Letters to the Editor – 07/05 – Political failure, Pfizer-AstraZeneca, Best of Twitter May 6, 2014 Political failure [Re: We are stuck in a disastrous spiral of misplaced interventionism, Friday] I couldn’t agree more with this diagnosis of political failure. But I think rising rent is largely a London problem. When I was younger, the idea was you bought a small two bed terrace and moved your way up the ladder. [...]
The truth behind China’s numbers May 6, 2014 FEW can doubt the importance of China to the world today. But as research by the World Bank’s International Comparison Program has highlighted – the country may be close to becoming as large an economy as the US on a purchasing power parity basis – China’s actual size and the speed of its growth are [...]
Why globalisation calls for a fresh perspective on the value of exports May 6, 2014 IMAGINE that, for some reason, you were forced to choose between having to read a long, turgid novel like Westward Ho or Middlemarch, or a book on the methodology of the national economic accounts. Most people, however reluctantly, would plump for the former. But the latter can at times be very exciting. A recent paper, [...]
Labour’s rent control plans would be a nightmare for tenants May 6, 2014 AS PART of its campaign against the “cost of living crisis”, Labour has stepped up with an offer to help struggling renters. Sadly, at best its proposals are a non-solution, and at worst a nightmare for tenants. The rent regulation that Ed Miliband plans to introduce would see three-year rental contracts become the norm, during [...]
Blame Europe’s 70 year holiday from history for the West’s terrible decline May 5, 2014 THE US public has had it with being the world’s policeman. An April 2014 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that only 19 per cent wanted America to engage in a more activist foreign policy. Fully 47 per cent wished the US to conduct a less activist policy, a camp that has quadrupled in size over [...]
We will not apologise for defending British worldbeaters like AstraZeneca May 5, 2014 Amid the speculation surrounding the potential takeover of UK pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca by Pfizer, some facts are now known. Pfizer made an approach to take over AstraZeneca on 5 January 2014. The deal valued the company at around £60bn, which AstraZeneca rejected. On 26 April, Pfizer made a second approach, which AstraZeneca also rebuffed. A [...]
Why Piketty’s socialist manifesto doesn’t stack up May 5, 2014 THOMAS Piketty makes some bold claims about the future of capitalism. In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, he observes that, in capitalist economies, the rate of return on capital (r) tends to be higher than the growth rate of the economy (g). Provided capital owners save a high proportion of capital income, the power of [...]
City & Gild: All Hail Real Ale May 2, 2014 As a bloke of a certain age, the new wave real ale, artisan brewing phenomenon has not passed me by un-noticed; the emergence of owner-operated, boutique, passion-led breweries has reinvigorated a dying pub culture and given ales a new energy comparable to the recent growth in wine and vodka. It may just have done for [...]
Letters to the Editor – 02/05 – Inflation spike, Rent controls, Best of Twitter May 1, 2014 Inflation spike [Re: How the Goldilocks recovery will trigger a sharp inflation rise, Wednesday] I would love to be Andrew Lilico’s bookmaker, as he’s agreed to a £1 to £1 bet against the odds. But I do agree with his analysis that there is little spare capacity in the UK. The underlying rate of growth [...]
Why Miliband’s rent control plan isn’t just some harmless gimmick May 1, 2014 TO DEAL with the problem of escalating rents, Ed Miliband plans to introduce what amounts to a variation of “second generation rent controls” (SGRCs). Under SGRCs, landlords are free to set rent levels at the outset of a tenancy, but are restricted in their ability to raise them during the term. In Miliband’s specific version, [...]