Fiscal and economic stability in the eurozone

Written by | Tuesday 31 January 2012

Every day the news is filled with increasingly depressing news about the economy. The recent Autumn Statement (29 November 2011) to the House of Commons by UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, confirmed that the cause of a potential “double dip” recession in the British economy lay largely at the doors of the European Union and, in particular, the eurozone. It is easy to understand why some commentators feel that perhaps the European single currency is in its death-throes, and that the European Union itself needs major structural revisions.

Why MigrationWatch is wrong about immigration and unemployment

Written by | Tuesday 10 January 2012

Harold Macmillan was Chancellor of the Exchequer for one year in 1956. Although the budget speech he delivered was a fairly tepid bit of Keynesian tinkering (famous, almost, for introducing Premium Bonds) it did contain some wisdom about the usefulness of economic data:

…some of our statistics are too late to be as useful as they ought to be. We are always, as it were, looking up a train in last year's Bradshaw [train timetable].

Does stimulus cure recession?

Written by | Friday 6 January 2012

"If people won’t spend, the Government must spend in their place" — Christopher Smallwood

Law and order in Kenya: BABS Security Services Ltd

Written by | Monday 19 December 2011

Excerpted from the forthcoming work: “Business, Casual: The Spontaneous Order of the Kenyan Street Trade”

System-wide studies of the for-profit effect on student test scores

Written by | Friday 9 December 2011

Opponents of the idea that schools should be owned and operated by businesses for profit often claim that such can only come at the expense of quality. Until relatively recently, advocates of the model have had to base their argument on case study evidence, mainly of the performance of proprietorially owned chains. However, system-wide studies are now beginning to emerge and it is worth bringing these to wider attention.

Why private schools have a moral duty not to support government schools

Written by | Wednesday 7 December 2011

According to Anthony Seldon, head of Wellington College, Berkshire, fee-paying private schools have a “moral duty” to help run failing government schools in deprived areas.  However private schools are right to question the wisdom of this approach.