Economist, Visiting Professor, Lecturer, Writer, Public Speaker.
Even with one of the largest parliamentary majorities in its history and the Conservatives with their lowest-ever vote share, the incoming Labour administration faces a daunting task: improving UK economic growth. It knows that was why it was elected; after all, growing the economy through increased productivity was the focus of its election campaign. It …
Continue reading “An historic election win but big challenges loom”
Nothing announced in the Budget on Wednesday was a surprise because it was all leaked in advance. But that did not make it any less surprising in one regard: the lack of any bold action to deal with the economic challenges facing the UK of an aging population, poor productivity, the need to reform the …
Continue reading “A political budget – one for the short term economically not the long”
One of the oddities about the narrative on the direction of interest rates is the argument that, because consumer price inflation is still above the 2% target, the Bank of England cannot cut interest rates. That suggests that interest rate policy changes immediately impact the current inflation rate in the short term. However, this view …