As Tolstoy was said to have scribbled in the notes of his unpublished economics textbook, before happily switching over to Anna Karenina.* Tyler Alex and I have been arguing beneath an earlier post about Greek/UK differences. I’m on the ‘Niall Ferguson Wrong Again’ side, but this does NOT mean that I lightly dismiss the problems [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Economics’
4 May
Rebalancing quietly taking place …
Well, what is this all about? The trend in the gilt market: Recall two pieces of conventional wisdom. One, the end of QE spelt doom to gilts. Take away that one big sucker-buyer and they will fall out of bed*. Two, if there’s a hung parliament, the great British Politician will spend months and months [...]
4 May
Will growing wealth pull us out of the recession?
You may if you are particularly devoted recall the analysis in Slash and Grow – about whether exports, households or investment can lead us out of recession. The bearish view is that households can’t, because they are very indebted and need to keep saving, after a credit crunch has shown them how dangerous it is [...]
1 May
The Keynesian moment cannot last forever
I was thinking about this when skimming through the Times’ endorsement for Cameron. Its basic premise is similar to that of the Economist (see last post): reform of an overmighty and just-too-large State is the essential challenge of the era, and the Conservatives are best for this: Amid the sound and fury, a fundamental philosophical [...]
30 Apr
If the answer is Helicopter Money, how do you sell it?
Like I ranted yesterday, GDP is a very poor way of measuring how certain things are getting better. And my absolutely favourite example is how the Internet has revolutionized the ability to interact with and eavesdrop upon thinkers and teachers – whom one would previously have had to ambush in some University corridor. An example [...]
29 Apr
Ignoring the Hippopotamus next door …
Well, if our own deficit is the Elephant in the Room, what is a nearby E300bn economy heading to bankruptcy? Will future post-election commentators wonder what on earth the Guardian was doing running so many different columns on bigotgate while the next economic crisis burst upon our shores? (to be fair to the Guardian, they [...]
29 Apr
Guardian podcast: the poverty of Marxism
The latest Business podcast featured Professor David Harvey, in the company of Julian Glover, Aditya Chakraborrty and Larry Elliott of the Guardian. Quick observations: is there a quicker, more insightful or more thoughtful commentator than Julian Glover anywhere? I’m not sure there is. Listen to this podcast just for his interventions about financial reform, [...]
27 Apr
Some telling quotes, mostly about the continuing erosion of Labour
First, from the BBC page about today: Labour say their rivals’ plans amount to a “coalition of cuts for children” as parties try to focus on policy after days of debate about a hung parliament. Labour will attack Lib Dem plans to axe child trust funds and Tory proposals to scale back child tax credits. [...]
26 Apr
Notable paragraphs, somewhat economic
Amazing fact from Hamish McRae’s column: the individual components of growth this first quarter are surprising. Government output added nothing – it was flat, having either been flat or falling for the previous five quarters. Construction was down on the previous quarter. Hotels and restaurants were down too. Manufacturing was up, but as we have [...]
23 Apr
The Telegraph tries to find worse and worse ways to scare us about a Hung Parliament
Ian Cowie really is plumbing the depths here. I should not read such stuff on so much caffeine. Imagine a starving Jack Russell being electroprodded by a toddler and you are nowhere near the level of irritation. Here is Cowie’s thinking, to put it kindly: The last time a British election failed to produce [...]
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