Artificial intelligence will dominate every aspect of our lives, but it won’t replace us
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 of the American Economic Review by Erik Brynjolfsson […]
Mark Carney has bigger things to worry about than meaningless Brexit forecasts
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. The figure was obtained by comparing a forecast […]
Brussels elites who fiddled while Rome burned may soon get their comeuppance
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 and France. They represent a decisive break with […]
The Windrush scandal and police failures show the dangers of bureaucratic targets
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 of Amber Rudd’s resignation that targets had been […]
Trump’s tariffs are unlikely to plunge the global economy into a Great Depression
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 of 2016. Instead, unemployment has fallen almost continuously […]
No decent economist will be surprised to see renewables push up electricity prices
British Gas is putting up the price of its dual fuel tariff by an average of 5.5 per cent at the end of this month. EDF, whose standard tariff is already one of the most expensive, will raise it by a further 1.4 per cent next month. In the longer run, the widespread hope is […]
Cyber society needs monopoly-busting competition, not misguided regulation
The hostility towards the virtual monopolies enjoyed by tech giants such as Google and Facebook reveals some strange bedfellows. The European Commission is well known for its enthusiasm for regulation. No surprise, then, that last year the Commission fined Google €2.4bn – billion! – for giving its own services preferential treatment in search results. No surprise […]
Our automated future is brighter than Karl Marx or Mark Carney would ever suggest
Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, hit the headlines at the weekend, claiming that Marxism could once again become a prominent political force in the west. Automation, it seems, may not just destroy millions of jobs. For all except a privileged minority of high-tech workers, the collapse in the demand for labour […]
The misguided sugar tax is an ineffectual way to price the externalities of obesity
One of George Osborne’s last acts as chancellor in 2016 was to announce the so-called sugar tax. This came into force last week, in line with the original timetable. Drinks manufacturers are taxed according to the volume of sugar-sweetened beverages they produce or import. The tax increases with the sugar content. The aim is to […]
Forget exploitation, motorists choose to pay sky high fuel prices
Politicians have an irresistible urge to meddle. The latest example is the fanfare orchestrated just before Easter by Chris Grayling, the transport secretary. He wrote to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to criticise the price of fuel at motorway service stations. Grayling called for the UK’s three biggest operators – Moto, Welcome Break, and […]
