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” […]
Zero hours contracts are not new. But that doesn’t mean they’re not news. Today the BBC reports on a study by CIPD that suggests there are four times as many workers on zero-hours contracts than previously thought – a million rather than 250,000. Perhaps as important as the […]
The horsemeat scandal has now been with us for over a month. It has morphed from a localised concern about adulteration of one processed meat product at one supermarket chain into a Europe-wide exposé of industrialised food production and lengthy supply chains that are ripe for abuse. Many […]
Over Christmas I went back to Capitalism Unleashed: Finance, Globalization and Welfare by Andrew Glyn. It is simultaneously a sparse and a sprawling book. The text has fewer than 190 pages, and yet it covers an immense amount of territory. I returned to the book to look for […]
On Thursday the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) released a brief story in which it: warned that the sector faces “gross regulatory overload” that serves only to drive up rents at a time when tenants can least afford it. The RLA is conducting an exercise on the costs of […]
They’re not happy. The Tory Right are on manoeuvres. And the Lib Dems are in their sights. It seems that the grumbling and the finger-pointing are getting, well, a bit more pointed. In yesterday’s Express Paul O’Flynn’s column argues: “not only is the Lib Dem presence in the […]
Buses. Buses and markets. Markets for buses. It’s not a topic I have spent much time thinking about. But it’s been on my mind. And it’s my own fault. Last week I ran a session with some students discussing the economic critique of government and its consequences, mostly […]
Getting rid of inefficient and ineffective regulations sounds like a good idea. So does stopping the proliferation of inefficient or ineffective new regulations. The problem is, of course, that views on what constitutes inefficient or ineffective regulation differ sharply. The Coalition agreement, in its section on supporting business, […]
Steve Hilton has attracted flak across the old and new media following the FT’s revelations about his suggestions for stimulating economic growth. The proposals that hit the headlines included the abolition of maternity leave, labour market policies that contravened European law and the suspension of all consumer rights. […]
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