By Martin Skinner I’d been building up to my blog last week on the assumption that more Quantitative Easing would be implemented and support for the banks would be effectively unlimited. With these now in place it seems to me unlikely that we will suffer the severe double-dip that many are worrying about. As last [...]
Why is America gloomy when the news is good?
Irwin Stelzer It has been a long time since the economic data have been flashing positive signals, and an equally long time since consumers, businessmen and occupants of the White House have been so gloomy. It’s worth considering why this disjunction of fact and perception is dominating the economic news. Let’s start with the data. [...]
Three cheers for the death of old economics
The orthodox mathematical model took no account of reality. The new George Soros institute should bring back some sanity Anatole Kaletsky One of the few benign consequences of last year’s financial crisis was the exposure of modern economics as an emperor with no clothes. In February I argued that economists deserved as much blame as [...]
Bank of England should release £30bn more in quantitative easing
David Smith: Economic Outlook To QE or not to QE? It is the big question for the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee (MPC) this week, and it is a big question for the economy. After those unexpectedly weak gross domestic product figures nine days ago, showing that officially the economy remains in recession, the [...]
Why bankers love the people’s recession
David Smith, Robert Watts The estate agent knew he had struck gold. He was showing an £8.5m flat in Belgravia, central London, last week to a client looking for the perfect bachelor pad. Sporting an expensively tailored suit and a Swiss watch, the 42-year-old banker had all the swagger of the boom years. “The flat [...]
Global economy has no substitute for falling dollar
Irwin Stelzer Let’s see. The Chinese are cross because the falling dollar means the stacks of American IOUs they have in their vaults will be paid back in a devalued currency. The Americans are cross because the Chinese refuse to allow the renminbi to rise in value and this means goods made in Chinese factories [...]
Deficit may undershoot despite GDP setback
David Smith Shooting the messenger is never a good idea. Even so, on Friday the Treasury must have thought about getting up a posse and heading down the M4 to the Office for National Statistics in Newport. Time and again in this recession, the ONS has come up with gloomier gross domestic product numbers than [...]
MPC told: don’t panic over recession figures
David Smith Economists have warned policymakers not to be fooled into pumping too much money into the economy on the back of Friday’s unexpectedly weak gross domestic product figures. The 0.4% drop in GDP in the third quarter, which went against City and Bank of England expectations of a 0.2% rise, prompted speculation about a [...]
Poor recession figures will keep interest rates down
Anatole Kaletsky: Commentary The modest fall in Britain’s GDP in the third quarter will cause some big gains and losses among currency and bond traders, but it does not change economic reality in any significant way. While economists may define the “end of recession” as the quarter when GDP starts to grow, no matter how [...]
