New ideas are needed in economics, but not the tired old statist ones

The annual Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) conference was held in Toronto earlier this month. INET was created by George Soros in the autumn of 2009 in response to the economic crisis. Mainstream economics bears a heavy responsibility for creating the intellectual climate prior to the crash that the problems of boom and bust […]

Don’t say IMF, it’s IMF Squared!

In the boom decade of the 2000s, corporate rebranding and renaming was all the rage.  Some were successful.  Others are best forgotten, like PWC’s proposal to bestow the name of Monday on its consulting arm.  But as the world’s economic recovery gathers momentum, perhaps it is time to revive the practice. A prime candidate is […]

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 […]