ROBERT SKIDELSKY and SIMONE GASPERIN (2021) Abstract: This paper upholds the classical Keynesian position that a laissez-faire market economy lacks a spontaneous tendency to full employment. Focusing on the UK case, it argues that monetary policy could not prevent the economic collapse of 2008-9 or achieve full recovery from the Great Recession that followed. The … Continue reading Reinstating fiscal policy for normal times: Public investment and Public Jobs Programmes
Author: Robert Skidelsky
Economist and member of the House of Lords
House of Lords Speech on the Public Order Bill
My Lords, it is very cold in this House; I wonder what has happened to the heating. It certainly has a chilling effect on debate. I am not a lawyer like the noble Lord, Lord Sandhurst, nor a policeman like the noble Lord, Lord Paddick. I am driven to take part in the debate because … Continue reading House of Lords Speech on the Public Order Bill
Gorbachev’s Tragic Legacy
Oct 19, 2022ROBERT SKIDELSKY Admired in the West but loathed by his countrymen as a harbinger of Russia’s post-Cold War misfortune, Mikhail Gorbachev fully grasped the immense challenges of reforming the ailing Soviet Union. Today’s Russia largely reflects the anti-Western grievances stemming from his failure. LONDON – Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union’s last leader, was buried last month … Continue reading Gorbachev’s Tragic Legacy
Economy: The Growth Plan 2022
House of Lords Speech: 10 October 2022 My Lords, the twin problems to which the mini-Budget was addressed were near-zero growth and a relentless rise in prices. I doubt whether it will do very much for the first—certainly not in time to offset the second. In the short run, what we face is not a … Continue reading Economy: The Growth Plan 2022
Requiem for an Empire
Sep 12, 2022 ROBERT SKIDELSKY Since World War II, Britain’s influence in the world has relied on its “special relationship” with the United States, its position as head of the Commonwealth (the British Empire’s successor), and its position in Europe. The Americans are still there, but Europe isn't, and now the head of the Commonwealth … Continue reading Requiem for an Empire
Mind the Policy Gaps
Aug 22, 2022 ROBERT SKIDELSKY The widening gaps in policy formation nowadays reflect the division of labor and increasing specialization that has taken us from the sixteenth-century ideal of the Renaissance man. And today’s biggest policymaking gap has grown so large that it threatens global catastrophe. LONDON – Just as the insistent demand for more … Continue reading Mind the Policy Gaps
Boris Johnson’s Fall – and Ours
Jul 19, 2022 ROBERT SKIDELSKY Although words like “unprincipled,” “amoral,” and “serial liar” seem to describe the outgoing British prime minister accurately, they accurately describe more successful political leaders as well. To explain Johnson’s fall, we need to consider two factors specific to our times. LONDON – Nearly all political careers end in failure, but Boris … Continue reading Boris Johnson’s Fall – and Ours
Russia’s Path to Premodernity
Jun 14, 2022 ROBERT SKIDELSKY The Stalinist retreat from science and logic persisted following the Soviet Union’s collapse and is now the main tendency of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule. With his faith-based mythology, warping of history, and denial of facts, Putin’s withdrawal from contemporary Europe could not be starker. LONDON – The Russian writer … Continue reading Russia’s Path to Premodernity
The Guardian view on a four-day week: policies needed to make it a reality
After the first world war, workers wanted a peace dividend for their sacrifices. Within three years they got it. Almost every industrialised nation – with the exception of Japan – accepted the newly established International Labour Organization’s call to limit working hours to eight a day and 48 a week. While most developed countries enacted … Continue reading The Guardian view on a four-day week: policies needed to make it a reality
Robert Skidelsky 