Economy

According to a certain interpretation of the long arc of human history as seen from the prism of the religion of progress, we are currently passing through the “third disruption.”  According to this view, the first disruption – also referred to as the neolithic revolution – arrived with the emergence …

With tedious predictability, the people – politicians, journalists and keyboard warriors – that David Graeber referred to as “the extreme centre,” are blaming Britain’s vegetable shortage on Brexit, even though three-quarters of the foods involved are usually grown within the UK, where free movement still exists for European pickers.  Indeed, …

An economic death spiral occurs when a system loses critical mass.  For example, the UK’s energy death spiral – which is reaching its crisis phase – is the result of rising energy costs creating an involuntary loss of demand across the system.  In part, businesses and households engage in energy-saving …

One of the ways we can spot propaganda is when an identical story appears across the world’s media.  So it was last week, when news outlets parroted the idea that the global economy in general and the western economies in particular, were going to experience a “soft landing.”  The central …

The problem with trying to assess British politics over the past four months is that, despite my earlier error, Liz Truss turned out to be such a useless politician even by today’s low standards.  While her rapid rise from student activist to prime minister suggested a degree of Machiavellian cunning, …

Among the biggest human failings is our inability to process time.  Psychologists, for example, have demonstrated time and again that most of us are incapable of deferring gratification.  But our hear-now orientation also leaves us vulnerable to negative events, even when we are forewarned.  One reason, for example, why panic …

I had not heard of Bill Bullen until he appeared in the media earlier this month.  And so, I take his concern for Britain’s poor at face value: “More than 2 million of Britain’s most vulnerable households, facing the prospect of out-of-reach prices for gas and electricity, could shiver in …

Year-on-year price rises continue here in the UK, driven almost entirely by broken supply chains, rising energy costs and fertiliser shortages (which cause the rise in food prices).  For journalists, politicians and central bankers (trapped in the neoliberal belief that inflation is the greatest economic evil) the solution is simple …

The UK government has spent the weekend heavily briefing that big tax increases are on the way.  The return of former Chancellors George Osborne and Philip Hammond to government circles also suggests another round of economy-crushing austerity is also being considered.  As George Parker at the Financial Times reported yesterday: …

Let’s talk about supply shocks.  Cast your mind back to the beginning of March 2020.  Remember how everyone panic bought pasta and toilet paper?  Except that it didn’t really happen – at least on a large scale.  What happened was, in their usual underhand way, the establishment media paid supermarket …