Last week, in a speech on the economy, David Cameron warned the nation that there is no “magic money tree”. But, as various commentators swiftly pointed out, this botanical wonder does exist – and its name is quantitative easing. Indeed, some would regard QE as George Osborne's number one economic policy. In his column for […]
It’s a sword dangling over George Osborne’s head – the threat of agencies like Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s to downgrade Britain’s international credit rating. Any such move would be politically embarrassing, but would it have any practical significance?Other countries, such as Japan and America, have been downgraded, but without much impact on the […]
In the aftermath of Britain’s ejection from the ERM, Norman Lamont, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, famously said “je ne regrette rien” – an off-the-cuff remark he surely came to regret when, not long after, he was sacked by John Major. When, eventually, George Osborne publishes his memoirs it will be interesting to find out […]
This post was written on the 31st December 2012 – the last day that America's politicians had to reach a deal on the so-called 'fiscal cliff'. For reasons too complicated to go into even on the Deep End, a series of tax increases and spending cuts had been previously scheduled to automatically come into effect […]
Keynesians and Hayekians don’t agree on the content of economic policy, but they do agree that economic policy is terribly important. But what if it isn’t? What if the forces determining our growth prospects are largely beyond the control of policy makers? Jeremy Grantham, investment guru and lead author of the GMO Quarterly Newsletter, argues that […]
In the process of becoming rich, famous and outspoken, Nassim Nicholas Taleb – the best-selling author of The Black Swan – has accumulated enemies. With the publication of Taleb’s latest book, entitled Antifragility, his critics are out in force and putting the boot in. A prime example is a hostile review by David Runciman in […]
Why is the global economy in such a mess? Well, we can always blame the bankers. But what did the bankers actually do? Essentially, they lent too much money – more than the economy could sensibly handle. In this respect one can justifiably condemn the bankers for the many specific examples of reckless lending – […]
This month, we’ve had a good run of news on the economy: unemployment is down, borrowing is down and inflation is down. This should be a great encouragement to supporters of the government’s economic strategy. But for some on the right the inflation figures are actually a bit embarrassing. Given a monetary policy that’s looser […]
They may not be that common in the real world, but in political circles there’s a lot of people who declare themselves to be both economically and socially liberal – usually with a slight edge of self-congratulation to their words. Liberalism isn’t the only thing these concepts have in common, there’s also a causal link […]
The Group of States against Corruption was set up in 1999 by the Council of Europe. It has an unfortunate official acronym: GRECO – which rather brings one particular European state to mind. But now that we’re on the subject of Greece, let’s take a look at an under-reported aspect of the Greek debt crisis, […]
This week the Deep End has mostly been about the Eurozone – and, in particular, George Soros’s must-read essay on the subject in the New York Review of Books. While die-hard Europhiles celebrate recent developments as a turning point in the Eurozone crisis, Soros demonstrates that unlimited bond purchases on the part of European Central […]
As explained yesterday on the Deep End, Germany has finally agreed that the European Central Bank can make unlimited purchases of bonds issued by Eurozone debtor nations. As long as the agreement holds, this should mean that the likes of Greece and Spain won’t be going bust any time soon – thus ensuring the continued […]
With every post on the Deep End, we aim to feature the most interesting articles the internet has to offer. But occasionally, we come across a piece so full of ideas and insight that one post is not enough to do it justice. Thus for the next three days the Deep End is devoted to […]
In an article for the Vox website, Stefan Bach and Gert Wagner believe that European governments should levy a one-off wealth tax to save the Eurozone: "The idea behind this is straightforward enough. "Increased levels of public debt are accompanied by mounting private wealth, which is increasingly concentrated on the wealthy elite."In Germany, for example, […]
Earlier this month, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, international business editor of the Daily Telegraph, marked a sombre anniversary – the first five years of the ongoing global economic crisis: "Some date the crisis to August 9 2007, the day it became clear that Europe’s banks were up to their necks in US housing debt. The ECB flooded […]