Those who argue that the entire world is being manipulated by a secret satanist elite cabal (I believe the truth is far worse) may see some significance in the order of events which have dramatically accelerated the collapse of western civilisation.  Covid-19 (pestilence) followed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine …

Neoliberalism’s greatest success is about to be revealed as its greatest weakness.  In the 1970s – the previous inflation that the central bank generals are trying to fight – the perceived threat came from over-powerful trade unions and a too-protective welfare safety net, which together, the neoliberals argued, had driven …

As the surplus energy available to the economy declines, so the number of things that we can do in theory but can no longer do in practice will grow.  This is the inverse of the technological efficiencies won in the course of three centuries of industrialisation – the peak of …

Mid-term blues This was meant to be the moment when Boris Johnson shuffled off the political stage.  Having discredited himself in the public eye with his lockdown parties and his backing of MPs’ corruption, Johnson went on to lose the supposedly safe North Shropshire seat last autumn.  His own backbenchers …

The myth of Nero fiddling as Rome burned was largely concocted by political opponents to portray him as both uncaring and incompetent.  But one reason why the myth has persisted down the ages is that it speaks to something profound in the human psyche.  When faced with an irresolvable predicament, …

The remarkable feature of the unfolding stagflationary crisis is the speed with which it is happening.  Just six months ago, our political class was congratulating itself for successfully steering us through the pandemic.  Rises in gas and oil prices were merely a transitory re-adjustment of supply and demand as economies …

Are we in a recession?  It is an interesting question because nobody can know for sure.  A recession is defined as two successive quarters of negative growth.  Okay, but how do we know if, in the quarter we are in, the economy is shrinking?  Again, we cannot know this.  This …

The UK may have avoided a technical recession – two successive quarters of negative growth – in the first half of 2022, but a year from now this will be of little comfort.  This is because – despite the protestations of the US Bidon administration – the downturn in economic …

Readers will be familiar with “the butterfly effect” – mathematician Edward Lorenz’s description of how, within a complex system, a tiny input, like a butterfly flapping its wing, may cause dramatic changes, such as the location, intensity, and path of a storm weeks later.  Economist Steve Keen used similar modelling …

Britain’s metropolitan liberal class is getting exercised about airport delays ahead of the Easter break.  Pent up demand after two years of lockdown and, one suspects, many people having one last holiday in the sun, have run headlong into labour shortages.  And while one can have sympathy with passengers having …