Markets

May 20, 2003 at 00:00

Fundamentally Euro entry must be a political and not an economic issue. This is not only because the balance of long-term economic advantages is uncertain, but because there are many…

May 15, 2003 at 00:00

The failure to try quantitative sustained easing does not of course prove that it would have been successful; it just leaves the question open. This is unfortunate on two grounds.…

May 07, 2003 at 00:00

Representing only 10% of the UK's population, Scotland has long suffered from a dependency culture. While this was dominant, the central aim of politics was to get as much money…

Apr 22, 2003 at 00:00

From the viewpoint of economic management, however, it has many faults. There are three key problems in the Chancellor's approach. First, we don’t know where we are in the cycle.…

Apr 15, 2003 at 00:00

Gordon Brown has got his sums wrong. Next week I expect him to tell us that tax revenue is lower than he expected. But this could not have been forecast…

Mar 26, 2003 at 00:00

As the realisation that equities are risky has dawned again, the question of their suitability for pension fund investment is being questioned. One thing is for sure, they are more…

Mar 10, 2003 at 00:00

In Europe and Japan birth rates have been falling for so long that their workforces are now declining. This is far from the case in America, partly because immigration has…

Mar 05, 2003 at 00:00

The current cycle is very different. The cause of the recession was a cut back in investment rather than in consumption. In this way it resembles the recessions of the…

Feb 24, 2003 at 00:00

One of the most persistent economic fallacies has been the idea that cutting costs is good for an economy. Probably the saddest example of this error was seen in the…

Feb 13, 2003 at 00:00

We are everywhere being bombarded with scare stories about ageing populations being unable to afford to retire. The standard solution is higher savings and, notably in the US and UK…