Osborne’s lucky escape on the deficit February 21, 2012 FOR once, and I can barely believe that I’m writing this, George Osborne has reason to be happy. The budget deficit for this fiscal year to date (April 2011-January 2012) was a still horrendous, Greek-style £93.5bn, but this was down £15.6bn from a year earlier, a very non-Greek development. This is a much better performance [...]
Cameron needs to refocus his efforts February 20, 2012 THE reformist credentials of this government are looking increasingly shaky. The only area where real change is taking place is education: Michael Gove, the secretary of state, and his uber-competent team, are pushing through a revolution, liberating state schools from local authority control, allowing new schools to be set up by outsiders, improving standards and [...]
Cameron needs to refocus his efforts February 20, 2012 THE reformist credentials of this government are looking increasingly shaky. The only area where real change is taking place is education: Michael Gove, the secretary of state, and his uber-competent team, are pushing through a revolution, liberating state schools from local authority control, allowing new schools to be set up by outsiders, improving standards and [...]
How to make workfare work better February 20, 2012 THERE is a huge difference between slavery – forcing people to work for free, which is an abomination – and workfare – asking people who have been on benefits for a long time to work for their money, a system practiced in many countries, including in the US, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and others. The [...]
The US economy is recovering at last February 16, 2012 IT used to be said that when America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. This remains the case, despite the rise of China and other emerging giants. So it is good news that the US economy has started to recover, with even unemployment going down. The markets can barely contain themselves for [...]
Flawed euro is tearing Europe apart February 15, 2012 REMEMBER how the European Union was meant to create peace and goodwill across the continent, bring ordinary folk closer together and help forge a sense of common belonging among 300m Europeans? How it was meant to make sure that the horrors of war and aggression were banished forever, to close a vile and despicable chapter [...]
The real reasons why UK is in trouble February 14, 2012 FORGET about the reasoning Moody’s cited when putting the UK on negative watch this week. The problem with the credit rating agencies is not that they are too harsh – they are invariably too soft, too backwards-looking and cautious. Their decisions are always months out of date. Here is the real reason why the UK [...]
Coalition’s crazy credit contradiction February 13, 2012 YOU can’t have lending without borrowing. They are the two sides of the same coin. Yet try telling that to those who, in the same sentence, want more lending yet also want the UK to deleverage. As contradictions go, it takes some beating. But this entire debate is disturbingly muddled. Two different concepts are mixed [...]
Everyone must learn to pay their way February 12, 2012 BRITAIN as a whole is spending much more than it raises in tax – that is why there is a massive budget deficit and the government is being forced to borrow so much. But what if the various parts of the UK were all independent countries, including the English regions? Looked at in this way, [...]
Everyone must learn to pay their way February 12, 2012 BRITAIN as a whole is spending much more than it raises in tax – that is why there is a massive budget deficit and the government is being forced to borrow so much. But what if the various parts of the UK were all independent countries, including the English regions? Looked at in this way, [...]