Our boys make progress – and I don’t mean on Brexit. On a visit to Glasgow last Thursday, a popular Scottish newspaper had a mock-up photo of Harry Kane lifting the cup. In massive type, the headline shrieked “This Would Be the End of the World”. Yes,
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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
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Immigration is a hot topic in both senses of the word “hot”. Not only is it at the forefront of the news, it also provokes heated emotions. For the metropolitan liberal elite, immigration is unequivocally a Good Thing. They are on the side of the angels. Whether
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Criticisms of economics have abounded since the financial crisis. Even Nobel Prize winners like George Akerlof of Berkeley have got in on the act. A key demand is for economics to adopt a more recognisably human portrait of behaviour in its theories than the rational calculating machine
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The 2018 World Cup in Russia kicks off tomorrow. This time, at least, there is little feeling that our boys will emerge victorious. And yet. There is a great deal more randomness in the outcome of soccer games than is generally appreciated. A striking feature of games
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Guess which of the 964 jobs listed in the widely used Occupational Information Network online database is the least susceptible to replacement by artificial intelligence (AI). The unsurprising answer is that of “massage therapist”. This is one of the findings of a paper in the latest issue
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The governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, is up to his usual tricks. Last week, he claimed in front of the Treasury Committee of the House of Commons that British households are now more than £900 worse off after the vote to leave the EU.
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The new Italian government looks set to cause shock waves across Europe. The two parties promise mass deportations of immigrants and huge increases in public spending. Both the social and the economic policies of the Italian coalition clash directly with those of the European Commission, and Germany
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The Windrush scandal still bubbles away. The bureaucrats at the Home Office are being condemned for their harsh behaviour. But it is scarcely their fault – they are simply reacting in a way entirely compatible with the economic theory of rational choice. It emerged during the saga
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The Trojans had to beware of Greeks bearing gifts. In the same way, politicians need to be suspicious of petitions signed by economists. The vast majority of the UK economics profession backed Project Fear, which predicted a rise in unemployment of half a million by the end
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