Use the filters below to refine your search
There's a certain art to be Chancellor of the Exchequer during the good times. It's a time to make progress turning Labour ideals into action. But to do the job when the world is in meltdown: that takes nerves of steel. Denis Healey had…
The Tories are intent on undermining Labour's credibility on the economy but they're ignoring the fact that their own record isn't so great. In fact, if wages continue to grow below the amount forecast, as they have under the Coalition, the…
Ed Balls has been calling for the OBR to independently audit each party's manifesto costings for some time now. George Osborne has refused to play ball (presumably because he wants to continue making unfounded attacks on Labour's plans for…
Yesterday we asked if the Cabinet "Growth Committee" had even met yet, since no-one seemed to know who was on the committee. The Tory Treasury team, despite being quite combative, have failed to answer the following simple question…
“Sorry mate, there’s nothing I can do”. That, in essence, sums up George Osborne’s economic policy ahead of the budget. The Daily Telegraph yesterday quoted him saying the government has “run out of money” because it was all “spent in the…
So this morning we posted a little bar chart which has caused something of a stir. The Treasury are now spinning that since US Q1 growth was just 0.4%, then UK growth of 0.5% is actually good. Let's take a look at that data on another bar…
By David Hanson MP Today in the House of Commons we will be discussing the funding arrangements for HM Revenue & Customs. In economically challenging times it is more important than ever the government is able to collect the right levels of…
By Matthew Zarb-Cousin / @matt_zarbcousin Before the general election, the question of how to deal with the deficit highlighted the competing economic philosophies of the two major parties. As a Keynesian, I believe that cutting in a time…
By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982 UPDATE: The Times has details of likely new duties on alcohol; the Telegraph has details of a possible "pollution tax". In an Observer report about a meeting between Treasury officials and Vince Cable to…
By Chris Cook A recent article in 'Asia Times' by Henry Liu crystallised the almighty misconception at the heart of the conventional monetarist economics which has driven Western economies generally - and the US and UK economies in…
By Chris Cook The Guardian reports today that: "A tug of war has begun at the top of the government over the future of Northern Rock as senior figures argue that the Treasury's planned sell-off should be stopped so that the ailing bank can…
The Chris Cook Economics 3.0 column I recently posted here on the possibility of consolidating existing dated UK gilt-edged debt into two new pools of undated debt. This perceived attack on the system really brought out the heavy guns in…
