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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

Let’s start with an addled view of what it is to be human. According to economists, it is the ability to calculate. Their picture of the human is that of homo economicus ‘economic man’, a calculating machine who is always weighing up the costs and benefits of every course of action. Economics is about ‘economizing’ … Continue reading What Makes Us Human?

George Osborne is bound to crow at the Conservative party conference about the superior performance of the British economy under his stewardship. After three years of “hard slog”, there is at last some good news to report. In the second quarter of this year, the economy grew by 0.7 per cent after “flatlining” for the … Continue reading Osborne may gloat about recovery, but his “hard slog” will leave Britain worse off