, as some still seem to see it, which will soon go away. The City needs to find ways not only of overcoming the present settlement problems but of cutting dealing costs and making it easier for the small investor to buy and sell shares; and in general to develop a far more vigorous retail business than at present exists. It is abundantly clear that the market is there.' I add only that Mr Lawson is not the man to rely on exhortation when a swift kick would help.
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