Who will rule the 21st Century
This is a nice big question to ponder on the holiday beach or in the rented villa. A vast amount has already been written on the rise of China and whether the US will be replaced as the global superpower. And where exactly does Europe fit into all this? It is easy to make a […]
The Olympics, traffic in Central London and a bar in Santa Fe
We all know now about the empty roads and deserted shops, all quite contrary to the official announcements before the Games began. No doubt Transport for London used their massively complicated, expensive models of the transport network to deduce that the system would be under massive strain. But a deceptively simple game devised in the […]
Positive Linking: the reviews are in…
Positive Linking: the reviews are in… Volterra partner Paul Ormerod’s latest book ‘Positive Linking’ – an examination of how the power of networks can revolutionise the world – hit the bookshelves last month and has received a glowing reception from both the printed and online press. Brian Appleyard’s review in the Sunday Times says “network […]
Paul in the media
Paul in the media It wasn’t just the response to his book that kept Paul in the news this month. He has recently become a regular columnist for CityAM with his ‘Against the Grain’ column that will feature in the paper every Wednesday. Read his latest article here – and keep an eye on our […]
How bad is this recession?
A number of commentators have pointed out that this is the slowest recovery from recession in more than a hundred year. Taking output measures this is correct. But taking employment as the main measure of recession it is not. Both the 1980s and the 1990s saw much sharper job losses, while the 1970s recession saw […]
Towards Healthcare – doing more with less (the ‘Aldi’ model!)
Health professionals are living with paradox—they seem to have a dark future of financial decompression—but they also have, opportunities to use an emerging model of healthcare. They have to meet a new challenge of providing improved service for patients with long term medical conditions which seems to be an impossible mission —but so far from […]
Transparency, Clarity and Understanding
The call for more transparency is a compelling one. We should have more information, more easily available. Stuff should not be hidden away. I am generally a believer in all of this, and that people have greater ability to absorb and critique than they are given credit for. But there are risks and caveats which […]
Why Can’t Debt Just be Inflated Away?
The debt problems which the UK and Europe currently face are essentially ones of political economy. Basically, there is a lot of debt around and the simple question is: who is going to pay for it? All the economic theory in the world does not get around this fundamental issue. Traditionally, bondholders paid. The real […]
Ignore the IMF: Economic forecasts have a history of being unreliable
So the IMF has slashed its growth forecasts for the UK economy. This august body has just pronounced that Britain’s economy will come to a virtual standstill. Growth in 2012 will be just 0.2pc, compared with the IMF’s April forecast of 0.8pc growth. It cut its 2013 growth forecast by the same margin to 1.4pc […]
Paul’s New Book is Published
Paul’s New Book is Published Paul Ormerod, Volterra Partner and co-founder, and author of the bestselling Butterfly Economics and Why Most Things Fail, has completed a fourth book that hits the book shelves in July. ‘Positive Linking: How Networks Revolutionise the World’ shows us the limits of conventional economics and why it needs to embrace […]
