Why Albert Einstein might have been wrong after all and why this really matters October 4, 2011 IT’S the reason the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars has to make the jump into hyperspace and the reason passengers on the Golgafrincham B Ark are in suspended animation in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Every author dealing with space travel has to work with or around Einstein’s speed limit. Nothing goes faster than [...]
Credit easing a sign that crisis worries Tories October 4, 2011 THE Eurozone crisis deepens by the day. Britain looks on, waiting for the nuclear fall-out that is sure to follow the explosion. Increasingly, I suspect the “credit easing” plan announced by the chancellor on Monday is a clear signal that the UK government expects things to get much, much worse. Ostensibly designed to help small [...]
The deadweight of the money-go-round October 4, 2011 WHAT will the government do to promote economic growth? I wish everyone would stop asking this question. It encourages politicians to “do something”; it encourages them to “deliver”. Yet the best way the chancellor George Osborne could promote growth is to stop delivering. Nothing that can be supplied privately should be supplied by the government [...]
RAPID RESPONSES October 4, 2011 Negative feedback We are all used to flare-ups of the sovereign debt crisis, but this time it is threatening to engulf the banking sector. Dexia brought back fears of 2008. The problem is that the banks in the need of most state-help tend to be based in countries with troubled finances. It is easy to [...]
It is not the time for more QE – the MPC should focus on tackling high inflation October 3, 2011 THE most recent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) minutes suggested that the Committee may be moving towards injecting more stimulus into the UK economy by restarting its policy of Quantitative Easing (QE). This would be a big mistake. It would confirm what many are beginning to suspect – that price stability and the 2 per cent [...]
A tactical speech laced with many contradictions October 3, 2011 IN MANCHESTER FORGET the Eurozone crisis. George Osborne is already fighting the 2015 general election. He used yesterday’s speech to talk over the heads of the Tory faithful to the electorate at large, often sounding more like a Prime Minister than a chancellor. Ever the master tactician, he couldn’t resist taking several swipes at the [...]
The monetary system needs to be reformed October 3, 2011 IT IS encouraging to see political debate start moving from monetary policy towards monetary regimes. Tinkering with the present system is a necessary but ultimately futile way to ensure a more stable economy, because it is the system itself that is the problem. Douglas Carswell MP is confronting these issues with a ten minute rule [...]
RAPID RESPONSES October 3, 2011 Osborne’s speech George Osborne’s announcement that he will focus on supporting small businesses is clearly good news, but recent research carried out by RSM Tenon shows that nearly a quarter of all entrepreneurs in the south say that the coalition government has had a negative impact on their business. The chancellor says that he recognises [...]
Why it is now the time to set out strict fiscal rules to stop over-spending for ever October 2, 2011 IN HIS speech at the Labour party conference last week shadow chancellor Ed Balls made an interesting suggestion. He argued that Britain should introduce a new set of fiscal rules to be independently monitored by the Office for Budgetary Responsibility (OBR). We should not reject the idea just because of the messenger. FISCAL RULES The [...]
Tories bereft of ideas when they need them most October 2, 2011 WHAT a difference a year makes. At the 2010 Tory conference, the party faithful were walking around in a blissful daze, barely able to contain their glee at being back in power after 13 years in the wilderness. The Office for Budget Responsibility, recently created by chancellor George Osborne, was forecasting economic growth of 2.6 [...]