They may be annoying, but Gen Z’s quarter life gap years are economically rational

Generation Z has been getting a lot of bad press recently. Allegations that they enjoy “quiet quitting” and boast of their “lazy girl jobs” were gathering momentum last year. These were given a huge boost in November when the American television personality Whoopi Goldberg made headlines with her claim that they just were not willing […]

Confusion is the keyword for UK bonds as financial markets’ confidence fades

The yields on British government bonds have drifted upwards again. As many commentators have pointed out, we are back at the levels experienced during the short-lived premiership of Liz Truss. An obvious culprit is government debt, now at around 100 per cent of GDP in the UK. This in itself can create anxiety in the […]

Our politicians must wake up to the public debt effect

In a novel by C.P. Snow, a physicist turned author who served as science minister under Harold Wilson in the 1960s, the master of a Cambridge college says that “gratitude isn’t an emotion, but the expectation of gratitude is a very lively one.” The prime minister and her Chancellor may well be having exactly the […]

Lending a hand: government loans to energy firms can’t be the final answer

Some of the media seem to have become addicted to gloom. Most outfits have become cautiously optimistic on Covid-19, but the prospective double squeeze on living standards has rushed in to fill the gap. Consumers are faced with tax increases and sharp rises in energy bills. The surge in the world price of energy means […]

Meet the engineers of economic theory: Market design has become a full-time job

What does someone with the job title of “chief economist” actually do? The most well-known in the UK is probably Andy Haldane at the Bank of England, but his role is not typical. So what do the others do? Nobel Laureate Alvin Roth’s paper in the latest issue of the American Economic Review describes the […]

The chancellor should heed Keynes – and keep public spending down

Last week’s Spring Statement by chancellor Philip Hammond has led to predictable calls to “abandon austerity”. With massive hyperbole, Labour accused him of “astounding complacency” in the face of what they claimed to be the worst ever public funding crisis. The facts are rather different. Far from being squeezed, after allowing for inflation, current spending […]

Less austerity will always mean more tax

Austerity

There is a great deal of discussion, following the election, of relaxing or even abandoning austerity. There is an equal amount of confusion about this, because the same word is being used to describe two quite separate concepts. The consequences of the government changing its policy on austerity are dramatically different, depending on which one […]

Capitalism is stable and resilient

The financial crisis did succeed in creating one dynamic new industry.  Since the late 2000s, there has been a massive upsurge in op-ed pieces, books and even artistic performances offering a critique of capitalism. A founder member of the Monty Python team, Terry Jones, is the latest to get in on the act with his […]