Remember UK Plc’s vast contribution February 27, 2012 IT is sometimes argued, including by government advisers, that the state should promote small firms above large ones. These people even argue that small, insurgent entrepreneurs are morally superior to larger, more bureaucratic multinationals. I disagree, but I can see where they are coming from: I too would much rather work for a small, nimble, [...]
Soaring oil prices the great unknown February 27, 2012 IT was Donald Rumsfeld, the Bush-era defence secretary, who loved to separate events into “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns”. Even the former can have a huge impact. One key trick is to spot possible risks as they shift from one category to the other. In recent weeks, with the novelty of the Eurozone crisis wearing [...]
Osborne must not tax pensions more February 23, 2012 WANT to add some money into your pension? You’d better hurry up, as there is intense pressure on the chancellor to slash tax relief on pension contributions. If Lib Dems gets their way, 40p and 50p taxpayers will lose their tax relief, which would fall to just 20p for everybody. This would be a further, [...]
Bonus row now completely irrational February 22, 2012 UTTERLY absurd: that is the only way to describe the debate on bonuses. Here is why. Imagine a salesperson at a widget company so brilliant that she brings in £10m a year for her firm. She is the best widget salesperson in the UK and her firm’s biggest asset. Her company, unfortunately, is loss-making – [...]
Osborne’s lucky escape on the deficit February 21, 2012 FOR once, and I can barely believe that I’m writing this, George Osborne has reason to be happy. The budget deficit for this fiscal year to date (April 2011-January 2012) was a still horrendous, Greek-style £93.5bn, but this was down £15.6bn from a year earlier, a very non-Greek development. This is a much better performance [...]
Cameron needs to refocus his efforts February 20, 2012 THE reformist credentials of this government are looking increasingly shaky. The only area where real change is taking place is education: Michael Gove, the secretary of state, and his uber-competent team, are pushing through a revolution, liberating state schools from local authority control, allowing new schools to be set up by outsiders, improving standards and [...]
How to make workfare work better February 20, 2012 THERE is a huge difference between slavery – forcing people to work for free, which is an abomination – and workfare – asking people who have been on benefits for a long time to work for their money, a system practiced in many countries, including in the US, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and others. The [...]
The US economy is recovering at last February 16, 2012 IT used to be said that when America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. This remains the case, despite the rise of China and other emerging giants. So it is good news that the US economy has started to recover, with even unemployment going down. The markets can barely contain themselves for [...]
Flawed euro is tearing Europe apart February 15, 2012 REMEMBER how the European Union was meant to create peace and goodwill across the continent, bring ordinary folk closer together and help forge a sense of common belonging among 300m Europeans? How it was meant to make sure that the horrors of war and aggression were banished forever, to close a vile and despicable chapter [...]
The real reasons why UK is in trouble February 14, 2012 FORGET about the reasoning Moody’s cited when putting the UK on negative watch this week. The problem with the credit rating agencies is not that they are too harsh – they are invariably too soft, too backwards-looking and cautious. Their decisions are always months out of date. Here is the real reason why the UK [...]