As we resume our life back to normal, the costs of lockdowns become painfully clear Paul Ormerod The enormous costs of a policy of strict lockdowns – identified and predicted by many economists in the summer of 2020 – are now becoming obvious. As our memory of them starts to fade away, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is still tracking vital Covid-19 data. The WHO provides estimates of the excess deaths due [...]
Sprinkling local football clubs with money won’t make them sustainable endeavours Paul Ormerod The domestic football season has come to a dramatic close, with two sides from the North West jostling for the title and four London teams competing frantically for the coveted spots in Europe. Since its inception, clubs from these two areas have dominated the Premiership, especially over the past twenty years. Perhaps it is something [...]
We need to stop comforting ourselves with the myth of the all-powerful central bank Paul Ormerod Inflation continues to be a major problem for policy makers. The annual rate of price increases hit 7 per cent last month and could be in double figures later this year. This projection is far from being a fantasy. On some measures, annual inflation in America is already over 10 per cent. Rather bizarrely, the [...]
It’s time to salvage rational thought when we look at immigration plans for refugees April 20, 2022 Priti Patel’s proposals to send illegal immigrants to Rwanda has sent the usual suspects into a veritable lather. Not since the peak days of the pandemic, have we seen such a number of people indulge in virtue-signalling. Even the Archbishop of Canterbury has joined in, cornering the headlines on Easter Sunday. He seems to have [...]
Scandals within the NHS have finally made us question the angelic halo of our doctors April 13, 2022 Much of the narrative around the health service over the past few years has depicted nurses as angels and doctors as living saints. Soap operas are helpful purveyors of this narrative. Perhaps the most famous is George Clooney as the charismatic Dr Ross in the long running American medical drama ER. Dr Ross, despite the [...]
As Rishi wades through the cost of living crisis, static growth is waiting in the wings April 6, 2022 The short-term pressures on Rishi Sunak have continued to grow in tandem with the cost of energy and everyday essentials. Conservative MPs are increasingly panicked about being saddled with a label of being “high tax Tories”. But underlying all of this is a much more worrying phenomenon. Since the financial crisis of the late 2000s, [...]
Despite what we wish, there are no miracle economics Rishi can pull out of his hat March 30, 2022 The economic pressures now known as “the cost of living crisis” were at the core of the criticism of the spring statement last week. Those who once eulogised the Chancellor have now been selling their stocks of Sunak. While much of the commentary is unfair, politics is a trade in which the concept of fairness [...]
As Omicron sweeps through again, Britain has finally learnt to live with Covid-19 March 23, 2022 A huge third wave of Omicron cases is sweeping the country. This will be readily apparent in the everyday lives of many people. Family members have it, work colleagues have gone down, small restaurants and service businesses must close for a few days through staff shortages. According to the reliable Zoe Covid data produced by [...]
A renewed focus on defence spending could turbocharge Britain’s scientific innovation March 16, 2022 Germany, along with most of the rest of the EU, has finally woken up to the folly of relying on other countries – mainly the US but also the UK – to defend them. At the end of last month, Chancellor Olaf Schulz announced that €100bn will be put into a new defence procurement fund. [...]
As government debt jumps to fund defence spending, our economy will pay the price March 9, 2022 Sanctions will clearly hit the Russian economy very hard. But economic prospects for the West are not exactly rosy. Twice in the 1970s and again in the early 90s, there were rapid spikes in oil prices; each instance was followed by economic recessions. The deep recession following 2008 was, of course, due to financial causes [...]
