Forget a Bitcoin bubble: A wider crypto revolt is challenging everything December 10, 2013 FOR ALL the talk of a Bitcoin bubble, it’s easy to miss the real significance of what is currently happening. The rise of Bitcoin is just the beginning. Cryptocurrencies are no longer the domain of activists and grassroots movements, they are nothing less than “new money”. Many are waiting for the moment when a central [...]
Letters to the Editor – 11/12 – Encrypted lives, Best of Twitter December 10, 2013 Encrypted lives [Re: The tech giants are right: We could be sleepwalking into a surveillance state, yesterday] The author is right to highlight the growing discontent with government surveillance. But it should be noted that possible solutions to concerns over privacy are cropping up in the private sector. Microsoft announced last week that it will [...]
The tech giants are right: We could be sleepwalking into a surveillance state December 9, 2013 THE CHIEF executives of eight of the biggest businesses in the world sent a clear message to global leaders yesterday: as far as surveillance laws are concerned, the status quo is not an option. It is hardly a common occurrence that AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo agree on something, let alone write [...]
The real reason the chancellor should not let the OBR audit party manifestos December 9, 2013 IT HAS been a tough week for Ed Balls. Many within Labour are said to be questioning his position as shadow chancellor following his disastrous response to George Osborne’s Autumn Statement. While Balls claims he “couldn’t give a toss” about the speculation, he needs to repair his party’s economic credibility, and fast. That’s one reason [...]
Why the 50-year bull market may end with a whimper not a bang December 9, 2013 MY NEXT Gresham professorial lecture has the provocative title “Was Karl Marx always wrong?”, but those wanting a detailed dissection of Marxism should stay away. Rather, I used this to highlight one of the important phenomena of our times – the falling share of labour incomes of GDP. The fall has meant a growing share [...]
Letters to the Editor – 10/12 – SME support, Savings crisis, Best of Twitter December 9, 2013 SME support [Re: Autumn Statement 2013: What it means for UK entrepreneurs, yesterday] Philip Salter’s points are well made – the chancellor’s initiatives are far too little and far too late to make much of a difference. While action on business rates was a step in the right direction, for example, they are still in urgent need of [...]
Bank timidity over interest rate rises risks a destabilising build-up in debt December 8, 2013 THE BANK of England’s revised mandate may push the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to leave interest rates on hold for too long, complicating efforts to bring down inflation and household debt to more prudent levels. Key to the timing of interest rate rises will be unemployment, since the Bank is highly unlikely to hike rates [...]
City Matters: It’s time for financial results to reflect the new face of post-crisis business December 8, 2013 ONE OF the charges that has often been laid against the City in recent years is that it has been too focused on short-term value. Many things have changed as a result of the crash, and one of them has been an increased awareness that the way companies currently report results is not fit for [...]
The miracle of Robben Island: Why Mandela matters internationally December 8, 2013 AFTER the oceans of ink that have rightly been spilled these past few days lauding Nelson Mandela, is there anything left to say? Perhaps just this. Those of us who analyse the world for a living think in terms of large macro phenomena: rates of GDP, demographic trends, military capabilities, national political cultures. We are [...]
Letters to the Editor – 09/12 – Toll roads, Labour flailing, Best of Twitter December 8, 2013 Toll roads [Re: Government scraps plans for toll pricing as taxpayers pick up tab, Tuesday] It is a shame that the government seems to have ignored the economic argument for toll roads. Pricing mechanisms have proven themselves in other areas of transport as an efficient means of allocating scarce resources, like road space. Moreover, technological [...]