Hinkley Point: Britain should not chase Chinese investment at the expense of its national security August 31, 2016 Unlike in the UK, students in China are taught about the Opium Wars, the burning down of the Qing Dynasty’s Old Summer Palace, and successive decades of western interference in Chinese affairs. The official People’s Republic of China history of the nineteenth century is called The Century of National Humiliation, accompanied by a handy Dictionary [...]
Crisis, what crisis? You can see Brexit everywhere but in the economic statistics August 31, 2016 The American Nobel Laureate economist, Robert Solow, famously said that “you can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics”. We might want to update that quote to, “you can see Brexit everywhere but in the statistics.” UK broad money supply M4ex rose by 6.9 per cent (year-on-year) in July, up from 6.0 [...]
Is Lord Lawson right that Britain should not try to negotiate a special trade deal with the European Union? August 31, 2016 Grace Lievesley, research manager at Global Britain, says Yes. The UK is the fifth largest economy in the world and now, following our decision to leave the declining European Union, we should aspire to become the fourth or third largest economy. To do this, we need to expand our business in fast-growing markets while holding on [...]
Brussels and Washington DC must end this silly standoff over taxes and fines August 31, 2016 Transatlantic relations were hardly flourishing even before Apple was slammed with a €13,000,000,000 tax bill by the European Commission yesterday. Such is the awkward standoff between Washington DC and Brussels that the move was pre-empted in America last week, with the US Treasury accusing the EC of becoming a “supranational tax authority”. The tax tiff [...]
The EU’s dangerous quest for tax harmonisation ignores that corporation tax itself is obsolete August 30, 2016 Most governments would love to get their hands on an extra €13bn (£11.1bn) from a multinational company. But the Irish government will likely be wrangling in court for many years at what will surely be considerable expense in a somewhat unusual bid to avoid collecting tax. The European Commission has ordered what is by far [...]
Post Brexit Britain can get a much better US trade deal than the EU’s failing TTIP August 30, 2016 Many people are now questioning the viability of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the free trade deal under discussion between the US and the European Union. Over the weekend, German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel stated that the TTIP talks had collapsed, despite the protestations of his Chancellor and the United States Trade Representative Michael [...]
Jeremy Corbyn is completely out of touch with the real debate about UK austerity August 30, 2016 Following the Brexit vote, normal service seems to have resumed. A key question in economic policy since the General Election of 2010 has moved centre stage once again: should the government abandon austerity? At one level, the question has an easy answer. Interest rates are now so low that the UK government can borrow for [...]
Is Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz right that Europe may have to abandon the euro to save the European project? August 30, 2016 Ruth Lea, economic adviser at Arbuthnot Banking Group, says Yes. Granted, some may regard the common currency as an intrinsic part of the “European project”, but the euro is undermining the very foundations of a prosperous and peaceful union for all its members, which is surely what the European project is fundamentally about. And it is [...]
Forget Norway: Canada-plus is the best Brexit deal Britain can achieve August 30, 2016 “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.” – Book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3, Verse 1 Theresa May’s policy of slowing down the post-Brexit train through the determined tactic of vagueness has been skilful, but it has now served its purpose. By resolutely refusing to invoke Article 50 [...]
Dithering on airport capacity is choking British businesses, Theresa May needs to take urgent action August 30, 2016 The decision on whether to construct a new runway in the south east of England has been parked for too long. That cannot remain the case for much longer – a lack of airport capacity in the south east is acting a major constraint upon business and economic growth. Business leaders have become increasingly exasperated [...]