Britain’s deputy PM Nick Clegg yesterday delivered the opening keynote speech at the International Economic Conference in Leeds in which he summarised government action taken to promote growth and employment in northern England. “How do we build on the strengths…
Think you know the value of your home? Think again
The prices of houses in London have risen by 26 per cent in the last 12 months, according to new figures published by Nationwide, Britain’s biggest building society. I’m a London homeowner, so this is a story of more than…
More growth or more value-creation? Conventional economics has no answer
A feature in the Financial Times (FT) on 30 June asked whether it was any longer possible for the US economy to increase productivity and, consequently, long-term economic growth per capita. “For the past 120 years, …output per head of…
Cashless experiment in Manchester today; bankless economy everywhere tomorrow
On 21 June, a street in Manchester in the UK tested cashless shopping. For a single day shops and businesses on the city’s Beech Road accepted only debit and credit card payments and no notes or coins. The results were…
Valuing art presents insuperable challenge to conventional economics
The central failing of conventional economic theory when it’s applied to services has been exposed by John Kay in a column in the London daily Financial Times on 17 June. His ruminations followed the announcement by the National Trust last…
The money test that economics fails
Monetary theory is a central element of economics. Its significance has risen since the monetarist counter-revolution led by Milton Friedman. And yet, the theory is profoundly unsatisfactory as even a cursory reading of basic text books will suggest. Conventional monetary fails…