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 – 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 […]

SIR – Allister Heath makes a powerful case for not taxing property (Comment, February 13). However he concedes that “long-standing homeowners have made vast, untaxed capital gains as prices have shot up.” He explains that the answer is to build more houses, not to tax unrealised gains via a mansion tax. He makes no mention […]

Dear Ronald Please feel free to submit this. You can give my name as author if you wish. Site value taxation This is a tax on land values, based on the value of the land alone – not on buildings or other improvements. Under this system development is encouraged because it has absolutely no effect […]

WHERE WE ARE NOW – A FESTIVE SUMMARY Emile Woolf – December 2019 There were dire warnings….. Over and over, we heard it. We heard it from the great and good, all authoritative sources with impeccable credentials. Carney at the Bank of England, Chancellors of the Exchequer (present and past), IMF, London School of Economics, […]

  TODAY’S ELECTION – WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT Emile Woolf The looming election appears patently divisive. But it isn’t the election itself that’s doing it. The division arises from the starkness of choice confronting the nation. The very word “di-vision” almost evokes a condition of “split vision”. It could, for example, mean that the political […]

[ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 63] [EMILE WOOLF 20-9-19] The US Department of Defence is a major customer of many private sector suppliers, including the Boeing Company. Although relationships between customer and supplier are mutually beneficial, that is by no means the only reason why Boeing has proved to be such an enduring commercial success.   100years […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 62 EMILE WOOLF, 2 SEPTEMBER 2019   There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, And we must take […]

SPARE A THOUGHT (OR PRAYER) FOR THE NEW PM – AND HIS CHANCELLOR! EMILE WOOLF – ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES 58 The global economy is entering dangerous territory. In Britain’s case, the standard scapegoat for any slowdown is Brexit, of course. But how to explain the contraction in other major manufacturing countries? Forewarnings of serious decline are […]

  ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 57 JULY 2019 Considering that the UK has a rag-bag of the most terrible taxes, did you note the competitive strategies for tax reform put forward by Tory candidates in their bid for election to high office? ONLY WHAT’S NECESSARY….   Most of their suggested “reforms” involved some judicious cutting of […]