In Cardiff last Thursday, 7 January, George Osborne warned of a “dangerous cocktail of new threats” to Britain’s prosperity. These include collapsing global stock-market and commodity prices, weak growth in China and Latin America, stagnation in Europe and turbulence in the Middle East. Osborne was right to prepare us for “headwinds”. What he could not … Continue reading The Optimism Error
Author: Robert Skidelsky
Economist and member of the House of Lords
The Essential Keynes
Edited by Robert Skidelsky Published by Penguin Classics, 2016 ISBN 9781846148132 “The essential Keynes cannot be sketched in a chart or mechanized, and we are the worse for it. But Robert Skidelsky has done us a service by putting it in a handy book.” – The Times Literary Supplement Buy at Amazon
European Politics With an Islamic Face?
LONDON – Donald Trump’s call to bar Muslims from the United States provoked the following exchange with two young friends of mine: “If the choice was between Muslim immigration and preserving liberal moral values,” I asked, “which would you choose?” They both denied the question’s premise. The immigrants themselves, they suggested, might have reactionary moral … Continue reading European Politics With an Islamic Face?
Universities: Freedom of Speech
Motion to Take Note 1.07 pm Moved by Baroness Deech That this House takes note of the protection of freedom of speech in universities. 2.22 pm Lord Skidelsky (CB): My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, for making possible this debate. I shall draw your Lordships’ attention to two threats to free … Continue reading Universities: Freedom of Speech
The Decline of the West Revisited
The terrorist slaughter in Paris has once again brought into sharp relief the storm clouds gathering over the twenty-first century, dimming the bright promise for Europe and the West that the fall of communism opened up. Given dangers that seemingly grow by the day, it is worth pondering what we may be in for. Though … Continue reading The Decline of the West Revisited
From Memory to Denial in Russia
My most painful experience in Russia was a visit to Perm-36, the only one of Stalin’s forced-labor camps to have been preserved, in 1998. I was in Perm, a city in the Urals, to take part in a seminar of the Moscow School of Political Studies. Founded by the remarkable Lena Nemirovskaya, the school’s purpose … Continue reading From Memory to Denial in Russia
The Agony and the Exodus
The tragic exodus of people from war-torn Syria and surrounding countries challenges the world’s reason and sympathy. Since 2011, some four million people have fled Syria, with millions more internally displaced. Syria’s neighbors – Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey – currently house the vast majority of the externally displaced. But, as the crisis has progressed, hundreds … Continue reading The Agony and the Exodus
Taking Corbynomics Seriously
Fiscal austerity has become such a staple of conventional wisdom in the United Kingdom that anyone in public life who challenges it is written off as a dangerous leftist. Jeremy Corbyn, the current favorite to become the next leader of Britain’s Labour Party, is the latest victim of this chorus of disparagement. Some of his … Continue reading Taking Corbynomics Seriously
Foreword to Chi Lo’s ‘China’s Impossible Trinity’
China's ascent to world power has been as eagerly or fearfully anticipated as the coming of the robots. In this sober , well-documented, and persuasive book, HK-based economist Chi Lo explains why China's moment will be delayed. The road to global power and prosperity is open, but it faces severe internal obstacles which will require exceptional leadership … Continue reading Foreword to Chi Lo’s ‘China’s Impossible Trinity’
The Sino-Russian Marriage
The Chinese are the most historically minded of peoples. In his conquest of power, Mao Zedong used military tactics derived from Sun Tzu, who lived around 500 BC; Confucianism, dating from around the same time, remains at the heart of China’s social thinking, despite Mao’s ruthless attempts to suppress it. So when President Xi Jinping … Continue reading The Sino-Russian Marriage
Robert Skidelsky 