Tag: George Osborne

Taxing questions

I’ve not said much about the whole Panama/Prime Ministerial tax schmozzle. That’s not because I don’t have views. But I’m not sure that I’ve got them entirely straight yet. A few things seem clear. It seems unlikely that David Cameron has done anything technically illegal.

Housing and the Autumn Statement

The full ramifications of George Osborne’s pronouncements on housing during the Autumn Statement will no doubt take a while to emerge. Some of the rumours of nasty surprises proved to be unfounded. There were some surprises that were broadly positive – such as the increase in stamp duty […]

Constitutional ‘crisis’

The Chancellor’s defeat in the House of Lords on Monday over cuts to tax credits has, rightly, generated acres of commentary. I don’t propose to review the debate in detail here, other than to observe, as a number of commentators and bloggers have already noted, that on this […]

Policy-induced uncertainty

[Originally posted on The Policy Press blog, 24/07/15, under a different title. Reposted here under the original title.] George Osborne’s recent “emergency” budget proposed many changes to state support to lower income households in a bid to fulfil the Conservatives’ manifesto pledge to cut £12bn from welfare spending. […]

Through a glass, darkly

The community of housing bloggers has already offered plenty of comment on the implications of the Chancellor’s “emergency” budget for housing. Comment from almost all quarters – be it Jules, Ken, Joe, Steve, Tom or Gavin – highlights, in more or less lurid terms, the challenges the budget measures […]

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? […]

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 […]

The Tory £12bn and manifest inadequacy

The leak to the BBC hinting at the scale of the cuts to welfare budgets being modelled by the Department for Work and Pensions has caused consternation. And so it should. Given that George Osborne has refused to say what he is proposing to cut from welfare spending […]

Economics in the bubble

My plan was to write something following up last week’s Autumn Statement. But what with having to do other things – work and that – I’ve not had the chance. In the interim there has been bucketloads of analysis. So I’m not sure there is more to say […]