What does inequality look like? In a society where the gap between rich and poor has widened significantly, what evidence of that gap would one expect to see? A dramatic and painful answer to that question was provided to us this week with the shocking image of the burning London tower block. If we ever […]
General Election 2017: For the many, not the few
Jun 23rd, 2017 by Bryan Gould.The British general election has produced an impressive list of casualties. Theresa May may survive for the time being but her gamble on a snap election so as to increase her majority – and her authority, especially in the forthcoming Brexit talks – has spectacularly misfired. Even with the support of the Democratic Unionist Party […]
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Instead of “trickle down” economics, why not “bubble up”?
Feb 16th, 2017 by Bryan Gould.Thomas Piketty is a French economist who recently took the economics world by storm. He demonstrated that, in a modern, “free-market” economy, growing inequality is inevitable, unless we do something deliberately to counteract it. Piketty shows that, over hundreds of years and in technologically advanced economies in particular, the return on capital will always rise faster […]
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We’re leaving the EU – not Europe
Feb 10th, 2017 by Bryan Gould.Amidst all the wailing and tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth on the part of those who bemoan the UK’s decision to set its own course with Brexit, how many of those who regret the apparent breach with “Europe” have paused to consider the real identity of the “Europe” they seem to hold so […]
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Trump and Brexit are very different phenomena
Feb 8th, 2017 by Bryan Gould.One particularly welcome aspect of the House of Commons vote to pass the Bill to trigger the Article 50 process is the rebuff it represents to the relentless campaign, in some quarters, and in the Guardian in particular, to equate and conflate support for Brexit with support for Donald Trump. Trump’s justified unpopularity – in […]
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Brexit forecasting: Who’s to blame?
Feb 2nd, 2017 by Bryan Gould.The Bank of England’s chief economist, Andrew Haldane, has had the good grace to admit that the Bank’s forecast of the likely economic consequences of Brexit – that consumption, employment, share values and economic activity in general would fall – was, at least in the short term, mistaken. The British economy, since the Brexit referendum, […]
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Can you support Brexit from the Left?
Jan 25th, 2017 by Bryan Gould.Jeff Sparrow in the Guardian (2 January) allows a thoughtful article to be vitiated by an error familiar to all readers of that esteemed organ – a mindless lumping together of those who voted for Donald Trump on the one hand and for Brexit on the other, and branding them all as bigoted and racist. […]
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Democracy is what’s missing
Jan 5th, 2017 by Bryan Gould.Simon Wren-Lewis, with whom I usually have little difficulty in agreeing, has published a blog in recent days in which he explains why, in his (and others’) views, it is impossible to play a full part in the global economy – in other words, to enjoy free trade – while maintaining the full powers of […]
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What Lies Behind the Brexit Vote?
Dec 20th, 2016 by Bryan Gould.I am proud to be a sixth-generation New Zealander. But I am also gratefully aware of my British heritage. All eight of the families of my great grandparents came to New Zealand, from England, Scotland and Wales, and had settled here by the mid-nineteenth century. I had the pleasure of returning to the UK as […]
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The Implications of Trump
Nov 17th, 2016 by Bryan Gould.Americans are a funny lot. For them, it seems, celebrity trumps all. They have elected as President someone whose personal qualities and attitudes would disqualify him, in most democracies, from membership of a school board. But that is too simple a message. The Trump victory conveys a wider and deeper message – because Donald Trump got […]
