While the US and UK economies are both recovering quite decisively from their post-crisis recessions, the Eurozone is not. And unemployment is at appalling levels in much of “peripheral” Europe, particularly for young people. Current macroeconomic policy consists of low … Continued
Perhaps a little lost in the Christmas shopping rush was an interesting article in the 2013 Q4 Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin about what might happen when China finally abolishes all controls on its international capital flows, consistent with its … Continued
I recently contributed to a pamphlet on nuclear power, published by the think tank Politeia and launched at the House of Commons last week. The other two authors are Professor Roger Cashmore, Chairman of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, and … Continued
Outside a North Oxford branch of major British retail bank Lloyds Bank last Saturday, I saw a car parked on the “staff” parking place. Not just any car, but a Porsche. The people of Summertown (an admittedly prosperous area) might … Continued
Every self respecting computer system has its own magazine and now it seems the Cambridge-grown Raspberry Pi has one too. The photo shows a segment of the crowded magazine shelf in Barnes and Noble’s shop in Union Square, New York, … Continued
In Britain we seem to have a love affair with the property market. Home ownership is 69%, not especially high, but average house prices are a constant topic of discussion, mainly because property in the prosperous south east of the … Continued
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Speech 2005, about 9 minutes in. (But I’d still recommend an Android phone.) Of all … Continued
Externalities and missing markets Microeconomics, which is the economics of individual agents, companies and markets, argues that if certain conditions for well functioning markets are in place then there is little need or justification for government intervention. These conditions sometimes … Continued
The concept of natural capital applies to natural resources and the natural environment the ideas of economics and accounting used in the conventional analysis of capital assets. It provides a rich framework with which to think about how to value … Continued
EDF, the world’s largest quoted electric utility company, is also the leading operator of nuclear power stations, most of them in France but it now plans to build two in the UK. Nuclear power has had a somewhat volatile relationship … Continued
In a recent IMF working paper I came across the term “North Atlantic financial crisis”. I hadn’t heard this before and it was the first clue of several that the report was written by Indian economists with a well justified … Continued
A long time ago I worked for two years in the Central Bank of Lesotho. The small mountainous Kingdom of Lesotho in southern Africa is an unusual country in many ways: it is the only country with all of its … Continued
On 21 October 2013 the British government confirmed at last that it had agreed with the French power company EDF (Electricité de France) the building of two European Pressurised Water (EPR) nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point, near Bristol. The 3,200MW … Continued
This year’s BBC Reith Lectures are being given by the British artist Grayson Perry. Perry gave a summary of his first lecture in the Financial Times last week, on the theme, who decides what makes art good? In a witty, … Continued