It has been Conservative policy in Britain since Mrs Thatcher to reduce the size of the state in pursuit of some golden age where private ownership and management would dominate (see Meek). The scale of the dismantling of the state and the destruction of what Meek calls ‘universal networks’ (the social and technological system deemed […]

We talk a lot about inequality but the data we rely on is subject to substantial errors since much income and wealth goes unmeasured and is never seen by the official tax systems which are the main sources of information. Obviously, the global rich have major incentives to evade taxation and some insight into the […]

When I was student at the LSE many years ago I shared lodgings with a German exchange student from the University of Munich, son of the Bavarian Minister President and leader of the CSU. He later became a Professor of Statistics and what I recall was his amazement at reading Keynes General Theory of Employment […]

The collapse of Sterling’s foreign exchange rate since the Brexit referendum is on a scale we have not seen in many years and yet the government seems totally unconcerned. Indeed, in large part the fall is directly the result of government statements and actions. Some decline was predicted following the referendum but the rate seems now […]

The UK (and maybe the world) faces severe and worsening economic conditions due to Brexit. Many commentators do not seem to understand that there are time lags in the economy’s response to Brexit and that it is far too soon to assess its probable impact. In its latest Inflation Report the Bank of England, however, sets […]