In euroland, politics has triumphed over economics Eventually there will have to be further debt forgiveness - a point forcefully made by economist Vicky Pryce to a House of Lords committee on Tuesday - and now that the precedent has been established in Cyprus, bail-ins for depositors in the less solvent banks. Yet still its adherents cling to the single currency, as if to the cross itself. It's madness, but there appears no suffering too great if it is for the cause of the holy euro. Those who believed that the euro would by now have fallen apart underestimated the extent to which the euro had become a kind of religion and one for which almost no penance is too harsh. The old saying is that when politics and economics collide, it's always the economics that end up winning. Yet in the euro's case, the politics have triumphed over the economics. So far at least. RBS shouldn't need advice on how to lend When Royal Bank of Scotland was rescued with £45bn of taxpayers" money nearly five years ago, a compelling argument against full-scale nationalisation was the importance of preserving its commercial ethos. Though 81pc of its ownership may overnight have been transferred to the state, the remaining 19pc slice of private capital was deemed to be an important reminder that RBS would one day return to the market. Since then, whenever RBS has done something deemed controversial, such as making bonus payments or failing to lend enough to small businesses, the Government's response has been to remind taxpayers this was the price to be paid for running the bank on a "commercial basis." But over the past 18 months, that has been called into question as Chancellor George Osborne has taken a more active role in determining how the bank should be run. First came the diktat to cull the investment banking division, then the demands to slash pay. Each time the bank complied and each time more was demanded. This somewhat bizarre state of affairs, whereby the Chancellor and the Treasury have become the shadow management of RBS, has reached surreal levels with the bank effectively handing over its entire corporate lending policy to a former Bank of England official. We now have the spectacle of RBS appointing Sir Andrew Large, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, to tell it where it is going wrong on the lending front, the implication being that the bank has forgotten how to actually lend money. "If there are loans that we could and should be making, but are not, then that will change," said Chris Sullivan, the head of corporate banking at RBS. Well quite, but this is presumably something Mr Sullivan is already paid to do. At its heart, banking is an inherently simple business of ensuring that depositors" money is lent as profitably and as safely to businesses and individuals that need to borrow. Are we really to believe that RBS has forgotten this and needs its "friends" at the Treasury to point it out? British publishing has more chapters to write The departure of Victoria Barnsley as chief executive of HarperCollins UK after 13 years marks the second major westward shift in global publishing power in two days. The announcement that she will leave at the end of the week, to be replaced by the head of JK Rowling's ground-breaking Pottermore.com digital publishing venture, shocked staff and the wider industry. But in the context of the upheaval in Rupert Murdoch's empire as a result of its formal split into entertainment and publishing divisions, it is perhaps not altogether surprising. Arguably, it is more notable that her successor, Charlie Redmayne, will have much-reduced responsibilities. Whereas Mrs Barnsley was in charge of HarperCollins Australia, New Zealand and India, as well as domestic matters, Mr Redmayne will only have the UK to worry about. The Commonwealth countries will now report direct to HarperCollins Worldwide chief executive Brian Murray, in New York. It can be seen as yet another sign of how the phone-hacking scandal surrounding Mr Murdoch's British newspapers has driven the withdrawal of News Corp to America. Coming the day after the completion of Penguin's merger with Bertelsmann-owned Random House, it means a double blow for British book publishing. Penguin Random House will also be run from New York, ending almost 80 years of British control at Penguin. It is not all bad news for London's publishing executives, however. The New York Times recently noted the "British invasion" of American newspapers, magazines and television, which it attributed to more innovative thinking and awareness of audience in the UK. Given the success of ventures such as Pottermore and other digital publishing innovations which originated here, there is no reason ambitious British executives will not have a thing or two to teach New York book publishers, too.