How one man battled the bureaucrats to save a billion lives March 27, 2014 THE 1960s was a decade of explosive change, but the most important revolution wasn’t sexual: it was green. While Western intellectuals looked the other way, lost to well-meaning doom-mongering, one visionary saved a billion lives. Private foundations supported his work; rich governments’ aid programmes often thought it was wrongheaded. But Norman Borlaug (it’s pronounced Bor-log), [...]
Pensions freedom is at risk – from the regulators March 27, 2014 AS COMMENTATORS digest the liberal reforms to pensions announced in the Budget last week, questions are starting to arise about just how the proposals will be implemented. To be clear, we welcome the reforms; it is right that people should be empowered to make their own choices about how they access a pension fund which [...]
Letters to the Editor – 27/03 – No green jobs, Cost of government, Best of Twitter March 26, 2014 No green jobs [Re: The green myth: Why renewables destroy jobs, yesterday] Matthew Sinclair’s excellent article, on why investment in costly green energy should never be advertised as creating jobs, merely stated what should be obvious. And yet it has become a political mantra that “green investment” is good for the economy. Politicians need to be [...]
Why the real global debt crisis is bigger than you think March 26, 2014 HERE IS a very easy economic forecast. Public debt will be the number one economic issue on the planet over the coming decades. Hugely indebted governments will get even more indebted, and politicians will remain behind the curve in terms of finding a solution. Governments will find it even more difficult to attain and maintain [...]
The great British wage squeeze should be about to end March 26, 2014 A FASTER growing economy is key to improving living standards. This very simple claim rests on a more complex point – how closely linked are wages, productivity and economic output? For the government, its chances of success at the next General Election could largely be determined by the answer to this question. The most recent [...]
London will come to a standstill if we delay Crossrail 2 March 26, 2014 LONDON will start grinding to a halt if Crossrail 2 – the proposed new north-south rail line for the capital – isn’t built by 2030. That’s why London First, the business promotion body, has recommended a firm plan for Crossrail 2, including significant property developer contributions so that London could directly pay for a large [...]
Letters to the Editor – 26/03 – Personal liberty, Best of Twitter March 25, 2014 Personal liberty [Re: Pension reforms mark a welcome move towards individual liberty, yesterday] You only have to look to Switzerland, where there is a real sense of personal responsibility, to see the importance of handing power back to the people. It has a very stable political system, based on decentralisation and frequent referendums. And the [...]
Regulators beware: Why capitalism needs crisis March 25, 2014 WE LIVE in a world riddled with black swan fatigue, and this piece does not propose to add to it. Still, the recent financial crisis and its continuing implications have invited hyperbolic comparisons, most notably with the 1930s. That decade is seared in cultural memory as the Great Depression – a traumatic time of economic [...]
How fear of globalisation could propel Miliband into power March 25, 2014 THE IMPROVEMENT in the economy has seen a narrowing of the gap in the opinion polls between the Conservatives and Labour. In the key marginal seat of Bury North, a Tory gain in 2010 by just 2,200 votes, the party even took a council seat from Labour recently. Bill Clinton famously said about elections that [...]
The green myth: Why renewables destroy jobs March 25, 2014 POLITICIANS and activists are celebrating the news that Siemens is prepared to invest £160m in facilities in and around Hull to produce and install offshore wind turbines. It sounds like good news: 1,000 new jobs. But our embrace of renewable energy will cost jobs overall, not create them. The UK is putting eye-watering amounts of [...]