Category: Economics

Brexit tears

Like many others, I’ve been mesmerised by the news since last Thursday’s narrow referendum win for Leave. The pace of events has been extraordinary. You feel like if you nip to the shops for an hour it is almost guaranteed that you’ll miss some further seismic political event […]

Capitalism has a go at eating itself (again)?

What is key to a successful capitalist economy? You might say clearly defined property rights. You might say a sound financial system. You might say entrepreneurs willing to take risks to innovate. You might even say a government that desists from strangling the economy with unnecessary “red tape” […]

On economic pluralism

A few days ago at Quartz.com Allison Schrager posted The single most important thing an economics course can teach you. It never becomes entirely clear what the single most important thing is. But it is possible that it is the need to study economic history alongside economy theory, […]

Filling The Empty Cockpit

I spent much of Boxing Day reading, perhaps a little belatedly, Joris Luyendijk’s Swimming with Sharks: My journey into the world of the bankers. It’s a book that has featured on one or two lists of books of the year. The book is based on around 200 interviews conducting between 2011-2013 […]

The economisation of policy and the problem of price

Last week I found myself discussing – indeed partially defending – economics in the face of somewhat indiscriminate accusations of “neoliberalism”. I have no doubt that some economists – while rarely self-defining as “neoliberal” – find themselves in sympathy with the political project that is usually signified by […]

Towards postcapitalism?

Paul Mason’s new book Postcapitalism: a guide to our future is a serious book with an ambitious agenda. But you wouldn’t necessarily have picked that up from some of the early reviews. Political commentators from the centre and right were pretty quick to the pages of the Times […]

Osborne’s surplus rule and citizen economics

There is much that is troubling about George Osborne’s proposal to oblige future governments to run a budget surplus in normal times. There is the small matter of identifying “normal” times. It implies something important about how one is thinking about the macreconomy. What does “normal” look like? […]

The disconnected housing debate

There is something of an oddity in the debate over the nature of the problems facing the UK housing system, and therefore by implication where the focus of policy attention is best directed. I’ve remarked on it before but it struck me forcefully this week when reading Christian […]

Housing markets and economic stories

Part of the story isn’t being told. As we move towards the General Election strands of news and snippets of information have emerged which circle around the issues but there is a gap in the middle where the story could – and should – be. I’m thinking here […]