Scandinavia is a showcase of free market reforms October 26, 2011 GEORGE Monbiot once claimed “Sweden proves the neoliberals wrong about how to slash poverty.” Our new research reveals a different story: Scandinavian success is a triumph of prudent fiscal policy, government downsizing and smart market regulation. It is a showcase for neoliberalism, and not its nemesis. The whole region’s success is striking: in the past [...]
Scandinavia is a showcase of free market reforms October 26, 2011 GEORGE Monbiot once claimed “Sweden proves the neoliberals wrong about how to slash poverty.” Our new research reveals a different story: Scandinavian success is a triumph of prudent fiscal policy, government downsizing and smart market regulation. It is a showcase for neoliberalism, and not its nemesis. The whole region’s success is striking: in the past [...]
NO END IN SIGHT: SMALL BUSINESS BANKING WOES October 9, 2011 I RUN a small but fast-growing group of pubs called The Draft House. We’re known for selling a wide range of craft beer, simple food and – I hope – a warm welcome. In 2009, we were days away from opening our second site in Northcote Road, Clapham. We were managing our cash carefully but [...]
More credit for small UK businesses but housing market slump continues January 6, 2011 BANKS are increasing their lending to small businesses and expect to raise the availability of credit in the coming months, a Bank of England report revealed yesterday. Yet demand for mortgages is low and expected to keep falling, according to the credit conditions survey. And fears over falling house prices are preventing some lenders from [...]
More credit for small UK businesses but housing market slump continues January 6, 2011 BANKS are increasing their lending to small businesses and expect to raise the availability of credit in the coming months, a Bank of England report revealed yesterday. Yet demand for mortgages is low and expected to keep falling, according to the credit conditions survey. And fears over falling house prices are preventing some lenders from [...]
Construction activity at ten-month low in September October 4, 2011 Construction activity stagnated in September after contraction in the home-building and civil engineering sectors, a survey of purchasing managers showed on Tuesday. The Markit/CIPS construction PMI headline activity index fell sharply to 50.1 in September from 52.6 in August, its lowest reading since a contraction in December 2010. The weak construction figures contrast with surprisingly [...]
We cannot improve schools from the centre: A bold call for more choice in education November 6, 2011 BY AND large, British families do not choose the education their children receive. For the majority of parents that choice is made for them, by the distance from their front door to the school gate, and whether they have the means to buy into the catchment of another school or avail themselves of a private [...]
The Vickers Report got the causes of the crisis wrong: Its solutions are wrong too November 16, 2011 THE Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) misdiagnosed the causes of the banking crisis, and its prescriptions are therefore equally wrong. That is the blunt message of a report and briefing paper that Miles Saltiel and I are publishing today with the Adam Smith Institute. And yet – there is some merit in the idea of [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 24, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES DEFENCE ATTACKS ONE-SIDED PROBE IN F1 BRIBERY TRIAL The trial of a German banker alleged to have accepted $44m in bribes from Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One chief, and a trust linked to his former wife began in Munich yesterday with the defendant’s lawyer accusing media and prosecutors of “hounding” his client. Gerhard [...]
Homes that offer jolly good sports September 29, 2011 THE hype around the Glorious Twelfth this year was enough to get even life-long townies interested in shooting. There is something quite exciting about going out to the “country” to pad about in wellies and a Barber jacket. “People love buying outdoor sporting homes,” Luke Morgan, a partner at The Buying Solution, tells me, “it [...]