THE ECONOMIC CHASM CONFRONTING US – A LAYMAN’S ASSESSMENT The huge economic harm caused by Covid-19 is seen and experienced clearly and directly on a daily basis. Less obvious is the damage wrought in every welfare-driven democracy whose government finds itself in the dual-role of protector and saviour. Today expectation and dependency are the norm, […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES 92 – DECEMBER 2020 SOME UNSEASONAL REFLECTIONS ON MONEY Several comments and questions on my last essay deserve a thoughtful response, which is the theme of today’s essay. You may recall its references to today’s dependency culture – the “expectation syndrome” that fuels the size and cost of welfare programmes as the state’s […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES 91 – 14 NOVEMBER 2020 EMILE WOOLF Economically speaking, we are in a pickle. The blame-game is in full flow in its search for scapegoats. The most obvious culprit is, of course, the Covid virus, but it would be a huge mistake to blame that. The government’s inconstant and wavering response to Coronavirus […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 87   SEPTEMBER 2020 The tenacity with which certain economic fallacies persist is truly remarkable. Take the notion that the euro currency is too strong for certain countries, notably Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy, causing their exports to be too expensive for foreign buyers; and being members of the eurozone they are […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES 86   Every primer on economics cites the familiar factors of production, land, labour and capital, as prerequisites for productive activity. Sometimes entrepreneurship is added to represent the gifted brain who brings the other three together in a commercial enterprise.   Land, of course, includes the entire unharnessed bounty of natural resources that […]

  ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 84    [July 2020] Those of us struggling to get a grip on Chancellor Sunak’s latest relief-measures should note the terminology. He seeks to revive the Covid-stricken economy with a series of tax “giveaways”.  When anyone in government talks about giving something away, it’s instructive to ask yourself how they got it […]

  ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 80 [GOING POSTAL – 1st June 2020] EMILE WOOLF In his latest book (“The Body – a Guide for Occupants”) Bill Bryson highlights the limitations on what money can buy. He points out, for example, that America spends more per capita on healthcare than any other nation in the world: two-and-a-half […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 78 and GOING POSTAL It’s not quite like having to start the economy from scratch, but this lockdown-induced recession warrants some detached assessment. We are aware that viable businesses have been forced to close their doors – or keep them open to serve a paltry trickle of customers. This has been happening […]

  Well, are we? In the course of more than four weeks of self/family isolation we have all encountered mountains of speculation on the sources of Covid-19; how it spreads; estimates of its final tally of victims; how many people already have antibodies and immunity; time-frames for each phase of its progress; Ro spread-estimates; international […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 76 Can lost production ever be recovered? EMILE WOOLF – APRIL 2020 It’s easy to blame Covid-19 virus for the nation’s woes and, up to a point, that’s understandable. People who focus exclusively on the nation’s health tend to pay less attention to the economic damage wrought by Coronavirus, even though that […]