Author Archives: Rick

Andy Haldane’s speech in Bradford this week made headlines because of his comments about interest rates but what he said about stagnating wages is much more interesting. He looked at the evolution of the Phillips curve, which shows the relationship … Continue reading →

Is austerity really over? That depends what you mean by austerity, of course. Certainly the aggressive deficit reduction targets that George Osborne set and kept missing have been abandoned. As the Resolution Foundation’s Adam Corlett pointed out before the election, … Continue reading →

Are we at a pivotal moment in British politics? Is last Thursday’s electoral upset a sign that the assumptions of the last three decades no longer hold true? For the last 30 years, what David Goodhart called “the two liberalisms” … Continue reading →

One good thing to come out of the Brexit vote (though some of you might dispute this) is that I’m getting invited to do more panel discussions and round tables. At a couple I have been to recently, senior executives … Continue reading →

Yesterday I went to a Brexit Briefing organised by the Global Success Partnership. We got into a discussion about how unprepared business was for what happened in 2016 and how most companies still have a pretty poor grasp of politics. … Continue reading →

The Conservative manifesto has reiterated the party’s promise to cut net migration to below 100,000. That implies a reduction of over 60 percent and, although the manifesto doesn’t give a timeframe, even achieving the target by the next general election would be a … Continue reading →

It’s fascinating watching what is happening to our two main political parties. Most of the media attention has been on the turmoil in the Labour Party but what is happening on the Conservative side is every bit as interesting. The FT reports that … Continue reading →