Troubled Britain should not mock the Eurozone’s nightmare September 26, 2012 EUROPEAN markets follow a well-trodden path. A bailout plan is announced, sending investors into a frenzy of happiness; nothing much happens; data is published showing one or more countries in even greater crisis than before; everybody panics; equity markets plunge and bond yields jump; another bailout pledge is made. And so on. We are now [...]
Fiscal crisis continues to threaten our struggling economy September 25, 2012 IT is hard to disagree with Standard & Poor’s that the Eurozone is likely to see zero growth until 2014. The situation is worsening again, especially in Spain, where the budget crisis is intensifying amid separationist tensions, and in Greece, which could soon be demoted to being an emerging market again by the FTSE. None [...]
Britain needs more venture capitalism – not a state bank September 25, 2012 HERE is a simple question. What do you think would do more to help the provision of finance for small firms? Vince Cable’s new state bank, which will begin its operations in 18 months’ time, or a radically improved tax system to improve the provision of equity financing and venture capital? In other words, is [...]
The Liberal Democrats’ attack on middle class will backfire September 23, 2012 It is hard to know what the Liberal Democrats are playing at. Their traditional positioning was centrist, appealing to people who were repelled both by Labour’s statism, high taxes and authoritarianism (as well as its foreign policy) and by the Tories’ low-tax, smaller government, Eurosceptic policies, as well as their traditional social conservatism. The Lib [...]
Britain needs to embrace the global shale gas revolution September 20, 2012 BRITAIN is missing a trick. We are sitting on a massive amount of untapped energy, in the form of shale gas trapped deep in sedimentary rocks, and yet are failing to make use of this semi-secret treasure trove. To add insult to injury, politicians have imposed ever higher energy costs on the public thanks to [...]
How one ticking economic timebomb is being slowly defused September 19, 2012 ONE of the greatest imbalances at the heart of the global economy is that many Western nations have been consuming too much and producing too little. There is nothing wrong with imports. Protectionism is always wrong. But over time imports need to be paid for, either by exports, or from the proceeds of external investments, [...]
It is always dangerous to allow inflation figures to be fiddled September 18, 2012 HERE is a rule that never fails: whenever the authorities decide to change the way they measure inflation, reach for your wallet, because you are about to be stealthily robbed. Each revision inevitably discovers that inflation was, in fact, lower than we realised, which means that all is for the best in the best of [...]
Gove’s reforms will help better equip young people for life September 18, 2012 BRITAIN’S poor educational standards are a national scandal and a key reason why the UK’s productivity continues to lag. The problem is not with graduates of our top universities, though even they could do better. The real crisis is that thousands of school leavers and even, in some cases, graduates from other universities, end up [...]
Welcome to the New Normal: Pay can go down as well as up September 17, 2012 WE in the West are not used to getting poorer. Ever since the industrial revolution put to an end to millennia of stagnation, and barring catastrophes such as world wars, or short recessions, a belief in perpetual progress and ever rising incomes has become a defining characteristic of the psyche of all developed nations. Yet [...]
Why Ben Bernanke’s decision to launch QE3 is a bad mistake September 13, 2012 SORRY, but this is not the way to run an economy. There was a case for quantitative easing (QE) at the start of the financial crisis, and conceivably more recently too, to prevent the money supply from collapsing, in the US, in the UK and elsewhere. But not today – and especially not in America. [...]