SEPTEMBER 2012 King Canute was neither vain nor foolish. He ordered the tide to recede only to demonstrate to his court that even his awesome powers had limits. Vain and foolish politicians, however, aspire to preserve the myth of Euroland and still believe that, by hook or (especially) by crook, they might actually make it […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES 19 Does Labour respect sanctity of private property? Lessons to be discerned from the tragic Grenfell Towers fire transcend the immediate questions on cladding, stairwells, sprinklers, alarm systems, escape routes, incandescent materials and faulty appliances. Far more has been revealed than a recital of fire regulations in need of modernisation. The political exploitation […]

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with being “contrarian” when dispelling a myth – especially one which conventional wisdom believes to be true. On 30th March 1981, for example, 364 academic economists famously sent a round-robin letter to The Times, roundly condemning the budget that Margaret Thatcher and her Chancellor, Geoffrey Howe, had just delivered. They […]

Dear Emile and Godfrey, I think the reason that Mises did not address taxes in either Liberalism or Human Action is that both are about production and not about spending. We Austrians know that government must exact a tax for what it spends. There is no avoiding this iron law. If government is limited to […]

‘ACCOUNTANCY’ – JANUARY 2017 MONETARY SANCTIONS? USELESS ON THEIR OWN Unfortunately for our profession, the ‘Big 4’ label may equally be taken to refer to HSBC, RBS, Lloyds and Barclays, which between them have incurred an eye-watering £50 billion in fines and lawsuits since the financial crisis began ten years ago. Their misdemeanours relate mainly […]

Explaining boardroom mega-bucks The basic pay of most employees is governed by industrial and professional norms, and is relatively stable over time when so-called “inflation” adjustments are factored in. Almost unbelievably, today’s average hourly wage has the same buying power as it did 45 years ago! By contrast, executive remuneration in the largest companies is […]

February 2017 “ACCOUNTANCY” Legitimising corrupt practices In last month’s column I commented on the huge fines levied on financial institutions guilty of violating securities laws, noting that natural justice would be better served if these vast penalties were applied to compensate victims, rather than enriching culprits’ lawyers – while leaving the transgressors’ obscene levels of […]

News media gloat over the eye-watering levels of retribution (in the form of fines and penalties) finally being meted out to aberrant banks found guilty of having violated securities laws leading up to the last financial crash. I find it astonishing, firstly, that it has taken close to 10 years to identify, formulate and punish […]

This letter and my article in June 2016 “Accountancy” was followed by the interesting correspondence referred to in my posting of 10th December 2016.   Sir Fat-Cat Pay – the cause On July 11 you published an article by Theresa May in which she highlighted the anomaly of the FTSE trading at the same level […]