Politicians act with good intentions. But they rarely seem to grasp that intentions are not the same as outcomes. The social and economic worlds are both complex and change rapidly. This places inherent limits on our ability to understand them. …
Why the Left shouldn’t be celebrating
In the days following her resignation, the British media appeared to be united in its verdict on Liz Truss: the 44-day premiership was the shortest and most catastrophic in British history. Support for the Conservative Party has plummeted to its …
Kwasi Kwarteng was the wrong sort of clever
I had a horrendous cold over the weekend — so awful, in fact, that in an unprecedented development, my wife grudgingly conceded that “it might actually be flu”. And so it was that, tossing and turning with a raging temperature, …
Liz Truss’s zombie politics
At the age of seven, Liz Truss played the role of Margaret Thatcher in her school’s mock general election. It did not end well. “I jumped at the chance and gave a heartfelt speech at the hustings, but ended up …
FLASHBACK: The Bankster Bailouts (2009)
FROM 2009: In this flashback to the Economics 101 series, Michel Chossudovsky of globalresearch.ca explains the circular mechanism by which the banks become creditors of the very government that is bailing them out and thus leverage financial power over the …
Sri Lanka: Lessons from an economic crisis
by Russell Lamberti – Chief economist and head of research and strategy at Sakeliga
A real-world economic and financial disaster is unfolding in Sri Lanka. Like countless crises before, this one is man-made. The social, economic, and political fragilities that…Conservatives need some Swedish love
Sweden has long presented a puzzle to foreign observers. The Left tends to extoll the perceived virtues of social solidarity, collectivist values, and the “cradle-to-grave” welfare state. The Right, on the other hand, while largely agreeing with the basic welfare …
Will we escape our age of failure?
A little over a year ago, as inflation in the United States spiked to an alarming 5.4%, the nation watched on as President Biden addressed the public’s concerns from a White House lectern. His remarks in response to a reporter’s …
Iain Davis | Pseudopandemic: New Normal Technocracy
A wealth of evidence informs one of the most important books you will ever read. Iain Davis’ book, entitled “Pseudopandemic”, offers an unflinching and compelling dissection of the global response to the pandemic.
When the World Health Organization declared the …
Why millennials are dropping out
With inflation soaring, trust in governments plummeting, and the global economy teetering on the brink of collapse, one might expect to see the masses out in the streets, calling for the heads of their rulers. But instead of rage and …
Prof David Paton: New evidence on the impact of the English care home vaccine mandate
This new research and paper, which Prof David Paton has undertaken with a colleague, examines the impact of the English care home vaccine mandate on vaccine uptake, care home staffing and Covid deaths. David also assesses the overall ethics, costs …
Prof Paul Frijters: Wellbeing cost-effectiveness analysis, applied to Covid policies
Wellbeing Cost-Effectiveness (CE) is a recently developed tool to evaluate and appraise the effects of large policies with effects in many areas. It builds on the huge literature concerned with the analysis of the question “how satisfied are individuals with …
The Controlled Demolition of the Economy
As I’m sure you’ve seen, there have been many, many such stories circulating in the financial press in recent months, all touting similarly bleak numbers. But it’s important to keep in mind that these numbers are just that: numbers. The …
Corporations aren’t greedy enough
American political debates over inflation have settled into predictable — and mostly unhelpful — patterns. On one side, “neoliberal” Democrats such as Lawrence Summers and Jason Furman argue that President Biden’s Covid stimulus bill was too aggressive, causing the economy …
Neoliberalism died before Ukraine
The neoliberal order that triumphed on a global scale in the Nineties and 2000s aspired to the free movement of goods, capital, people, and information throughout the world. Unfettered capitalism would release the global economy from arbitrary constraints, and if …