The policy is uniquely flawed, with multiple faults. Of course, if government throws over £60 billion of subsidies to a minority of firms and workers, that will be popular with the recipients. But a scheme should be judged by what it does for the many, not the few, and for its opportunity cost.
Labour should not back another Job Furlough Read More »
PEF Council member Prof. Stephany Griffiths-Jones is a member of Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s group of economic advisors. With Boric winning a resounding victory in the Chilean Presidential elections, we reproduce here a translation of Stephany’s recent interview for CTIX magazine Chile. Conducted before the second round of the election, Stephany discusses the left’s economic
The ‘great widening’ of the last four decades – with the gains from growth increasingly colonised by the few – has had severe economic and social consequences. Intense concentrations of wealth have brought the return of ‘luxury capitalism’, with – as in the nineteenth century – the pattern of economic activity skewed by an over-rich and over-powered class, and resources deflected to meeting their demands.
Stewart Lansley – Why luxury capitalism is the enemy of social progress Read More »
PEF’s webinar on 24 November “Brexit: where are we now and where do we go from here?” has been uploaded to YouTube, for those that missed an excellent, in-depth discussion, chaired by PEF Council member Johnna Montgomerie. Prof Chris Grey highlighted the contradictions built-in to the sets of agreements signed as part of the Brexit
PEF Brexit expert webinar recording available Read More »
Both Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer chose to address the Confederation of British Industry conference this week. But far more interesting than the party leaders’ paeans to profit or to Peppa Pig were the comments made the same day by the CBI’s new Director General, Tony Danker. Greeted with pearl-clutching in the Daily Mail, rentagob
Shots at redemption, or cartoons in a cartoon graveyard? Read More »
Latest inflation figures from the Office for National Statistics put average price rises in the 12 months to September at 4.2%, its highest rate of growth since November 2011. Back then, a post-financial crisis surge in prices pushed inflation to above 5%, and it stayed high until mid-2014 when OPEC’s decision to maintain oil production
Inflation is here to stay, but not for the reasons you think – a response to Martin Wolf Read More »
Good news as the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to once again hold its base rate steady at 0.1%. This comes a day after the US Federal Reserve Board, the equivalent rate-setter for the US, voted to also leave rates untouched. After months of warnings that a rates rises was imminent, with
Bank of England holds rate steady, more pessmistic about the future Read More »
This week the UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak delivered the 2021 Autumn Budget in the House of Commons. The Budget confirms that this government has accepted a permanently larger role for the state in the economy. Spending will grow in real terms by 3.8% across government, amounting to a £111bn annual increase by 2024–25. Analysis by
The UK has embraced the big state — but lacks a vision for it Read More »
For three hundred years, care work and care labour have been woefully trivialised or ignored by economists. One is inclined to think this is partly due to the domination of the subject by men until recently. But it is also true that the subject is incredibly complex, partly because the very idea of ‘care’ is
Care and the Pandemic: a comment in reply to Sue Himmelweit Read More »
The Bank of England’s new chief economist, Huw Pill, gave his first interview in the job to the Financial Times a few days ago. It will do little to confirm the fears of those of us think, at the worst possible moment, the Bank is about to lurch into a round of interest rate rises
New Bank of England chief economist interviewed, and it’s not good Read More »
