Everything is crystal clear with hindsight
Are government bonds risky? This question arose a year ago, during a meeting with my bank. I wanted a low risk portfolio, but they noted that I did not want to hold UK government bonds. Whether it was the regulator who was insisting, or whether it was the way the bank was interpreting some Delphic […]
Alibaba: not just the Forty Thieves. China at the Cutting Edge
In the whole of the 20th century, only a few countries managed to transform themselves and join the club of rich economies. Japan is the most prominent example. The key question for the first half of the 21st century is whether or not China will manage to do the same. It is a difficult and elusive feat, […]
The rapid rise of the food bank can’t just be blamed on government austerity
FOOD banks are a rapidly growing phenomenon in the UK. A few years ago, they barely existed, but an estimated half a million people now make use of them every week. On the face of it, it seems that poverty has sadly become endemic since the financial crisis, with many families unable even to feed […]
A wake-up call for the Department of Transport: do the proper sums, HS2 is worth it
The High Speed 2 rail project is under fire on many fronts. The Nimby protests in the affluent Home Counties have been augmented last week by more weighty criticism by the National Audit Office (NAO) of the scheme. At least, this is how the NAO’s work has come across in the media. But the NAO […]
Will Barnet or Brentford ever topple Manchester United?
Manchester United have walked away with the Premiership title yet again. In the last seven seasons, they have won no fewer than five times. Over the past 22 years, they have never finished outside the top three. Will they ever be overthrown, especially given the stupendous sponsorship deal the Premiership has secured from the start of next […]
Hip Hop and Why Some Things Succeed
Just over a month ago, a group of young men from a fairly yokel part of Australia posted a video on YouTube. Nothing remarkable about that. Except that the video now has over 21 million viewings. More than 170,000 variants of the original theme have been posted on YouTube. A few have received even more […]
Why Can’t Debt Just be Inflated Away?
The debt problems which the UK and Europe currently face are essentially ones of political economy. Basically, there is a lot of debt around and the simple question is: who is going to pay for it? All the economic theory in the world does not get around this fundamental issue. Traditionally, bondholders paid. The real […]
Kahneman and schizophrenia in economics
I was at a fascinating session last night, with Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman in conversation with a leading thinker from the advertising world, Rory Sutherland of Ogilvy and Mather. Kahneman was talking about his book Thinking Fast and Slow, a summary of his life’s work. I am a great admirer of Kahneman. Trained as a […]
Compulsion or Co-operation: Curbing Executive Pay
Andrew Moss, who has been in charge of Aviva since 2007, has become the third chief executive to quit amid increasing shareholder discontent in recent weeks, following David Brennan at AstraZeneca and Trinity Mirror’s Sly Bailey. Just what is going on with the public limited company, one of the great inventions of capitalism? It has […]
Co-operation and Competition
Ed Mayo, ex-head of the New Economics Foundation and now of Co-ops UK, has an interesting blog (here) on the importance of co-operation in our economic system rather than competition. This is a really challenging and difficult topic. Co-operation is extremely important to the successful functioning of the market-oriented economies of the West. But this […]
