May 16, 2013

Britons want more work – let’s help them

Doncaster Refurnish, a recycling social enterprise, South Yorkshire. The business takes damaged furniture from national retailers and works with trainees, offenders, welfare-to-work placements and employees on contract to supply its network of low-cost shops. ©Philip Wolmuth

There is very substantial spare capacity in the British economy

Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard University professor, and Carmen Reinhart, professor of economics at the University of Maryland ©Bloomberg May 2, 2013

Beware the spell of magic numbers

Economics would benefit from a less credulous acceptance of each purported research finding

13th October 1984: British Conservative prime minister Margaret Hilda Thatcher, addressing the Tory Party Conference in Brighton, following the bombing of The Grand Hotel, where many delegates were staying. ©Getty Apr 18, 2013

Thatcher was right – there is no ‘society’

Aid for the poor, or distressed regions, must come from the citizens of the country concerned

Apr 4, 2013

Forget trying to change any country

Germany turned its back on the conventional wisdom and did quite well

Mar 20, 2013

It’s the monetary policy that matters

Serious macroeconomic consideration should centre on the monetary review

Mar 14, 2013

The British Budget is not as great as it was

The chancellor’s showpiece had its heyday in the 1960s and has never regained its economic eminence

Feb 28, 2013

A not-so-secret sterling devaluation ploy

The antics of a rating agency are a sideshow to the adventures of the pound

Feb 14, 2013

A proposal for the Bank’s new mandate

Dogged pursuit of highbrow theories leaves little room to manoeuvre

Jan 31, 2013

The folly of beggar-my-neighbour policies

Japan needs to watch that its campaign for a lower yen does not go beyond talking

Jan 17, 2013

A funny way of firing up the locomotive

Austerity policies make depressions and unemployment worse

Jan 3, 2013

The decline of western dominance

Developing countries now account for about half of total world output

Dec 20, 2012

A case remains for economic liberalism

The philosophy’s basic tenets hold sound despite the financial crisis

Dec 6, 2012

Stale debate holds back Britain’s recovery

Partisan bickering could be avoided with a division into three elements

Nov 22, 2012

Britain’s policy echoes Habsburg decline

Indicators suggest that conditions are hopeless but not desperate

From LIFE & ARTS Nov 11, 2012

A call to the west in its last-chance saloon

A refreshing perspective on the economic decline of advanced countries and the origins of the crisis

Nov 8, 2012

America must be doing something right

The UK and Europe could learn from US experience

Oct 25, 2012

Explanation for Britain’s economic puzzle

Employment has held up but output is 3 per cent below the 2008 peak

Oct 11, 2012

The harmful myth of the balanced budget

The common sense approach is not as simple at it might appear

Sep 27, 2012

A liberal case for scepticism of the EU

Beware the language of intolerance and authoritarianism

Sep 13, 2012

The Lib Dems need to be more liberal

Left libertarianism seems the right way to go for the junior coalition party

ABOUT SAMUEL

Samuel Brittan Samuel Brittan has been an economic commentator on the Financial Times since 1966. Prior to this he was economics editor of the Observer (1961-64) and an adviser at the Department of Economic Affairs (1965).

He has been awarded the George Orwell, Senior Harold Wincott and Ludwig Erhard prizes. He was a member of the Peacock Committee on the Finance of the BBC (1985-86). He was knighted in 1993 for “services to economic journalism” and also that year became a Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur. His column appears on alternate Fridays.

E-mail Samuel Brittan

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