A post-mortem of pandemic-era lockdowns expose a dangerous disregard for scepticism
Like most people, the revelations from the leaked WhatsApps of government ministers during the pandemic have left me with a mixture of emotions. At one level, they reveal how difficult it is to make decisions amidst considerable uncertainty. It is always easy, after the event, to point to mistakes and say they could have been […]
Everyone wants a pay rise, but we will have to pay with cuts to jobs or services
The nation seems to be in the grip of an epidemic of cognitive dissonance. Where is Matt Hancock when we really need him to impose a lockdown and save us from this menace? Two major events have put huge strain on the public finances. The pandemic led to government borrowing of some £400bn, around 20 […]
Our public services will keep falling apart as long as our economy continues to stagnate
History is full of examples of the right set of policies being introduced at the wrong time. A dramatic example is the case of Lavrenty Beria, who was the head of the Soviet secret police from the late 1930s. Immediately on Stalin’s death in March 1953 he took control of the government machine, only to […]
On coronavirus, governments have been the most irrational of us all
Decisions, whether by individuals, companies or governments, are often made with imperfect and incomplete information. This is so obvious as to hardly seem worth stating. But for well over a century economic theory assumed that decisions were made with complete information. Economists knew full well that this was not always the case. The problem was […]
Coronavirus: Economists have a role to play in recovery
Lockdowns are starting to be eased in Europe. Austria, Denmark, Italy and Spain are all moving back towards normality. At some point during May, the UK will follow. We can reflect on what the government has got right and wrong so far in the opening phase of the pandemic. This is emphatically not to apportion […]
