The period since 2008 has produced a plentiful crop of recycled economic fallacies, mostly falling from the lips of political leaders. Here are my four favorites. The Swabian Housewife. “One should simply have asked the Swabian housewife,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. “She would have told us … Continue reading Four Fallacies of the Second Great Depression

Was the British government’s decision to embrace austerity in the wake of the global financial crisis the right policy, after all? Yes, claims the economist Kenneth Rogoff in a much-discussed recent commentary. Rogoff argues that while, in hindsight, the government should have borrowed more, at the time there was a real danger that Britain would … Continue reading Misconceiving British Austerity

Russia presents two opposing faces to the world: one menacing, the other benign. Both have now combined, somewhat unexpectedly, to break the momentum carrying the United States, and possibly other Western powers, toward a disastrous military intervention in Syria. Russia’s domestic situation remains deplorable. With the collapse of the planned economy in 1991, Russia proved … Continue reading The Russian Janus

In Why You Lose at Bridge (the funniest book about bridge ever written), my uncle, S. J. Simon, advised players to aim “not for the best possible result, but the best result possible” with the partner you have. This advice applies to the long-stalled Israel-Palestine peace process, newly revived by US Secretary of State John … Continue reading John Kerry’s Tricky Bid

In the UK, the Labour Party's Shadow Health Secretary, Andy Burnham, has been calling on his party to 'shout louder' about the failings of the governing coalition. His main concern was with the National Health Service, but Labour has an even better story to tell on the economy. The Prime Minister and Chancellor are keen … Continue reading Nonsense Economics

This week, the British Labour Party has launched a new attack on the government on falling living standards. Real wages have been falling consistently since the coalition took power; OBR figures project that the median worker will be £6,660 worse off in real terms in 2015 than in 2010. Labour is right to point out … Continue reading Real wages and Employment

by Robert Skidelsky and Peter Mills The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby’s attack on the payday loan company Wonga is a modern manifestation of an ancient theological prohibition. Just as Jesus threw the moneylenders out of the Temple, and medieval popes banned their flock from charging interest, today’s Church is waging its own battle against … Continue reading Vix Pervenit

With humanity’s millennia-old focus on collective survival no longer a primary concern, a few fortunate societies in the West have become preoccupied with matters of human, or individual, rights. In recent decades, we have experienced a second flowering of the individualism associated with such nineteenth-century thinkers as John Stuart Mill. The rights of the individual … Continue reading Gays and the New Public Philosophy

We all know how the global economic crisis began. The banks over-lent to the housing market. The subsequent burst of the housing bubble in the United States caused banks to fail, because banking had gone global and the big banks held one another’s bad loans. Banking failure caused a credit crunch. Lending dried up and … Continue reading Economic Rebalancing Acts

In a recent article, ‘Sympathy for the Luddites’, Paul Krugman looks at the impact of automation on the future of work. He argues that the old conflict between labor and capital is entering a new phase. In the past technological progress displaced unskilled labor; now it is knocking out skilled labor as well. There are … Continue reading Playing by the Rules