Globalisation beckons: UK finally exports more to China than Eire December 12, 2013 SLOWLY but surely, Britain is rebalancing its trade. In October, UK export volumes to EU member states were down by 5.5 per cent, compared to the 2010 average; exports to the rest of the world rose by 16.5 per cent, according to an analysis of the official data by Citigroup. This is beginning to have [...]
We need to stop playing politics with aviation and go for growth December 11, 2013 IT is time for our political establishment to get its act together and take the tough decisions this country needs. The case in favour of airport expansion is overwhelming. Britain has failed to build a single new full-length airport runway anywhere in the South East of the country since the Second World War (City Airport, [...]
You always spend your own money better than any government December 10, 2013 IT was Milton Friedman who put it best. There are four ways to spend money, he once wrote. You can spend your own cash on yourself – you have a great incentive to economise and get the best bang for your buck. You can spend your own money on somebody else, perhaps by buying your [...]
The neo-Malthusian perma-bears will be proved wrong again December 9, 2013 THERE is a view, rather fashionable in economics at the moment, that the Western economies are facing long-term stagnation. The reason cited by the pessimists is that – in their view – technological innovation and progress have ground to a halt. The argument generally goes something like this: the real, massive innovations – plumbing, the [...]
Falling pay? That’s because you are secretly bailing out pensions December 9, 2013 REAL wages are still falling, on average, and nobody seems to know what to do about it. Even though the economy is growing, millions are seeing their incomes depressed by low nominal pay rises and highish inflation. Part of the problem is cyclical; but there is also a devastating structural explanation. There is a growing [...]
UK economy improving but far from cured December 5, 2013 THERE can be no doubt that this Winter Budget – as it should really have been called – was a great win for George Osborne. For the first time since around 2007, Britain is moving in the right, rather than the wrong, direction. Growth has bounced back, the deficit is falling, employment is surging, unemployment [...]
George Osborne may have just rediscovered the Laffer curve December 4, 2013 THERE has long been a debilitating tension at the heart of this government’s thinking on the economy. It has embraced supply-side economics in a limited number of areas, slashing corporation tax and the top rate of income tax to boost incentives, effort and investment, in the knowledge that the faster economic growth generated would mean [...]
We must revolutionise UK schooling or face inexorable decline December 3, 2013 IT is not possible to put a positive spin on Britain’s results in the latest global education league tables: they reveal an appalling, shameful, tragic waste of talent. It is an embarrassing failure for a country that ought to be doing so much better. Our children were ranked 26th for maths, 23rd for reading and 21st [...]
Taxes and pension contributions are squeezing workers’ pay December 2, 2013 IT WAS meant to be one of the most basic rules of economics: the more people produce, the more they get paid. It is a long-standing, near-universal relationship that helps to explain why some jobs are so much more lucrative than others. But in recent years many have argued that the link has broken down, [...]
Cutting energy bills a good move – but Osborne must do more December 1, 2013 EVERY little helps. George Osborne’s Autumn Statement on Thursday will contain some positive changes, for which it would be churlish not to congratulate him. In particular, energy bills are set to rise by £50 less than they would otherwise have, thanks to a partial rethink of environmental rules. It is a shame that the green [...]
