Also including thoughts on the latest Budget speculation, paying interest on reserves, the latest from the OECD and IMF, Carney and Blair’s EU fantasies, and what’s really happening to consumer confidence... Theme of the Week It’s party conference season, so politicians will not let a mere fiscal crisis disrupt the usual competition to see who … Continue reading Weekly wrap: Tax cut talk – the good, the bad, and the ugly
Tag: economics
Weekly wrap – Government policies continue to do more harm than good
Including thoughts on the “productivity puzzle”, bond yields, monetary policy credibility, and how the government’s clumsy interventions are still costing jobs and adding to rental inflation... Theme of the Week This week’s most interesting economic story was worth a piece of its own: “Six questions and answers on the new productivity data”. In short, the … Continue reading Weekly wrap – Government policies continue to do more harm than good
Six questions and answers on the new UK productivity data
New ONS analysis shows that UK productivity has held up much better than previously thought. Here’s a quick Q&A including what this could mean for the Budget, and what it is telling us about Brexit... This week the ONS published new analysis of the key measure of labour productivity, namely output per hour worked. This … Continue reading Six questions and answers on the new UK productivity data
Why the Bank should follow the ECB and hike rates
There are strong arguments against raising UK interest rates as far as the markets are currently expecting. But I do not believe these arguments are sufficient to justify not raising rates at all... This is an extended version of my submission to the Shadow Monetary Policy Committee run by CityAM, where I reluctantly voted for … Continue reading Why the Bank should follow the ECB and hike rates
