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 64: Crossing the Rubicon – what it really takes to grow an economy
Economic growth is the government’s new mantra, but what exactly does it mean, and how exactly is it achieved? Who is going to pay for it? The government does not appear to have answers – at least, not ones that are credible and likely to create sustainable economic growth. Growth involves a more than simply announcing big… Read more…
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Podcast 63: Energy costs and economic growth
The government’s number one mission is to grow the economy, by building more houses and sprinting to net zero by 2030. On the energy side, we’re told that investment in renewables will lower our electricity bills – costs come down, investment goes up. But despite the UK’s claim to be world leader in tackling climate… Read more…
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Competitiveness: why UK economic growth is so elusive
The dominating mission of the current government is “growth” and almost every day some new initiative is announced. One day it is AI, the next it is fusion, then it is windfarms. Regulators are asked to “come up with five ideas” to promote growth, and government departments are told to present any requests for budgets… Read more…
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Podcast 62: The great COP-out
As the many tens of thousands fly back home from Baku after this year’s COP, where have the 29 attempts among the world’s nations to tackle climate change got us? The concentration of carbon in the atmosphere continues to rise; 80% of the world’s energy still comes from fossil fuels; and the 1.5 ⁰C target… Read more…
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Podcast 61: The UK’s new growth industry – regulation
The British economy is going to see more regulators, more regulatory bodies, more intervention in the private sector – all requiring businesses, on the other side of the regulatory rules, to spend more time dealing with regulators and regulation. While all governments promise to “cut red tape” – and the new government is no different… Read more…
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The UK’s unsustainable economy: not enough production, too much consumption, too little savings and too much debt
There is a dawning realisation that there has been a structural break in the economic fabric of the world economy. The old world of zero real interest rates, very low inflation, and the peace dividends are gone. The great era of cheap debt, and the financial engineering and gearing up that it caused, is over.… Read more…
