I often think the wider world doesn’t pay enough attention to the signals provided by financial markets. Alas, this isn’t helped by the way in which market moves are often reported. Monday morning provided some good examples. One of the first headlines I read was ‘more than £33 billion has been wiped off the FTSE … Continue reading What are the financial markets really telling us?
Author: julianhjessop
Why we don’t need tax rises to pay for Covid
How deep a hole are we in? The Institute of Economic Affairs has just published a primer I’ve written on the state of the public finances, which digs into this question. On the bright side, I argue that there is no need for any form of austerity, including tax rises, to fill a gap left … Continue reading Why we don’t need tax rises to pay for Covid
Would a ‘no deal’ Brexit really leave the UK friendless?
At the weekend former PM Gordon Brown claimed that a ‘no deal’ Brexit would leave Boris Johnson isolated ‘with no friends around the world’. This is a familiar theme. In 2019, for example, Brown warned that the UK was ‘sleepwalking into oblivion', and that a nation once admired for its tolerance and pragmatism now presented … Continue reading Would a ‘no deal’ Brexit really leave the UK friendless?
Access to cash is a far bigger problem than the ‘missing’ £50 billion
On 4th December, the UK parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) published a report on the production and distribution of cash. The press release was headlined ‘PAC urges Bank of England to investigate “missing” £50 billion of sterling notes’. This emphasis was unhelpful and drew attention away from the real problems. The media coverage did at … Continue reading Access to cash is a far bigger problem than the ‘missing’ £50 billion
Plain-speaking Economics 