London is the lodestar of the UK economy – but it has an image problem According to a newly released report, it’s time for London to shed its uncaring image and show the rest of the UK a little love. The Centre for London’s London, UK: Strengthening ties between capital and country, is a timely reminder […]
This month Oxfam released a report, as it does every year, pointing out that there are some very rich people in the world and how terrible this is. The report gained a great deal of media attention (as it does every year), with the vast majority of political commentators agreeing that it really is disgusting […]
This week I joined in the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of Israel at an event at magnificent Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C. In attendance were many of America’s movers and shakers, including US Vice President Mike Pence. The Jewish State, as many readers on both sides of the Atlantic know, […]
Interesting proof that Thomas Piketty got the modern economy wrong comes from The Sunday Times’s annual rich list, which was published yesterday. Some 94 per cent of the 1,000 people made the cut not by getting rich the old fashioned way — by marrying or inheriting — but instead by making it. The Sunday Times findings […]
While Q1 2018 was expected to be a quiet one for the UK economy, last week’s news from the ONS that growth has slowed to just 0.1% – the lowest rate in five years – came as an unwelcome reminder of the economy’s vulnerability. Potholes and frozen pipes were not, it seems, the only legacy […]
The 19th of April was David Ricardo’s birthday. Or at least it would have been were he still alive. The classical economist has been dead for nearly 200 years, but his insights and theories remain immeasurably valuable today. Yet Ricardo was, in many ways, an unlikely economist. Born into a large Sephardic Jewish family, he […]
Be more like Japan. That is the takeaway from a Bloomberg column by the always-interesting Noah Smith. His is the latest article to look at Tokyo’s approach to housing for answers to the spiralling cost of homes in comparable Western cities. On the surface, the lessons are straightforward, with Tokyo serving as a heartening reminder that […]
Lord Willetts today gave a speech at the Resolution Foundation calling for wealth taxes to be imposed on the baby boomer generation in order to fund their health and social care in old age and to prevent the burden being placed on younger generations. Moreover, he has also called for a radical rethink of the […]
In January I highlighted the underperformance of the North America listed Real Estate Sector in 2017 but that it still didn’t offer great value – however with interest rates set to move higher in 2018 I looked forward to some interesting opportunities. Well, be careful what you wish for! By early February markets were in […]
These are changing, and some might say, exciting times at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Whilst not usually a high profile Ministry, the issue of BREXIT and the appointment of Michael Gove have certainly changed that of late. Love him or hate him or somewhere between, Mr Gove is a […]
