Russia must back down over Ukraine to avoid a catastrophe February 24, 2014 VLADIMIR Ilyich Lenin was a monster. He was a central theorist of communism, a key player in the Bolshevik revolution, a commissar, a leading instigator of the Red Terror and other massacres, and the first leader of the Soviet Union. For decades, busts of Lenin adorned the communist empire; they were finally torn down in [...]
The only solution to the housing crisis: build, build and build February 20, 2014 BRITAIN is building again at last – or so the government would like us to believe. On the face of it, it has a point: the latest homebuilding statistics reveal that starts on new homes in 2013 totalled 122,590, up 23 per cent on the previous year, and the highest since 2007, according to the [...]
Productivity is growing again – real pay rises could be next February 19, 2014 THERE is one reason, above all others, why we should welcome the latest figures on the state of the jobs market. Yes, jobs are being created in vast numbers, and good ones for that matter. But the real positive news is that productivity seems to be going up again, a development of central importance to [...]
We must help the poor – but hurting the rich makes no sense February 18, 2014 MORE Ferraris are now sold in the UK than in any other European country. No fewer than 677 of the Italian supercars were delivered to the UK, out of total global sales of 7,000, more even than Germany, home of autobahns with no speed limits. Many people will be upset at this. Real wages are [...]
Savers will pay a terrible price for Europe’s latest stealth tax February 17, 2014 MONEY, money, money – there is much still to learn from Abba, the wonderful Swedish band, especially when it comes to economics. Take their garish outfits: the crazed hotpants, the white boots and the bizarre shirts. It turns out that they were chosen for tax reasons: under the crippling Swedish tax system under which Abba [...]
Salmond keeps contradicting himself on Scottish independence February 17, 2014 POLITICS is a nasty, brutish business – so I have no time for those Scottish nationalists who are now bleating about how badly they are being treated by the London and European establishments. The Scottish National Party (SNP) spent years poisoning many Scots against the UK, using half-truths and propaganda;it cannot now complain when the [...]
The Scottish nationalists aren’t credible on keeping sterling February 13, 2014 THE gloves are finally off. The London political establishment’s message to Scotland is clear: stay in the UK, or lose the pound. The nationalists are in deep trouble on this question, but as ever the argument is more complex than both sides might imagine. Is the Scottish National Party (SNP) right that it could keep [...]
There is a real chance Carney’s high stakes bet will end in tears February 12, 2014 LET’S face it: monetary policy in the UK has become much harder to understand, in no small part because of Mark Carney’s botched forward guidance. Starting in the 1990s, and until the recession, most people, when asked what the Bank of England was trying to do, would have replied that it was seeking to control [...]
One forecaster is predicting a sterling crisis. Let’s hope it’s wrong February 11, 2014 MOST economists believe that the UK economy still boasts plenty of spare capacity, by which they mean that factories can still produce more, offices aren’t full, and plenty of people remain unemployed or underemployed. The implication is that unemployment can continue to fall and the economy to grow without triggering inflation. The Treasury, the Bank [...]
Our clueless establishment needs to pay the price for floods crisis February 10, 2014 WHEN a private company messes up, it rightly gets pilloried. But when the public sector commits a blunder, even an enormous one, it all too often gets away with it. Blame is deflected; few people, if any, lose their jobs; knighthoods are retained; and the flawed dominant ideology is allowed to retain its grip on [...]