Why Mervyn King’s defence of the politics of QE fell short October 23, 2012 MY biggest worry about quantitative easing (QE) is that it has blurred the distinction between monetary and fiscal policy. The Bank of England is financing a substantial share of the government’s expenditure – and the majority of its budget deficit – by buying gilts using freshly-minted money. There was a time when the monetisation of [...]
Europe will become ever less relevant as century progresses October 22, 2012 ONCE again, the political establishment is debating Europe, and what Britain’s place in it should be. To me, the answer is straightforward: Europe will become increasingly irrelevant to the global economy as the century progresses, a tragic development which will see one of the world’s great civilisations increasingly marginalised culturally and geopolitically. Those who still [...]
We need to do more to encourage firms to spend in the UK October 22, 2012 THIS is the week Britain will finally exit its double-dip recession – or at least, so we must all hope. Barring the most extraordinary upset in the history of British economic forecasting, figures out on Thursday will show that the economy grew at least a little during the third quarter, making up some of the [...]
Google’s awful day reminds us it is becoming less special October 18, 2012 YESTERDAY was a terrible day for Google, a firm used to success. Its slump in profits came as a shock to the markets. It shouldn’t have: the company is merely becoming more normal, especially following its decision to overpay for Motorola, and normal firms don’t do as well as revolutionary, super-smart start-ups. As proof of [...]
Jobs are the one good news story in an otherwise gloomy UK October 17, 2012 REMEMBER all those people predicting that unemployment would rocket because of austerity? How the private sector would never be able to compensate for the cuts in the public sector’s workforce? Fortunately, it turns out that the doom-mongers got it wrong. The economy is hardly in a good state, of course, and tragically far too many [...]
An evening celebrating the best of London business October 17, 2012 LAST night was an occasion to remember: City A.M.’s third annual awards celebrating the best and brightest of London’s business, financial and investment communities. Over 500 guests from 116 different firms attended the celebration, held at the Grange Hotel in St Paul’s. There was great food, music and company, as well as a rousing speech [...]
Why Osborne has targeted the wrong kind of spending cuts October 16, 2012 HERE is the truth about the cuts so far, courtesy of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The deficit is down by about a quarter from its peak over the past two years, though it has increased again since the start of the current fiscal year. Looking just at 2010-11 and 2011-12, two thirds of [...]
Two technologies that will create jobs and change the world October 15, 2012 PLEASE don’t fall off your seats, dear readers. Rather than focusing on what is wrong with the world, today’s column is about two positive, ground-breaking technologies with the potential to create jobs and prosperity and revolutionise the way we live. One such area is driverless cars: Google is one of the main forces behind this [...]
A Romney victory would have a big impact on UK economy October 14, 2012 IF a week is a long time in politics, then three must be an eternity. The US presidential elections, which will be held on 6 November, are now becoming truly spell-binding, with any outcome still possible after an almost unbelievably bitter campaign. Remarkably, Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate, now leads the overall vote in all [...]
Adair Turner’s analysis of the crisis is worryingly incomplete October 11, 2012 IF, like me, you believe that the bubble that blew up the global economy in 2007-08 was caused primarily by years of excessively loose monetary policy which pumped too much liquidity into the system, global imbalances that pushed down long-term interest rates, the promotion of sub-prime lending by the US authorities and massive moral hazard [...]