This trade war is really a fight for the future of the dollar. 16/04/2025 Trump’s tariff bombardment has torn up the rules by which Western elites have lived for the last 35 years: the rules of a globalising economy under the benign guardianship of a Pax Americana. He is openly challenging opinion makers to change … Continue reading New Statesman: Could John Maynard Keynes fix Trump’s tariff crisis?
Category: New Statesman
New Statesman: Ukrainian Consequences
Letter: The New Statesman, 6th of September 2024 It is to the great credit of the New Statesman that it allowed two such opposing views on Ukraine to be published in its issue of 23 August. Brendan Simms says that Britain must do everything it can to "empower" Ukraine to restore its 1991 frontiers; Wolfgang … Continue reading New Statesman: Ukrainian Consequences
Marx and Keynes can free Labour from its budget bind
Rachel Reeves needs a new economic narrative to break the fear of deficits and debt 24th November 2023 To observe the basic thinking behind Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement on 22 November, and how Rachel Reeves will respond, is to find that the Chancellor and his shadow inhabit the same mental universe. They both aim to … Continue reading Marx and Keynes can free Labour from its budget bind
Beyond Austerity: The Challenge Facing Labour
This essay, published in the New Statesman, is based on a lecture hosted on 19th September by the Progressive Economy Forum, of which Lord Skidelsky is a Council member. Labour has always been set a higher standard on the economy than the Conservatives: it had to be more orthodox, more competent, more successful to win … Continue reading Beyond Austerity: The Challenge Facing Labour
The Optimism Error
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
George Osborne’s cunning plan: how the chancellor’s austerity narrative has harmed recovery
Over their five years in power, the Conservatives have claimed their austerity policy saved the country from disaster. This purported economic competence sits at the heart of their election campaign. It needs critical scrutiny. The coalition government has given two main reasons why austerity – cutting the Budget deficit – was necessary. The first is … Continue reading George Osborne’s cunning plan: how the chancellor’s austerity narrative has harmed recovery
I agree with Syriza: the way back to prosperity is not austerity but debt relief
Syriza’s victory has injected a ray of clarity into the eurozone’s fog. The Greek people have said “enough is enough”. So, we have a new situation – and an opportunity to do things differently. The Greek election confirmed what everyone knew but wouldn’t say: most of the Greek government’s external debt of €317bn will never … Continue reading I agree with Syriza: the way back to prosperity is not austerity but debt relief
It is indefensible for Osborne to cut the welfare state as if it were the cause of the crisis
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned that there will need to be “colossal” cuts in public spending to balance the books by 2018-19 – at least £55bn extra. On 4 December, the day after the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, the director of the IFS, Paul Johnson, said that it wasn’t for lack of effort … Continue reading It is indefensible for Osborne to cut the welfare state as if it were the cause of the crisis
Mediocre State
Vladimir Putin’s policies have damaged his country’s standing and economy. When will the owners of wealth decide that he is not Russia? In 2004, the Valdai Discussion Club was set up “to promote dialogue between Russian and international intellectual elite”. Each year, two or three days of discussions involving foreign and Russian scholars and journalists … Continue reading Mediocre State
The Osborne Audit: What have we learned?
On Wednesday, for the first time in four Budgets, George Osborne will be able to claim plausibly that Britain has come out of the Great Recession. Growth was 1.8 per cent in 2013 and is expected to be between 2.4 and 2.8 per cent in 2014. That’s the good news. The bad news is that … Continue reading The Osborne Audit: What have we learned?
Robert Skidelsky 