Writing for the Daily Globe UK several weeks ago, I sought to defend the current government in terms of policies which have impacted on the lowest paid in Britain. I defended the Conservative record and argued against the media narrative that the lowest paid have been hammered by a pernicious …
Read More »Britain’s Post-Brexit Meritocracy
The 2017 general election showed that many young people are rejecting Conservativism and even capitalism itself. If we are to build a more socially mobile post-Brexit society we need to ensure that Margaret Thatcher’s popular capitalism can prevail once more. Employment and wage prospects can be significantly improved for the …
Read More »Considering Project Fear’s No Deal Brexit Plans
Earlier last week, we found out that May had finally decided to get planning for a No Deal Brexit. This was something Brexiteers were very eager for – everybody felt that now, after two years, perhaps we could finally get somewhere and achieve what we had voted for. Perhaps now …
Read More »Have economists and economics journalists sold out?
The UK has a trade deficit with the EU (Jan 2018) of £82bn pa – about 4% of GDP (larger than the UK bank bailout in 2008 annually see note 1). Trade deficits directly reduce GDP, the trade deficit with the EU reduces UK GDP by about 4%. It makes …
Read More »The foolishness of Keynesian stimulus
The economics of Keynesian stimulus: Spend more money on public services than tax intake People earn more money and spend more money More money earnt and spent means more tax intake Result: win-win… right? Theory vs practice Assuming everyone is taxed at 40%, let’s see how this plays out… Under balanced …
Read More »The Damaging Effect of EU Ownership of UK Industry
We have all read how Foreign and EU companies have been buying up UK companies (See Selling off Britain is not a sign of strength.. and Independent Article). How much does this cost the UK? What does it cost you and me? Foreign owned UK companies accounted for 50% of all UK business turnover in …
Read More »What is ‘affordable housing’?
I assume most people take ‘affordable housing’ to mean accommodation that is affordable, something that people on average levels of income are able to afford to buy. But let’s go back to basic economics: What determines the price of a property? Although there is a rough correlation in that, if …
Read More »Wealth creation is not a zero-sum game
A “zero-sum game” means that everyone’s gains are accounted for by someone else’s loss. Apparently, this is what socialists believe: “Capitalists cannot keep making money forever, because eventually they will have taken all the value from the world and would have to start taking money from the poor.” – Socialism 101 …
Read More »Shouldn’t the rich contribute more?
Richest 1% pay 29% income tax. How much more can we expect the rich to contribute? Shouldn’t the rich contribute more? How much the rich contribute Rich people already contribute more. How much more? Here are some rough statistics of how much tax is contributed according to income bands (from 2012, United Kingdom)… …
Read More »How #Brexit would benefit the UK’s finance sector
Ever since the results of the United Kingdom’s referendum on EU membership was finalised, much has been made (particularly in the City) of the impact on the UK’s financial sector. Indeed, I myself held a similar opinion: Regulatory Passporting: The killer argument against Brexit. Much of the UK’s success in the …
Read More »Corporatism: A Daring Dream, Part II
It was my original plan to publish a three-part series of essays on corporatism. Unfortunately illness set back that plan initially, and so I was planning to make two parts. That plan is coming to fruition in some ways, but even this is going to be a little different to …
Read More »Corporatism: A Daring Dream, Part I
Corporatism is a word with many meanings, and no one seems to know what precisely any of them are. Corporatism is a diverse set of theories, but it should be thought of in purely economic terms. When we think of ‘corporatism’ today, I am sure that most people would think …
Read More »Oxfam and Misleading Statistics
It’s that time of the year again! Oxfam has released its latest Global Inequality Report in which it is made to seem like we live in a dystopian future where all the resources are in the hand of a select few and the remainder of the world is somewhere between …
Read More »Pound Recovers
Unlike the vast publicity given to the sharp, but relatively small, fall in the pound after the EU Referendum, the recent recovery of the pound has had little mention. The graph below charts this recovery: You can check this graph for yourself at XE.COM, a major commercial currency and foreign exchange …
Read More »Have economists and economics journalists sold out?
Those who follow economics now know that the economic “experts” were wrong about their predictions for the period between the Referendum and today. This has scarcely been covered by broadcasters and this lack of coverage has left many Remain voters believing that an economic disaster is imminent. The absence of any coverage …
Read More »What would happen if #Brexit was abandoned
Many of those who voted Remain in the EU Referendum are campaigning to overturn Brexit. Suppose the UK abandoned Brexit, what would happen then? Read on to discover how strong the UK would become within the EU and what would happen over the decade or two after abandoning Brexit. Click …
Read More »Remembering Remain Predictions for #Brexit
Remain economists predicted that a Leave vote in the referendum would produce an immediate meltdown of the UK economy. The meltdown was the expected result of voting Leave and the “uncertainty” this might cause. As George Osborne neatly summarized: The predictions were explicitly for the period from the Referendum to actual Brexit …
Read More »Brexit Means a New Britain, an Innovator in Trade, Diplomacy and Development.
The Department for International Development has seen an increase in its size over recent years as the British government attempts to invest at least 0.7% of government spending into its budget. The same is for the Foreign Office which receives £1.1 billion annually and the department for international trade which …
Read More »Empires of Growth: How decolonisation led to Africa’s poverty
One of our globes most precarious and neglected predicament lies in the impoverished continent of Africa. Through century to century it seems as if very little has been achieved, yes we have seen empires rise and fall, as well as some advanced kingdoms form, but compared to the advances in East …
Read More »Why is UK Productivity not Growing?
The UK economy has been losing productivity relative to historical trends since 2008: The fact that the fall in productivity after 2008 is exactly coincident with the banking crisis shows that it is related to the behaviour of banks. Bank lending to business has been appalling in this period, the …
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