Economy

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 …

Making any kind of prediction is always risky… especially about the future.  Nevertheless, there is a growing consensus that a recession is on the way – I would argue that had it not been for rigged official data, a recession would have already arrived.  Less clear though, is what kind …

The Severn Estuary is about an hour’s bicycle ride from where I live.  It has the second largest tidal range in the world – around a 50 feet difference between a high and low spring tide.  But here’s the thing, the tide does not recede the moment the high tide …

When economies fall apart, politicians point to issues of confidence.  So it is, that this weekend we witnessed “Dagenham Liz” Truss blaming the collapse in the Pound on a “failure to prepare the ground,” rather than understanding it as evidence of the underlying weakness of the UK economy.  This has …

Marx was right… No, bear with me.  Marx was right when he argued that there must be some input to the productive process which provided far more value than was paid for.  Because if everything involved in the productive process was paid exactly what it was worth, then there could …