Monthly Archives: August 2013

Postwar growth – A demographic dividend that’s now spent

A long but fascinating piece on IndexUniverse by Robert Arnott and Denis Chaves earlier this week argued that the normal we all think we are going to get back to wasn’t actually normal at all. By this, they mean that the … Continue reading

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The system blamed for sinking Microsoft, coming soon to the UK public sector

A piece in the Slate last week blamed Microsoft’s ‘Stack Ranking’ appraisal system for much of the company’s recent decline. Stack Ranking is a variation on the ‘Rank and Yank’ process in which managers are forced to rate a certain … Continue reading

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Jacobins, the Berlin Wall and zero-hours contracts

One of the most thought-provoking pieces on the zero-hours contracts debate (see previous post) was from Ursula Huws, writing in Times Higher Education. She points out that, in much of the world and for much of human history, the precariousness … Continue reading

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The rise and rise of health spending

Before I wrote my post on the NHS last week, I should have read this King’s Fund report on long-term health spending from earlier this year. It covers the subject in some depth. For those who don’t have time to read it, … Continue reading

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Can the NHS survive?

Last week, Chris Hopson, chief executive of the Foundation Trust Network, became the latest NHS grandee to warn of the service’s imminent collapse. (See previous post.) Hopson’s view is that, because the NHS is not changing fast enough, the health service … Continue reading

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