Banking regulations are causing problems for the humanitarian chain to Syria December 11, 2013 WHENEVER anyone dips a hand into their pocket for a worthy cause on the other side of the world, it’s only human to focus on the striking images of a starving child or a bereaved family. Thoughts of the world’s banking and regulatory systems will hardly loom large, so those who give could be forgiven [...]
Failing UK drugs policy should take a leaf from Uruguay and Portugal December 11, 2013 DRUGS are harmful, whether they are legal or illegal. The challenge is how to reduce the harms they cause. For decades, countries have tried to stop drug use by handing out criminal justice sanctions. People are arrested, tried, and convicted, at vast expense. But this has not stopped the ready availability of a huge range [...]
Letters to the Editor – 12/12 – Blocked reports, Tech giants, Best of Twitter December 11, 2013 Blocked reports [Re: Here’s what Theresa May doesn’t want you to see, Tuesday] Recently, we have seen a report into HS2 blocked because its message would bring “political and presentational difficulties”. And now, it seems Theresa May has delayed the publication of a review into the impact of EU migration because of fears that it [...]
We’ve neglected the Commonwealth and Britain’s prosperity has suffered December 10, 2013 AN IMPORTANT feature of the modern Commonwealth has become worryingly obscured in UK debates about its significance: intra-Commonwealth trade and investment flows between its 53 member states (about a third of the world’s population) are growing at a huge pace. Far from being a relic of Britain’s imperial past, today’s Commonwealth connects at least half [...]
Against the Grain: Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs and the economics behind the Top One Per Cent December 10, 2013 BORIS Johnson has got into trouble for his provocative argument that it is “surely relevant to a conversation about equality” that just 2 per cent of “our species” has an IQ over 130. Over the past couple of years, the Occupy movement has made the headlines by attacking the top 1 per cent, criticising a [...]
Forget a Bitcoin bubble: A wider crypto revolt is challenging everything December 10, 2013 FOR ALL the talk of a Bitcoin bubble, it’s easy to miss the real significance of what is currently happening. The rise of Bitcoin is just the beginning. Cryptocurrencies are no longer the domain of activists and grassroots movements, they are nothing less than “new money”. Many are waiting for the moment when a central [...]
Letters to the Editor – 11/12 – Encrypted lives, Best of Twitter December 10, 2013 Encrypted lives [Re: The tech giants are right: We could be sleepwalking into a surveillance state, yesterday] The author is right to highlight the growing discontent with government surveillance. But it should be noted that possible solutions to concerns over privacy are cropping up in the private sector. Microsoft announced last week that it will [...]
The tech giants are right: We could be sleepwalking into a surveillance state December 9, 2013 THE CHIEF executives of eight of the biggest businesses in the world sent a clear message to global leaders yesterday: as far as surveillance laws are concerned, the status quo is not an option. It is hardly a common occurrence that AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo agree on something, let alone write [...]
The real reason the chancellor should not let the OBR audit party manifestos December 9, 2013 IT HAS been a tough week for Ed Balls. Many within Labour are said to be questioning his position as shadow chancellor following his disastrous response to George Osborne’s Autumn Statement. While Balls claims he “couldn’t give a toss” about the speculation, he needs to repair his party’s economic credibility, and fast. That’s one reason [...]
Why the 50-year bull market may end with a whimper not a bang December 9, 2013 MY NEXT Gresham professorial lecture has the provocative title “Was Karl Marx always wrong?”, but those wanting a detailed dissection of Marxism should stay away. Rather, I used this to highlight one of the important phenomena of our times – the falling share of labour incomes of GDP. The fall has meant a growing share [...]