There was much to disagree with in George Osborne’s Budget announced on Wednesday, in particular the increasingly foolish and damaging target to achieve an overall budget surplus of over £10 billion in 2019/20 and 2020/21 via further spending cuts. But one specific claim made by the Chancellor in his speech to the House of Commons […]
Consumer inflation may be low, but asset inflation is high and real wages keep falling
Oct 15th, 2014 by Jeremy Smith.The latest UK annual CPI inflation statistics, for August 2014, were published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics. They show annual inflation down to 1.2%. The last time the annual rate was below this was in September 2009, in the depth of the recession, when it fell to 1.1%. Assuming that the present lower CPI […]
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Out of thin air – the (alleged) economic case for a third Heathrow runway
Sep 3rd, 2014 by Jeremy Smith.When I last twice travelled directly to Guangzhou, by China Southern Airline out of Heathrow, the flight was nearly full. But not – by visual impression at least – full of thrusting British entrepreneurs keen to visit the most vibrant economic region of China, thanks to this direct link from Britain’s hub airport. More like […]
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How our taxpayer-rescued banks helped INEOS escape UK taxes
Oct 29th, 2013 by Jeremy Smith.So billionaire Jim Ratcliffe seems to have succeeded in forcing through huge reductions in the pay and conditions of his Grangemouth workforce. See the excellent recent Open Democracy article by Robin McAlpine for the background story. But Ineos, the company of which Ratcliffe is the main owner, represents much that is most destructive and arrogant about modern […]
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Britain’s output per (available) worker is back to 2003 levels
Feb 23rd, 2013 by Jeremy Smith.This week, we have learnt from the Office for National Statistics that 2.5 million were still unemployed in the last quarter of 2012. The UK economy is failing to use the skills and resources of our people to best effect in the common interest. This is to a large extent because the government’s economic policies […]
