ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 105 Conventional wisdom maybe – but it’s never the truth Whether it’s the belief that commitment to more infrastructure spending by the state will create more jobs; or that import tariffs are needed to protect domestic industries; or that currency manipulation can boost exports; or that a statistical figment called GDP can […]

WHEN SUPPLIERS PREFER THEIR GOODS TO OUR POUNDS [ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES 106 – OCTOBER 2021]   Following his interview with Vladimir Lenin on the subject of inflation in 1919, John Maynard Keynes quoted the Russian as having said “The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch its currency”, and Keynes included Lenin’s comment […]

    “Conservative” government?……if only! [ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 104]   The Conservative government has strayed so far from the principles on which it was elected that it is scarcely recognisable as the party most people voted for.   Its colour on the political spectrum has undergone a blue-to-red shift with welfare-for-all at the top of […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 103 The great debate now obsessing Treasury bosses and central bankers is whether all those trillions they continue to print so obsessively are at last producing a perceptible bout of hyperinflation. Before trying to make sense of that question let’s revisit some basics.    1 – What is inflation? Although “inflation” usually […]

PLAIN TRUTH NEEDS REPETITION ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 102 [July 2021] “The Government has a duty to the next generation to build more homes” – reads a recent headline, quoting the Housing Minister, whose choice of words masks his preferred role, which is to get out of the way and dismantle the regulatory complexity that interferes […]

Economic Perspectives 101 [Emile Woolf – June 2021] It is beyond dispute that Covid’s ravages are on the wane, yet resistance to freedom appears to be far more resilient than any virus. Over two short years a so-called Conservative government, egged on by persistently dismal statistical interpretations of data compiled by its medical henchmen, has […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 100 _____________________________________ EMILE WOOLF, MAY 2021 A well-designed tax policy would extract from citizens’ wealth what’s needed by the government to protect their lives and civil liberties. It would not be designed to achieve purely political objectives, no matter how dressed up.   The “Nanny State Index”, compiled by the Institute of […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 99 APRIL 2021    GOVERNMENT’S WAYWARD SPENDING – IT’S OUR MONEY!   Expenditure by “Big-government” is not readily susceptible to economic calculation. Therefore it’s impossible to know whether citizens would support central or local spending proposals – and they are never consulted anyway. The result is often a massive waste of public […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 97 WHEN GOVERNMENT STOPS INTERVENING My recent essays have focused on the boost to economic growth that occurs quite naturally when obstacles are removed. I cited the positive economic consequences of Margaret Thatcher’s decision to allow markets, including the labour market, to operate freely by curbing the vice-like grip of the unions; […]

Economic Perspectives – 96           [EMILE WOOLF -7th March 2021]   GROWTH? NOT IN THIS BUDGET   We have just endured yet another March Budget in which the Chancellor sets out his strategy for balancing the nation’s expenditure plans with its available resources, principally from taxation. They are, of course, his spending priorities, and his tax-raising […]