Letters to the Editor – 16/05 – Monetary dark age, Best of Twitter May 15, 2014 Monetary dark age [Re: The real world looks much less rosy than the Bank of England’s forecasts, yesterday] This is a dark age for macroeconomics. The likes of Mark Carney are concerned with communication but have forgotten that the maximum impact of an interest rate increase occurs within 12-18 months. If this is appreciated, then the [...]
Beware the corporate grandees who claim Brexit would cost Britain dear May 15, 2014 ONE OF the chief arguments of those who are keen to maintain the status quo with regard to the EU is that a huge number of jobs is bound up with the continuation of the UK’s membership, not just in the City but throughout the whole economy. In the UK, both the present coalition government [...]
Don’t misunderstand business beasts: Like Godzilla they’re on our side May 15, 2014 IT LOOKS like the monster showdown of the year. I’m not talking about the sadly limited charms of the new Godzilla movie, but the public clash between the state-sanctioned might of Westminster’s MPs and corporate behemoth Pfizer over its takeover bid for Astrazeneca. Yet the monstrous truth is that while the latest kaiju film with [...]
Austerity is working – but we must continue to challenge its diehard critics May 15, 2014 THE “BACKFIRE effect” is a term coined by the US political scientist Brendan Nyhan to describe how a person’s deeply-held convictions may actually get stronger when presented with contradictory evidence. In one recent study, Nyhan and his colleagues presented a group with information confirming the safety of vaccines. Faced with the facts, those who already [...]
Letters to the Editor – 15/05 – Politicising M&A, Best of Twitter May 14, 2014 Politicising M&A [Re: Britain’s apparently open economy can’t afford this Pfizer political inquisition, yesterday] Government interference in the market always leads to disaster. The shareholders and their board of directors created Pfizer and Astrazeneca, and only they should decide their future. House of Commons committees are merely a device for airing political prejudice or personal [...]
ACCA Comment: Why post-crisis regulation has proved far from perfect May 14, 2014 Blunt tools must be replaced with more responsive solutions THERE is celebration in the air now that the UK has come out of recession strongly. However, is it too soon to get out the bunting? Yes, lessons have been learned from the financial crisis, and we are looking healthier as an economy. But there could [...]
Capitalists shouldn’t be frightened of Piketty’s growth-retarding manifesto May 14, 2014 WHEN a book called Capital in the Twenty-First Century, written by a French economist, hits the top of the best-seller list, you have to ask why. It’s not exactly familiar territory, after all. The answer lies in a clash of worldviews. The conflict is between those, like the book’s author Thomas Piketty, who want to [...]
Why politicians shouldn’t be trying to squeeze guarantees from Pfizer May 14, 2014 THE LONGER Pfizer’s attempt to take over Astrazeneca remains in the political spotlight, the more intense and worrying the pressure on the government is becoming to extract guarantees about what the combined company would and wouldn’t do in Britain. Attention has focused particularly on the R&D cuts that Pfizer has confirmed will happen if it [...]
The real world looks much less rosy than the Bank of England’s forecasts May 14, 2014 YESTERDAY’S Inflation Report presented a benign view of UK economic prospects. Economic growth is expected to continue at around 3 per cent or above, double the rate over the recovery so far. Yet sufficient spare capacity remains to prevent a rise in inflation. So interest rates can rise gradually and that can wait until next [...]
Letters to the Editor – 14/05 – Power to town halls, Political risk, Best of Twitter May 13, 2014 Power to town halls [Re: Radically decentralising power to town halls may pay UK growth dividend, Monday] While I broadly agree with the premise of Philip Booth’s piece, it is plainly wrong to suggest that coalition ministers aren’t interested in fiscal devolution. In the face of strong opposition from Treasury officials, we managed to get [...]