Investment can boost growth – if it comes with technological progress

The need to boost the UK’s rate of economic growth was a central theme of the first budget delivered by Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor.   Reeves emphasised the importance of increasing the amount of investment which takes place in the UK.  She sees this as the key way to raise growth. To this end, she announced […]

The threat of higher taxes is already harming growth

The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, had made no secret of her desire to make economic growth her top policy objective.   She reinforced the message this week in an interview with the Financial Times, using the mantra “invest, invest, invest!”.  Perhaps unwittingly, this carries echoes of Karl Mark’s memorable phrase in Das Kapital: “Accumulate, accumulate. That is Moses and the […]

A lesson from King Canute for the EV transition: You can’t force hype

The total victory of the electric car is in sight. For the first time ever, the total number of all-electric cars on the road has recently exceeded those of petrol. Just this August, a massive 94.3 per cent of all new car sales were all-electric. This means that we will hit our target – all new car sales […]

Haldane is right – the Chancellor’s doom-mongering is dangerous

The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, often mentions her experience as an economist at the Bank of England. But she has been taken to task by no less a figure than the former chief economist of the Bank, Andy Haldane. Haldane notes that “just after the election, there was a sense of refresh, a sense of renewal, a […]

Start-ups and spin-outs: The secret ingredients to growth

Going into the election tomorrow, the two main parties agree on a crucial issue. Economic growth is needed to achieve their respective economic and social aspirations. Despite widespread perceptions to the contrary, in the decade of the 2010s the UK’s growth record was quite reasonable. The average annual rate of GDP growth was two per cent, even […]

Keir Starmer could be more like Harold Wilson than Tony Blair

Labour’s massive lead in the opinion polls is generating many parallels with the 1997 election. Will Keir Starmer end up with a bigger majority than Tony Blair or not? But the comparison with 1997 more or less starts and finishes with the polls. Most other things are completely different. In the late 1990s, capitalism appeared […]

Interest rates aren’t as influential as you think

Criticising the Bank of England has become fashionable in City circles. From persisting too long with quantitative easing, to completely missing the upsurge in inflation to the condescending group think displayed on the validity of its discredited New Keynesian models, the Bank under Andrew Bailey has done plenty to make itself fair game. But when […]

Ricardian Equivalence and why Britain’s really in a recession

News that we have entered a technical recession will come as no surprise to anyone who has even a passing acquaintance with the British economy. But what is less well understood is how personal spending – or rather the lack of it – is contributing to low growth. Household incomes have been squeezed by rises in energy […]

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