We mustn’t delude ourselves about the scale of the crisis Britain went through February 3, 2014 OVER the past three years, the debate over the coalition’s deficit reduction plan and the sluggishness of the subsequent recovery has dominated the agenda. On almost all sides, this debate has been framed in a way that implies that, had we adopted marginally different policies, the fallout from the crash need not have been anywhere [...]
Tech resentment in San Francisco is ignoring the real culprit: Government February 3, 2014 RENTS are rising, pushing people on low incomes out of the neighbourhoods they’ve lived in for years. Resentment towards the rich is growing, with the most profitable and dynamic industries singled out for the most ire. Talk of a cost of living crisis, driven above all by the cost of housing, is dominating politics. This [...]
Letters to the Editor – 04/02 – Energy supply, Best of Twitter February 3, 2014 Energy supply [Re: As the International Energy Agency doubts UK shale’s potential, is more nuclear the answer?, Friday] The International Energy Agency was right to say that Britain should not have too high expectations regarding the shale gas revolution. But while it argues that increased investment in new, heavily-subsidised nuclear plants would be more desirable, it [...]
Digital natives are having tech children and creating a tidal wave of disruption February 2, 2014 THE NEXT time you are puzzled by an app on your smartphone, the chances are that your three year-old will have the answer. An astonishing 57 per cent of children aged three to five can operate at least one mobile app, up from 19 per cent in 2012. The third anniversary of the Digital Diaries [...]
City Matters: Put the immigration debate on a factual footing – or our economy will suffer February 2, 2014 EUROPE is back in the headlines, with immigration and David Cameron’s meeting with French President Francois Hollande pushing the politically-divisive issue to the top of the agenda. We regularly read that European immigration and new EU regulation are a problem. But if we are to secure the best future for the UK, we must accurately [...]
Internal EU trade barriers hold UK companies back: We must demolish them February 2, 2014 SCEPTICISM about the EU is not borne out of nationalism, but from practical experiences that show Britain has invested far more into the EU than it gets out. In particular, opportunities to maximise the economic benefits of EU membership have been missed. Brussels’s focus on deepening political and social union has undermined the advantages of [...]
Letters to the Editor – 03/02 – Investment record, Best of Twitter February 2, 2014 Investment record [Re: The bonus culture isn’t to blame for a collapse in corporate investment, Friday] I am writing to correct PJ Davies’s spurious analysis, which criticised Stagecoach for allegedly “buying back shares rather than reinvesting”. The facts tell the opposite story. We have returned significant cash to shareholders – around £1.27bn over the last [...]
City & Gild: As the economy improves, a new battle between value and volume emerges January 31, 2014 What should the consumer make of the recent spat between Adidas and Sports Direct, and how will the unfolding saga affect each brand? At the end of last year, the German sportswear giant refused to supply the retail chain with Chelsea latest replica kit. From my perspective, there will no doubt be some turbulence in [...]
Why we’re not about to witness the death of the global bubble economy January 30, 2014 AN ABNORMAL amount of liquidity is still afloat in today’s global markets, amounting to an unprecedented estimate of 27 per cent of global GDP. And whatever the troubles facing some emerging markets in recent months – apparently in the face of the Fed taper – this important ratio of global liquidity to GDP is not [...]
The Long View: The robots are coming – but the power of human ingenuity will save our jobs January 30, 2014 I FOR one don’t welcome our new robot overlords. Don’t get me wrong – I’m all in favour of the liberating potential of new technology. I’m also conscious that worries about jobs lost to mechanisation have a history of being misplaced: the jobs go but new and even better-paying ones appear elsewhere. What’s worrying right [...]