Leadership lessons from the ancients: How to succeed like Cyrus the Great June 5, 2014 IT WAS a great invasion in the cause of liberty. Not 70 years ago, but two and a half millennia, when on 7 October 540 BC the army of Cyrus the Great entered Babylon by water. Beforehand, he misdirected the blockaded city by digging a ditch encircling its walls, as if settling his army in [...]
ECB easing must damage growth eventually: Let’s hope we’re not there yet June 5, 2014 THE EUROPEAN Central Bank (ECB) has cut its main interest rate to 0.15 per cent, and imposed an interest rate charge of 0.1 per cent upon banks leaving money in the ECB (as opposed to the traditional practice whereby central banks pay interest on such reserves). ECB governor Mario Draghi has also indicated a willingness [...]
Letters to the Editor – 05/06 – Total recall, Best of Twitter June 4, 2014 Total recall [Re: It is high time voters were given the right to recall their MPs, yesterday] I’ve always felt that the right to recall is a hammer to crack a walnut, and distracts from better reforms that should be implemented. There are really only a handful of MPs who might have been subject to [...]
This is no zombie government – but the Queen’s Speech lacked bold vision June 4, 2014 NOTHING baffles me more than the complaint that government isn’t doing enough. The accusation that coalition ministers have become zombies, walking around aimlessly with nothing to do, has energised those who feel that, if government slows down, life as we know it might well collapse. The notion that creativity, social progress and economic growth will [...]
How to be prosperous: We need a revival of the values crucial to capitalism June 4, 2014 COULD the forces that determine individual prosperity also determine national success? I’m increasingly convinced that five influences explain the wealth and wellbeing of people and countries: honesty, vitality, freedom, responsibility, and institutions. Traditionally, prosperity research has focused on long-term growth, looking at the role of physical and human capital, and productivity. Over the past decade, [...]
Recall stitch-up: The coalition doesn’t trust voters to discipline their MPs June 4, 2014 AMID all the speculation over who will win the Newark by-election today, it’s easy to forget the reason half of Westminster is running around the Nottinghamshire constituency: the behaviour of its former MP. Caught in a sting in May 2013, when he then resigned the Conservative whip, Patrick Mercer left Parliament in April 2014. But [...]
Letters to the Editor – 04/06 – The end of cash, Best of Twitter June 3, 2014 The end of cash [Re: Could Britain soon be a cashless society? yesterday] We are definitely moving towards becoming a cashless society, although it will take some time to get there. With non-cash payments predicted to overtake cash in 2015, it is extremely likely that, in 10 to 15 years, a significant proportion of the [...]
Why Britain’s housing crisis risks turning into catastrophe June 3, 2014 THE HOUSING crisis – worst in London, but bad across Britain – is fundamentally driven by lack of supply. For the past five years, we have been building fewer houses than in any peacetime period since before World War One. But house building has been on a downwards trend since the 1960s. Reasonable estimates suggest [...]
Measuring vice: Why our creative national accountants mostly get it right June 3, 2014 THE OFFICE for National Statistics (ONS) has just increased the size of the British economy by nearly £10bn, a figure equivalent to around 0.7 per cent of its total size. George Osborne has not waved a magic wand, and we have not suddenly become more productive. The reason is that, for the first time, estimates [...]
Letters to the Editor – 03/06 – Britain’s new MEPs, Google and Europe, Best of Twitter June 2, 2014 Britain’s new MEPs [Re: Britain’s new MEPs must do their job – whatever they think about the EU, yesterday] Mark Boleat asserts that “constituents voted [MEPs] in to engage in Europe”. How does he know what voters were thinking? It’s not true in my case, for example, because I have zero faith in any of [...]