In Brief

OPEC and out The political fallout from the OPEC+ decision to cut its oil production target by two million barrels a day – which would leave the world economy around six million barrels a day short of its pre-pandemic peak – is sufficient to push us closer to collapse.  The …

Trading safety Within the inner sanctum of one of the world’s oldest and most esteemed universities, an ageing professor sits in a battered leather armchair.  Oblivious to the day-to-day sensations within the room – the slow tick and tock of an antique grandfather clock, the shimmering particles of dust caught …

Growth of a sort Unsurprisingly, incoming “worst prime minister ever,” Liz Truss has announced that she will prioritise “growth” for the remainder of the parliament.  Unsurprisingly, that is, because it is what every incoming prime minister says they are going to prioritise and, increasingly, what they fail to achieve.  Rather …

Cost-push prices While the rate of inflation dipped slightly in the USA last month – probably due to Biden squandering the country’s emergency oil reserves – no such relief was in sight here in the UK.  And with inflation still rising, there is little sign of the Bank of England …

The peak of the economic roller coaster While most of the establishment media look only at the headline economic figures, it is always worth turning to the data itself.  When we do, we discover a far more nuanced picture than the headlines suggest.  Far from the picture of labour shortages …

Boris warning Boris Johnson’s premiership is fast coming to an end.  At the time of writing, he is still there, but pretty soon he won’t be able to find enough people to fill the various ministries of state.  However, one question not being covered by the establishment media and the …

Unravelling begins Cast your mind back to the Spring of 2020, and the odds are you will have discovered that, like me, you are not an “essential worker.”  Some 60 percent or so of us, it turned out, could sit around binge-watching Netflix all day without the wider world seemingly …

The lamps are going out… This morning I am reminded of the words of the British foreign secretary Edward Grey on the eve of the First World War: “The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”  Not, in this instance …

Windfall hot air Even now, the political class is treating rising energy prices as temporary – just like they thought inflation was temporary this time last year.  They would like you to believe that Russia – which has continued to supply oil and gas (which were expressly excluded from sanctions) …

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 …