If legislation were judged on length and complexity then the Dodd-Frank Act, passed in the wake of the last financial crisis, would constitute an unambiguous triumph. Alas, the correlation tends to run in the opposite direction. The US Bill of Rights, that most influential and long-standing of modern constitutional documents, fits within a page of […]
African leaders have just signed a framework establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area, the largest free trade agreement since the creation of the World Trade Organisation. The free trade area aims to create a single market for goods and services in Africa. By 2030 the market size is expected to include 1.7 billion people […]
Britain is reeling from the meltdown of one of its largest public contractors – Carillion. The multi-billion-pound collapse has brought to light the extraordinary mess that is modern corporate auditing. We now know that Carillion was billed tens of millions by the so-called “Big Four” audit firms – Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC. With so […]
In this week’s Spring Statement, Philip Hammond described himself as “positively tiggerish” about the economic news he was delivering to the House of Commons. His upbeat mood was, in large part, thanks to a minuscule uptick in the Office for Budget Responsibility’s growth forecasts for the next five years. It’s a reminder of just how […]
Let’s stop talking about the gender pay gap. The equity funding gap is the one we should be discussing. There’s been significant press coverage recently around the equity funding gap between male and female entrepreneurs. But the funding gap shouldn’t get bundled together with the gender pay gap: it is far wider and unlike the […]
The fire in Grenfell Tower, which began shortly after midnight on the morning of June 14 2017, killed 71 people. Three hundred and seventy-six households from the Tower and from neighbouring buildings were made homeless. Health professionals estimate that over 10,000 people from the wider community will experience physical or mental health problems as a […]
Everywhere markets are in retreat. Conservative politicians respond to the Left blaming markets for the state of modern Britain by pledging to fix broken markets and promising more interventions and more regulation. Their pitch to voters is “we’re better regulators and spenders than Labour”. Planning policy “in the right hands” can be a powerful tool […]
Given that it’s International Women’s Day we should give some serious consideration to which socio-economic system is the most feminist, the most pro-women. The answer, of course, is the current dispensation, free market capitalism larded with a bit of welfare-state redistribution. No, I’m not going soft over taxes and the welfare state, we all agree […]
Today, the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has arrived in Britain, beginning a three-day visit. This British sojourn is part of a global tour which has taken bin Salman to Egypt and which will include a visit to the United States. Bin Salman’s visit has been made dull by bureaucracy and protocol. Smiling, bin […]
Like any issue regarding investment in a particular asset class, divestment of portfolios from fossil fuels is more complex than it first appears. But one thing is worth noting in the first instance; so-called “fossil free” indices do not perform worse than portfolios invested in coal, oil and gas. If anything, the opposite is true. […]
Horrified passengers suddenly realize their boat has a leak. They frantically start to paddle it with their hands towards a distant shore. The engine and sail sit ignored and unused. Meanwhile, someone at the stern refuses to raise the anchor. Theresa May’s announcement of new housing policies today has something of that feel. No-one can […]
Snowmageddon and the incessant news about Brexit might mean that you missed it, but the government today announced that there is a surplus in the current budget, meaning that the deficit in the day-to-day budget has been eliminated. This is quite an achievement given that no UK government has run a surplus on the current […]
I am excited for the future economic prospects of our country. Of course, in my job, I can see there are economic challenges ahead of us. But when I travel around the country, I see lots of exciting things happening. From Liverpool and its super-port, which will now be able to take ships through the […]
For a week now all of my lectures have been cancelled, as my professors are on strike. Despite the fact that I may graduate with a £50,000 student debt, I will probably not be refunded for the missed classes. So, are my lecturers justified in striking? On the January 22 the University and College Union […]
Next month’s Spring Statement – the first such event since Philip Hammond moved the Budget to the autumn – will reportedly be a pared-back event. The Chancellor plans to further burnish his reputation for excitement and unpredictability by being on his feet for no longer than 20 minutes and doing no more than updating the House […]
At a time when no politician will publicly stand up as a friend of the banks, the leader of the Labour Party is the industry’s most virulent foe. Long gone are the days when Peter Mandelson could cavalierly declare that Labour was “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich”. Jeremy Corbyn may decry austerity Britain, […]
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