There is little doubt that the so-called “plebgate” affair leading to Andrew Mitchell’s resignation was decidedly peculiar. It had momentum in the media because it pandered to preconceptions of the Tory Cabinet as a bunch of out of touch, condescending and rather unpleasant upper class twits. In the […]
For a few week’s I’ve been carrying a pdf of a working paper by one of the elder statesmen of economics – Richard Lipsey – around on my hard drive. Entitled Twenty five methodological issues in memory of Mark Blaug its focus is pretty self-evident. Today I had […]
We live in a world of impact and engagement. Academics are encouraged to embrace social media and communicate in new and different ways to broader audiences. More academics should be getting acquainted with WordPress or Blogger, Typepad, Posterous or Tumblr. The world needs to know what’s happening within […]
Property markets are frequently implicated in economic booms. It isn’t always residential property. But often it is. The last boom, which eventually triggered the Global Financial Crisis, had a strong housing market component. A while ago the Bank of England created the new Financial Policy Committee (FPC) with […]
I keep returning to Steve Hilton’s comments on the rigidities and redundancies of the senior civil service, as reported in the Sunday Times. It all strikes me as a bit rum. Hilton was making three main points. First, that members of the Government were only finding out about […]
To coincide with the relaunch of Iain Dale’s Diary, one of the most successful UK political blogs of all time, Biteback have published a selection of Iain Dale’s posts from the period 2004 to 2012 under the title The Blogfather. The majority of the posts come from Iain […]
[On 10/01/13 I gave a brief overview of the context facing rented housing as part of an event called Housing Challenges in Exeter organised by Exeter City Council. This is the text to accompany my presentation.] Our housing system faces significant pressures. Short term pressures generated by the […]
New for 2013: we’re now more multi-platform that ever before. This blog has had a Facebook page for more than a year. A small, perfectly formed and slowly increasing group of readers follow the blog, and occasionally comment, over there. For a while I’ve also been posting to […]
I’m not quite sure what the point of today’s Coalition Mid-Term Review was. Apart from reasserting that the Coalition intends to go the distance – and beyond? – the main thing that was clear was that they’d really rather like the media to change the metaphor and stop […]
In the period since the 2007 Financial Crisis “economics” has played an increasingly high profile role in shaping policy. The austerity policies implemented in many western countries, with significant negative impacts upon citizens’ well-being and the social fabric, come with the endorsement of many economists as the correct […]
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