How to tackle Britain’s NIMBYs and end crisis in new house building September 8, 2013 THE STORY is familiar. Figures from Halifax show that house prices rose by 5.4 per cent in the year to August 2013 – the highest rate since June 2010. In 2010, Policy Exchange also published a report called Making Housing Affordable. It argued that housing was getting more expensive, largely because we were building too [...]
Letters to the Editor – 09/09 – Twitter complaint, AI developments, Best of Twitter September 8, 2013 Twitter complaint [Re: Twitter complaint signals the start of a revolution for corporate reputations, Friday] This is a wonderful story. So many companies, of which British Airways is one, do not dedicate sufficient resources towards dealing with customers. The resultant media coverage, not to mention the thousands who saw the comment on Twitter, should set [...]
Twitter complaint signals the start of a revolution for corporate reputations September 5, 2013 BRITISH Airways has just been exposed to the future of corporate communications. When one disgruntled passenger decided to complain about the quality of BA’s customer service, he ignored the traditional route of an angry call or email. Instead, he bought a promoted Tweet on Twitter – guaranteeing visual prominence for other users – to tell [...]
The Long View: We should honour the unknown UK economist who quietly changed the world September 5, 2013 BRITAIN has lost a giant. Ronald Coase, the brilliant economist who shone new light on how and why companies form, died this week at the age of 102. It was too soon: his most influential paper was published half a century ago, but Coase remained sharp to the end, fighting for his countercultural approach. He [...]
Why central banks are hurting their credibility with forward guidance September 5, 2013 THE ECONOMIST Michael Woodford created quite a stir at the annual monetary conference at Jackson Hole in the US just over a year ago. The basic thrust of his argument was that central banks had deployed all sorts of conventional and unconventional monetary policies since the credit crunch, and even central bankers had begun to [...]
Letters to the editor – 06/09 – Defending Wonga, Green Deal, Best of Twitter September 5, 2013 Defending Wonga [Re: Wonga defends reputation as profits rocket, yesterday] Payday lenders mean different things to different people. For many on low incomes, they provide a cash bridge until pay day. For others, they are viewed as taking advantage of people in financial need. Those in the latter group are unlikely to have a need [...]
Syria crisis highlights a new model for how the Special Relationship can work September 4, 2013 I REMEMBER the exact moment I knew I was a dinosaur. I was included in high-level meetings, aimed at assembling a coalition to buttress George W. Bush’s effort to remove Saddam Hussein. When the topic of whether the British would come along arose, everyone laughed, regardless of party or foreign policy orientation. Confused, I asked [...]
Artificial Intelligence will destroy jobs – but technological pessimism is wrong September 4, 2013 DEVELOPMENTS in Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be among the most exciting advances of this century. No longer the preserve of science fiction, from driving our cars to managing our health, the products of AI research are already quietly revolutionising our world. But warning bells are ringing. John Maynard Keynes coined the term “technological unemployment” to [...]
Why messing with pay is not the best way to end living cost squeeze September 4, 2013 UNEMPLOYMENT and underemployment in the UK are still far too high. But given the circumstances, the UK’s labour market is in a far better shape than we might have expected. In much of Europe, five years of stagnation have sent jobless figures through the roof. Yet the UK got away with a black eye. A [...]
Letters to the editor – 05/09 – Merkel and the EU, Sporting success, Best of Twitter September 4, 2013 Merkel and the EU [Re: Merkel must find a bold new vision or Europe will continue towards disaster, yesterday] Lars Christensen is right to argue that the German Chancellor must set out a vision for the future of Europe. Unfortunately, such a vision looks unlikely to materialise. The philosopher Jurgen Harbemas last week published an [...]