It’s not just the Eurozone: A trade crisis is growing. The G20 must show leadership November 1, 2011 THE crisis spawned in 2007 has in many ways come to resemble Hydra – the mythical many-headed serpent of Ancient Greece, which grew two new heads every time one was cut off – already last Wednesday’s Brussels Summit shows no sign of marking a true turning point for the Eurozone. And while the euro-crisis commands [...]
We need to teach financial literacy in all UK schools November 1, 2011 IT IS significant the e-petition calling for compulsory financial education in schools has this week become one of the first petitions to reach the threshold of 100,000 signatures and that the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Financial Education for Young People is the largest in parliament, with 224 cross-party MPs. We are a financially [...]
Forcing others to obey is the issue, not greed November 1, 2011 MANY of those occupying Wall Street and the City of London object to corporate greed. Yet greed is usually harmless. For example, I may well be greedy. I would like to earn more despite already earning what many of the protesters would consider more than enough. But my greed is harmless because I cannot force [...]
RAPID RESPONSES November 1, 2011 Simply complex In response to Gemma Godfrey [The EU’s decision process: It’s not rocket science, on Monday], I think we’ve outlived a time where the world economy worked mostly in a linear fashion that’s easy to grasp and extrapolate (e.g. if exports grow by X per cent, and unemployment falls by Y per cent, GDP [...]
Violence is down and partly thanks to trade: A scientist explains his bold new thesis October 31, 2011 Q.CAN YOU DISTIL THE ARGUMENT OF YOUR NEW BOOK? A.Violence has declined, on many scales of time and magnitude, with reductions unfolding over periods stretching from millennia down to just a few years. That’s true for everything from warfare and genocide to our treatment of children and animals. What is some of the evidence for [...]
Migration policy needs a rest, not constant change October 31, 2011 IT IS no secret that the government’s work permit policy, especially the cap on migration, has not always been welcomed by business. Economists and employers can see that a strong economy comes from a strong, flexible workforce. The skills needed by UK businesses are not always available here, so employers need to look abroad. And [...]
Easy credit may teach hard economic lessons October 31, 2011 ONE thing about public opinion I fail to understand is this: people understand that easy credit was a cause of the financial crisis, so why are policies that make credit easier popular? George Osborne’s credit easing plans for small businesses are noble in that these firms are indeed the lifeblood of the economy. But it [...]
RAPID RESPONSES October 31, 2011 Fencing the banks Instead of mounting a legal challenge to the capital rules proposed by the Vickers Commission [EU in bid to veto UK bank reform], surely the EU should instead be considering a similar overhaul for all the bloc’s banks. Ring-fencing investment banking from retail banking would create a more stable financial system which, [...]
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is much more than a bookseller: He’s the Everyman entrepreneur October 30, 2011 WITH the Kindle Fire, Amazon.com chief executive Jeff Bezos is showing the world that he’s much more than an online retailer. The original Kindle, released in 2007, was the first piece of electronic hardware Amazon ever produced, and it revolutionised the electronic book business. Wall Street analysts expect Amazon to sell about 26m Kindle devices [...]
The EU’s decision process: It’s not rocket science October 30, 2011 AS THE EU’s leaders struggle to reach a comprehensive and credible plan to contain the sovereign debt crisis, there is much they could learn from the scientific world. It’s time our leaders changed their way of thinking, or at least hired a rocket scientist or two to help. From our first physics lessons, we are [...]