The Resolution Foundation (RF) has led the way in interpreting referendum results according to economic and other factors. However their latest contribution “The importance of place“, seems to me to underplay the importance of place. Outside London and other metropolitan centres, the…Read more…
What should Theresa May’s new Industrial Strategy look like?
Last week, the new Prime Minister, Theresa May, expressed her support for a modern industrial strategy. As she created her first Cabinet, Mrs May pushed this agenda further forward by recasting the former BIS as a new Department for Business, Energy an…Read more…
Note to Philip Hammond: In ALL 32 OECD countries where spending was cut, economic growth was significantly damaged
Since 2010, under the direction of international organisations and most economists, governments across the world have cut spending in order to restore public finances to health. OECD figures show this strategy has failed. Cuts have greatly damaged economic growth – to a far greater extent than…Read more…
Theresa May echoes key TUC policy calling for workers on company boards
Theresa May, now the only candidate for the Conservative leadership, has called for company boards to include both workers and consumer representatives. She has also called for shareholder votes on remuneration to be held annually and for votes on individual directors’ pay packages to be made…Read more…
£150bn new lending is a tall order, even for Mark Carney
Since the referendum vote, the Bank of England have been working tirelessly to protect the economy. But the announcement the other day of an increase in banks “capacity for lending to UK households and businesses by up to £150 billion” needs to be taken with a big pinch of salt (hence ‘up to’). The…Read more…
Why cutting corporation tax would make things worse, not better
Before the Referendum – which seems like another era! – George Osborne said that post-Brexit he would introduce an emergency budget containing £30 billion of extra tax rises or spending cuts. Such a move would sharply escalate the austerity already shrouding much of the country, the impact of which…Read more…
UK workers reject a Brexit cuts budget says post-referendum poll
The TUC has published findings from a poll taken immediately after the EU referendum ballot closed, and its action plan for protecting jobs and industry. The poll – of 2,716 adults who voted in the…Read more…
What the government must do right now to stop working people paying the price for the Leave vote
Still scarred by the effects of the 2008 financial crash, working people and their communities must not be asked to pay the price – again – of economic uncertainty following the vote to leave the EU. The TUC does not agree with the Chancellor that the fundamentals of the UK economy are sound. Only…Read more…
A short post about government debt
This morning I was having a look at the Office for National Statistics’ new Population Estimates (as you do) when I came across a reference to a report they published at the end of last month, which I’m ashamed to say I missed at the time. UK Perspectives 2016: The UK in a European…Read more…
Less a ‘miserable failure’?: some facts about recent EU growth
This morning I woke to a Brexit mantra that the EU economy is a “miserable failure”, with “low growth”. (*) On the latest GDP quarter-on-quarter growth figures, in 2016Q1 the EU moved marginally ahead of other economies regarded as important in this type of comparison. GDP:…Read more…
The case against left-Brexit: this is not a referendum on neoliberalism
A couple of weeks ago the IMF caused a minor sensation with a short article headed ‘Neoliberalism: Oversold?’. While the critique was limited in scope, its existence speaks volumes –front page news as far as the Financial Times was concerned. Something is now very obviously wrong with the economic…Read more…
OECD tell policymakers to ‘ACT NOW’ or risk lying to future generations
I missed the severity of the warnings from the OECD last week. And am struck how their policy recommendations appear almost explicitly directed to the Chancellor. Here is George Osborne in his Budget speech : The British economy is resilient because wh…Read more…
Trade union members should vote to stay in the EU
Letter in The Guardian June 6th As general secretaries who represent a large part of Britain’s trade union movement, we are writing to make our position clear and urge our collective membership,…Read more…
The cost of Brexit for working people: Lost wages, lost jobs and lost rights
So far, much of the referendum campaigns have passed people by. Macroeconomic statistics and theoretical arguments have little relevance to their lives. So today we’re publishing new research underlining the real cost to workers. And we’ve taken a straightforward approach. As our new posters…Read more…
GDP figures show both investment and profits in negative territory: the first time for six years
Behind today’s headline GDP figures are signs of corporate stress, with both investment and profits showing negative growth on the year – the last time this happened was in 2010Q1, at the end of the global recession. Headline figures confirm the ongoing slowdown. GDP growth was unrevised at…Read more…
Why I want to see the UK economy getting stronger and fairer in the EU
In just over a month from now our country will make one of the biggest decisions it has faced in a generation. In campaigning on this issue the first thing I hear on the doorstep when discussing the EU referendum is that the level of debate so far has been very negative on both sides…
The…Read more…
Len McCluskey: Labour’s fresh thinking on investment will lead to a stronger economy
Labour must put the brakes on the `Sports Direct economy’ caused by a discredited political dogma which has down-graded industrial strategy, rejected the investment that is vital to growth and has…Read more…
The EU’s increased importance to UK exports over the past year
While much reporting focuses as normal on a widening of the trade deficit, the export figures have for the past year shown some shift in the relative importance of the EU. Volume figures show an increase in EU exports of 2.6% on the quarter and 6.0% on…Read more…
Cash savings are really struggling
At the end of March the ONS released their latest Quarterly national accounts. The stats indicated that household savings are at a fifty year low. A new figure released today indicates that savings are lower than even the March figures implied. The national accounts ratio indicates the amount…Read more…
GDP figures: unsurprising underperformance
GDP Headlines: With statistics released today showing that GDP increased by a paltry 0.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2016, evidence suggests that a strong and secure economy is still a long way off. This fall from the 0.6 per cent growth in the fo…Read more…