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Euro’s strength can’t heal rifts between rich and poor

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:11:44 GMT

There has been plenty of speculation about the dollar and poor old sterling recently — but how has the euro fared in its first big test?

Sense of foreboding grows as the recession lingers on

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:00:00 GMT

Half-a-dozen quarters on, the UK is still in recession. The 0.4% drop in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the third quarter of this year left economists dumbfounded. Where were the green shoots? Why was recovery yet to materialise? Why had the efforts of policymakers - interest rate cuts, quantitative easing, big budget deficits, a drop in sterling - not paid off?

Not quite the same, but the 80s can still teach us a thing or two

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:00:00 GMT

No pain, no gain. That is the message coming from the Conservatives and, for that matter, from Labour too. The UK's public finances are in a parlous state. Spending is going to be slashed. Taxes are going to rise. And our political leaders, both current and those-in-waiting, are hoping that a dose of tough medicine now will form the foundations of the next recovery.

US is playing a dangerous game with difficult dollar

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:00:00 GMT

It's no great surprise that, in Britain, the collapse of the dollar has gone largely unnoticed. Sterling has fallen even further.

The four most expensive words: ‘This time it’s different’... is it?

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:17:08 GMT

In a typical banking crisis, the economy stumbles and never gets its old pace back.

Devaluation won't change much

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:00:00 GMT

Devaluation is a dirty word. It stinks of failure. Every so often, the British economy succumbs, most famously in 1949, 1967 and 1992. Each time, as the UK lost its economic footing and sterling collapsed, the people of Britain were left to inhale the stench of political desperation. Given all this, it's fortunate that the UK no longer pegs its exchange rate to anything in particular.

Obama must resist the call of protectionism ahead of the G20

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:00:31 GMT

The internal combustion engine was not invented in the US. With the honourable exception of Mario Andretti, Americans tend to ignore Formula 1. General Motors and Ford no longer produce the iconic brands of yesteryear. On his new album, Jay-Z talks about “Cruisin' down 8th Street, off-white Lexus drivin' so slow”, no doubt keeping Toyota very happy but leaving Detroit rather sad.

More caution with public finances may limit future risks

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:03:51 GMT

Running the economy is no easy task. Sometimes, I get the impression that policymakers think there is some magic formula which, once unlocked, will allow strong growth, low inflation and full employment to continue indefinitely.

What happens to us if everyone rushes for the financial exit?

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:34:43 GMT

The beads of sweat must have been building up on Gordon Brown's brow last week. What if the leaders of other nations suddenly decided to raise taxes, to cut public spending or to raise interest rates to bring last year's policy stimulus to a close?

Does the sign of some green shoots really mean we’re out of recession?

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:45:40 GMT

“The world has been through the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression. The crisis in turn sparked a deep global recession, from which we are only now beginning to emerge.”

The UK’s ongoing economic problems

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:09:10 GMT

Saturday 17 October, 1964. Jim Callaghan sat at his desk in 11 Downing Street. As the new Chancellor of the Exchequer following Labour's election victory, it was Callaghan's job to sort out Britain's economic problems.

The Chancellor’s golden goose is no more and the cash has run out

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:43:36 GMT

It turns out, then, that the Government signed a pact with the financial devil. It was only as a result of the housing boom, the lending glut and big City bonuses that the Government was able to raise the revenues to fund its ambitions for education and health.

Economic forecasters could learn from meteorologists

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:01:24 GMT

Economists would make hopeless weather forecasters. Weather forecasters, at least those who worry about the British weather, are not keen on extrapolation.

East European economic zombies stalking the IMF

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 10:36:14 GMT

When the leaders of the G20 sat down to their Jamie Oliver dinner at Downing Street last week there was a ghost at the feast.

Domestic demands may spoil a global economic solution

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:12:18 GMT

How much will the financial crisis eventually cost? I'm not talking about the billions of pounds or the trillions of dollars being spent to rebuild the world's financial system.

The answers to the current crisis could lie in Japan

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:05:26 GMT

What, today, counts as economic policy success? At their recent meeting the G20 finance ministers promised to “take whatever action is necessary until growth is restored.”

Will printing more money ease crisis?

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:19:02 GMT

There is something wonderfully quirky about the way in which a major change in monetary arrangements is announced in the UK.

Did Marx have it right all along?

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 11:55:19 GMT

“Modern bourgeois society... a society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells.”

Eurozone is being stress-tested, but it will not break apart easily

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:44:55 GMT

The European leaders gathered recently in Berlin, their aim apparently being to move towards a common approach at the forthcoming Group of Twenty economic summit in London in April, as to what to do about the global downturn.

Rate cuts will not end this crisis

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:44:40 GMT

“Chugger chugger chugger chugger”... yes, it's the sound of the printing press. With UK interest rates down to 1% and US interest rates at zero, it's no longer possible to pretend that rate cuts alone will bring this economic crisis to an end. In the monetary sphere, something else needs to be done.

Monetary and fiscal policy can do little without a return of trust

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:55:32 GMT

How bad is the current crisis? Bad enough for Barack Obama's new US administration to reach a deal with Congress on an $827bn (£560bn) stimulus package, worth almost 6% of GDP if delivered in a single year.

Roquefort cheese spat may be first whiff of a return to fiscal nationalism

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:37:40 GMT

As a symbol of the growing protectionist backlash, it’s hard to beat the recent protests in the UK.

Why the Bank of England needs to look back and think the unthinkable

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:37:12 GMT

On October 24, 1930, a report from the British government's Economic Advisory Council was circulated by Ramsay MacDonald, the Prime Minister, to his Cabinet.

Bank of England was powerless in the face of excessive credit growth

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:52:33 GMT

Rationing is associated with the Second World War, austerity Britain in the late 1940s and early 1950s and, for those familiar with Moscow pre-Glasnost, the empty shelves of GUM, the Soviet Union's leading, but mostly empty, department store in the 1970s and 1980s.

Confidence in the economy is held up by gossamer threads

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:59:14 GMT

“In the bleak midwinter ... ” Britain's weather may be distinctly chilly at the moment, but its economic climate is a lot frostier. And unlike the weather, there's no escape. Economically, it's hard to find sunnier climes elsewhere in the world.