Proactive cuts, reactive cuts
This week, everyone’s favourite government agency, the Office of National Statistics (ONS), announced that inflation had hit a new 10-month high of 3 percent in January – well above the Bank of England’s forecast.
Blackboard Economics
In his blog post "Ten Things Every Economist Should Know," Dr Pirie includes an important observation: "Modeling has limitations. Some economists like to produce neat, clean models of how economies work.
A Manifesto for Lord Mandelson- 6 (Housing)
If you find it weird that a series on US trade should touch on housing, please soldier on for a few paragraphs.
“How to breed mosquitos” rising as a Philippine search inquiry
Incentives matter. No, really, a very basic law of life - incentives matter:
The Adam Smith Institute’s response to change
The ASI is often described as centre-right because of its neoliberal approach to trade and its emphasis on markets and competition. It is far from a populist outlook that is anti-immigrant, anti-drugs, anti-lifestyle choice and traditionalist moral values.
Wales to ban lying in politics. Good luck, they’ll need it
When this idea was first floated we were all in favour of it for the joy and amusement that would follow.
Not a thing
In a famous, some might say infamous, interview for Woman’s Own in 1987, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared:
There’s a vast value to devolution, you know?
As we keep insisting the beating heart of the very idea of a market economic system is that we get to try many - even all - things and then do more of what works and less of what doesn’t.
The Problem of Car Loans
The Supreme Court's rejection of Rachel Reeves' intervention in the car loan compensation case lays bare a profound crisis in British financial regulation.
Ten things every economist should know
Taxes on goods and services, including labour, make them more expensive. Other things being equal, on the margins people will tend to consume less of them.
Piecework, that’s what’ll solve the NHS, piecework
Apparently the National Health Service - that Wonder of the World - is not, in fact, very good. In fact, it could be significantly better if it were simply managed better:
Churn and change
When I first began to fly across the Atlantic, flights used to cost the same because the International Air Transport Association (IATA) was a price cartel.