Monthly Archives: February 2011

                   After thirteen years of mistakes and economic disaster, it is refreshing to hear a Minister say “Sorry” when he or she has presided over a mistake. It is also reassuring  that the mistakes have not been on the scale of the Boom/Bust errors of Labour.                  One apology may be endearing. A couple [...]

               I was intrigued to see criticism of the BBC for running endless stories of cuts in public spending. However, I also recollect that last summer and autumn I was a very lonely voice pointing out that the government plans to increase current public spending in cash terms every year for five years. The [...]

                   To judge by the row over Barclays corporation tax payments many people in the Uk think British business gets off lightly. They argue that  if only business was stopped from avoiding tax, the deficit could come down with no painful decisions.                 Many have pointed out that Barclay’s low corporation tax charge for 2010 [...]

                Every year that Labour was in power they announced a clampdown on avoidance and evasion of tax. Every year more complicated provisions were put into Finance Acts to make it more difficult for people to evade tax (illegal), and to make more avoidance schemes (legal) into illegal devices. You might have thought that [...]

                    The tragedy of the Eurosceptic movement continues. The enthusiasts for more EU government delight in the  continued divisions.                   The choice of voting system is important. Eurosceptic Conservatives are sure that keeping first past the post is the best chance of having fair elections which can change governments, and of holding elections which [...]

      I am grateful to contributors for some thoughtful comments on the boom and bust question.       There is general agreement that the ERM period and the era of combining an ‘independent’ central bank with big rises in spending and borrowing did not work. I have been asked to explain  how the Uk could follow [...]

                   There have been two bad periods of boom and bust in the UK in the last thirty years. The first was the 1986-92 boom-bust cycle. The second was the  bigger boom-bust of  2005-10.                  They have several things in common. Both owed much to the influence of European policy on our economy. The [...]

                    On Thursday I gave a lecture to a Cambridge University audience on the conduct of public policy. I chose to speak about UK economic policy over the last thirty years. Today I will share the summary of what I said about independence in Central banks, and tomorrow my conclusions on what has been [...]

                   The scenes from Libya and Bahrain tell us that the successes of protest movements in Tunisia and Egypt are spreading. People are losing their fear of repressive regimes. The more that police forces and troops fire bullets and tear gas into crowds, the bigger the anger grows and determination sets in. It looks [...]

                 Yesterday in Oxford I gave the Oxonian lecture about the future of the Euro. I have attached the slides I presented here: The Future of the Euro.                  Every currency needs a sovereign to love it and control it. The Euro has been an orphan currency for a decade, seeking government parents to look after it. Benign [...]