Our macroeconomic reliance on debt, and the focus on aggregate demand, is based upon a wide Keynesian consensus.
Less attention is paid to the savings that must provide the funding for investment, the centrality of assets and importance of the core infrastructure systems – natural and conventional. Microeconomic principles, such as the polluter pays and public money for public goods, provide guides for developing sustainable government policies.
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Podcast 89: Crisis? What crisis?
The International Energy Agency describes the current Iran conflict as the “biggest energy crisis in history”. While oil prices have risen sharply, they remain below the real highs of past shocks. However, the impact is being felt very differently around the world, with some countrieseven benefiting from the situation. For example, the US and Russia… Read more…
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Podcast 88: Britain’s negative-sum society
The concept of a zero-sum game was fashionable in the 1970s. The idea was simple: competing interest groups, and especially unions, would fight for ever-bigger shares of the nation’s cake, and their gains would mean losses to others. Fast forward to 2026, and what we have now is a negative-sum game: cake for some reduces… Read more…
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Podcast 87: No such thing as a free electricity
There is no such thing as a free lunch, and there is no such thing as “free” electricity. What is true is that there are going to be days in summer when supply exceeds demands and hence the value of electricity generated will be zero. Surpluses arise because a renewables-based system needs far more total… Read more…
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Podcast 86: Sticky plaster energy policy is falling apart
Another day and another bit of sticky plaster is applied. With the highest industrial energy prices in the developed world, the government is increasing the number of companies that will get a bit off their bills in 2027. This follows other moves, like the £150 off customer bills. It will not be enough, given the… Read more…
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Podcast 85: Gas prices, gas mistakes and gas policy
The news is very much about gas price shocks, but this is to misunderstand the fundamental difference between temporary shocks and long-term trends. Gas prices spike when major geopolitical events occur (e.g. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz), but then often fall sharply afterwards. Such fluctuations are nothing new… Read more…
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Podcast 84: Britain’s industrial energy price crisis
Britain is facing a deep industrial energy price crisis, with many major industries collapsing or shrinking because UK electricity costs are among the highest in the world. Recent closures—from refineries to steel, fertilizer, and fibreglass plants—show how uncompetitive energy prices have already pushed firms out, long before the latest geopolitical price spikes made things worse.… Read more…
