Unemployment down, GDP up – there’s no logic for a public spending boost now
Despite the warmth of the days, there is a distinct autumn feel to the mornings. And in the autumn, thoughts begin to turn to the Budget. Speculation has already begun about what the chancellor Philip Hammond might or might not do. For Labour, recent weeks have been dominated by Jeremy Corbyn’s alleged antisemitism and undoubted […]
From Venezuela to East Berlin, people will always choose capitalism over socialism
How many people across the world in the history of humanity have fled from a capitalist country to a socialist one? There was much amusement at the height of the long miners’ strike of 1984/85. A National Union of Mineworkers official from Yorkshire, a crony of Marxist trade unionist Arthur Scargill, sought sanctuary in the […]
The economics of tourist overload
I am in Edinburgh for a few days at the Festival, where even Jeremy Corbyn has appeared. Disappointingly, he was not playing the role of Carmela Soprano, the mafia don’s wife who is always present but never involved. Previously, I had been on Skye. Last month, I attended a conference in Venice. Edinburgh, Skye, Venice, […]
The intellectual imperialism of economics
At this time of year, most people are focused on leisure. The holiday you have just had, the one you are on now, or the one you are just about to go on. With exquisite timing, the 1 August issue of the top Journal of Economic Perspectives has a symposium of papers about work. The […]
From supply and demand to game theory, football is full of economics lessons
The football transfer window closes tomorrow, and the opening days of August have seen the usual flurry of activity at all levels. The window in the rest of Europe stays open until the end of the month. Do we detect here the hands of Monsieur Barnier, in another dastardly European Commission plot to do us […]
Facebook, facts, and alternative fictions: How to predict the narrative of the future
Last Thursday, Facebook suffered the biggest one-day loss in the history of Wall Street. The company’s shares dropped nearly 19 per cent. Rather incredibly, Facebook reported an increase in revenue of no less than 42 per cent over the same quarter last year, and a rise in profits of 31 per cent. But the narrative […]
The UK’s capacity to innovate matters far more than panic over consumer spending
The debate about Brexit has become mired in a virtually incomprehensible quagmire of detailed and technical negotiations between the UK and the rest of the EU. Yet the campaign itself in 2016 was dominated by broader questions of political economy. In addition to the hurly burly of claims about extra NHS spending or Project Fear, […]
Investors should intervene to stop high executive pay, before the regulator does
Shareholder discontent over executive pay continues to rise. Last week, the outgoing boss of BT, Gavin Patterson, was in the firing line. At the company’s annual general meeting, 34 per cent of investors voted against the remuneration report, which included a £1.3m bonus payment to Patterson. Concern about top pay has spread even to the […]
Never mind who wins, the World Cup is a treasure trove for curious economists
Our boys make progress – and I don’t mean on Brexit. On a visit to Glasgow last Thursday, a popular Scottish newspaper had a mock-up photo of Harry Kane lifting the cup. In massive type, the headline shrieked “This Would Be the End of the World”. Yes, it would rather put the Highland Clearances into […]
Meet the engineers of economic theory: Market design has become a full-time job
What does someone with the job title of “chief economist” actually do? The most well-known in the UK is probably Andy Haldane at the Bank of England, but his role is not typical. So what do the others do? Nobel Laureate Alvin Roth’s paper in the latest issue of the American Economic Review describes the […]
