Sir Angus Deaton is the latest apostolic legate of the econometric priesthood to be given the unenviable task of coming up with a cause and a cure for income inequality and its socio-political consequences without challenging the underlying disease. The motivation for appointing Deaton – a Nobel laureate economics professor …
Read More »Getting social mobility wrong
In the years leading up to their election in 1997, the neoliberal New Labour leadership continuously repeated the “education, education, education” mantra. In doing so, they were drawing on a deep-seated myth that lies at the heart of Western civilisation’s quasi-religion of progress. To understand this, consider Thomas Frank’s criticism …
Read More »An unlikely simplification
Technological failure of some kind was to be expected as our human impact crisis deepened. Put simply, as the amount of energy needed by the energy sector has increased, so the amount available to power the much larger non-energy economy was bound to fall. This, in turn, was bound to …
Read More »The idea that broke the world
When the English and French armies landed on the shores of the Crimean peninsula in October 1853 they were ill-prepared to fight a war. Logistics – the science of provisioning armies at a distance – was in its infancy; and armies were still expected to forage for at least some …
Read More »Britain as Venezuela
A country paralysed by political crisis; people unable to access the food they need; healthcare services foundering; a ruling class completely divorced from the privations of its people; government institutions that are unfit for purpose; growing public anger that threatens to spill over into violent protest and even full-blown revolution. …
Read More »Solve this or you solve nothing (2)
Money, so the song says, is what makes the world go around. The sentiment is not lost among a growing homeless population on our streets, the millions of working families forced to turn to charity to make ends meet, or the new class of women forced to take up sex …
Read More »Caught in the trawl net
On both sides of the Atlantic there has been a growing public recognition of a gathering “retail apocalypse” as famous name chain stores have been plunged into bankruptcy. The crisis, however, has only made its way into the consciousness of the mainstream media and onto the agenda of the political …
Read More »Economic musical chairs
Sometime last year we reached the high tide mark for the latest economic cycle. Between 2010 and 2018 and despite anaemic growth in the real economy, stock markets had been on an uninterrupted upward march. By the end of 2018 that had changed. Volatility was back, producing wild ups and …
Read More »The other side of the retail apocalypse
It is no secret that the UK retail sector has experienced serious and growing problems in the decade since the crash of 2008. For most of the period, mainstream business journalists were able to pass off the lack of growth on the High Street by blaming the Internet. While it …
Read More »A brief moment of clarity
Last year was bad for anyone working or investing in the UK retail sector. Barely a week went by without a profit warning, a voluntary administration or a closure. The reason for this is simple and obvious enough to understand for anyone who wants to: after a decade of austerity …
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