By: Paul Ormerod

Paul Ormerod is an economist at Volterra Partners LLP, author and an Honorary Professor at the Alliance Business School at the University of Manchester

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We’re not reliving the 1970s yet, but today’s decisions will keep us out or drag us back

June 22, 2022

In the current wave of discontent, rail unions, along with teachers, NHS and other public sector unions, are asking for increases which match inflation. They are still, just about, in single figures and a long way from the 20 per cent-plus of 1975. But only eighteen months previously, at the end of 1973, inflation had still been in high single figures.
Scotland needs to abandon its dream world and realise what independence truly means

June 15, 2022

Nicola Sturgeon has relaunched her bid for Scottish Independence.
A windfall tax raised by a money-hungry government will scare off our businesses

June 8, 2022

Rishi Sunak’s windfall tax on energy firms – what he called a “temporary targeted profits levy” – has gone down well with voters. The tax makes it look like money is raised from someone else and given to them through subsidies to their bills. Despite claims that the tax will yield an additional £5bn in [...]
As Johnson squirms, his party must remember the roots of Conservatives values

June 1, 2022

Boris Johnson has strayed very far from Conservative ideals
Many lessons can be learned from drink driving and smoking laws to tackle obesity

May 25, 2022

Obesity has been a hot topic over the past week. The government announced it would delay its plan to implement restrictions on junk food marketing and volume-based price promotions. These had been presented as key elements in the strategy to reduce obesity. With a timing which was either impeccable or pure good luck, the Cancer [...]
As we resume our life back to normal, the costs of lockdowns become painfully clear

May 11, 2022

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

May 4, 2022

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

April 27, 2022

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 [...]

Why OpenAI and Anthropic are really fighting about ads

The real Guinness Six Nations showdown is happening in the pub

How South Wales became one of the UK’s most exciting food destinations

By: Paul Ormerod

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