The “laws of holes” are as unforgiving as the laws of physics. If you find yourself in a hole and want to get out, the first thing you do is to stop digging. If you confront a number of holes to fix and want to know which to fix first, you choose the one which … Continue reading Fixing the Right Hole
Category: Journalism
Future generations will curse us for cutting in a slump
Co-authored with Michael Kennedy In 1937 Keynes wrote: “The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the Treasury.” Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, disagrees. Stripped of its jargon, his argument last Friday in the Financial Times is that fiscal retrenchment is needed to “consolidate recovery”. This has become … Continue reading Future generations will curse us for cutting in a slump
Consolidators versus Stimulators
All intellectual systems rely on assumptions that do not need to be spelled out because all members of that particular intellectual community accept them. These “deep” axioms are implicit in economics as well, but, if left unscrutinized, they can steer policymakers into a blind alley. That is what is happening in today’s effort, in country … Continue reading Consolidators versus Stimulators
By George, he hasn’t got it: What would JM Keynes think of George Osborne’s Budget?
I don't wish to examine the structure of George Osborne's emergency Budget, but to analyse its logic. On the structure I have only this to say: the balance between increased taxes and reduced spending is probably right. It is right to demand sacrifices from all sections of the community, though I doubt the attack on … Continue reading By George, he hasn’t got it: What would JM Keynes think of George Osborne’s Budget?
Keynes and Social Democracy Today
For decades, Keynesianism was associated with social democratic big-government policies. But John Maynard Keynes’s relationship with social democracy is complex. Although he was an architect of core components of social democratic policy – particularly its emphasis on maintaining full employment – he did not subscribe to other key social democratic objectives, such as public ownership … Continue reading Keynes and Social Democracy Today
Once Again We Must Ask: ‘Who Governs?’
In 1974, Edward Heath asked: “Who governs – government or trade unions?” Five years later British voters delivered a final verdict by electing Margaret Thatcher. The equivalent today would be: “Who governs – government or financial markets?” No clear answer has yet been given, but the question may well define the political battleground for the … Continue reading Once Again We Must Ask: ‘Who Governs?’
Why markets need governments
The recent economic meltdown was at root not a failure of character or competence, but a failure of ideas. Behind the cupidity of bankers, the weakness of regulators and the myopia of macro-policy stood a set of dominant ideas about the proper relationship between the state and the market. This amounted to two propositions: that … Continue reading Why markets need governments
The Price of Clarity
“Through the contrivance and cunning of stock jobbers there hath been brought in such a complication of knavery and cozenage, such a mystery of iniquity, and such an unintelligible jargon of terms to involve it in, as were never known in any other age or country.” Jonathan Swift’s eighteenth-century barb resonates in today’s world of … Continue reading The Price of Clarity
Deficit Disorder: The Keynes Solution
The new chancellor will find himself in the worst starting position of anyone new in that job since the Second World War. According to the Treasury, we are just starting to limp out of the "most severe and synchronised downturn since the Great Depression in the 1930s". Recovery is not secure. With the Greek crisis … Continue reading Deficit Disorder: The Keynes Solution
Advice for a New Government: a reading list
The new government is facing daunting economic challenges. The historically minded will recall that the international financial crisis hit in 1931, two years after the start of the great depression, aborting the recovery and forcing Britain off the gold standard. A double-dip recession is a distinct possibility today; and the government's finances are in a … Continue reading Advice for a New Government: a reading list
Robert Skidelsky 