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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).
His most recent books are Against the Flow (2005), Capitalism with a Human Face (1995) and Essays, Moral, Political and Economic (1998). He is an honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge and an honorary Doctor of Letters (Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh). He has been visiting professor at the Chicago Law School, a visting Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, and an honorary professor of politics at Warwick.
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. - -
The financial crises of capitalism
The beginning of wisdom is to recognise that booms and busts have been a feature of capitalism from the start, writes Samuel Brittan
A third way on immigration
The cause of toleration is not helped by relying on bad economics, as the British government so often does, writes Samuel Brittan
The case for a ‘dual mandate’
Both the Federal Reserve and Fed watchers still accept the idea that central banks should support the expansion of the economy and maintain price stability, writes Samuel Brittan
When inflation comes from abroad
The emphasis in central banks’ policy should shift towards pressures that are domestically generated, writes Samuel Brittan
Budget’s diminished role
I refuse to believe that if helicopters dropped money on Manhattan and London it would not be picked up and spent, writes Samuel Brittan
The pressure on UK living standards
The Bank of England’s willingness to squeeze the UK citizen is more convincing in an insular than in a global context, writes Samuel Brittan
The British budget conundrum
Lord Lamont’s 1993 strategy of a staggered rate of tax increase could be an answer to the UK’s current problems, writes Samuel Brittan
High time for all of us to ‘buck up’
It is far from obvious that we face a major worldwide recession, and there is no need to talk ourselves into one, writes Samuel Brittan
We have defences against a slump
There are many problems about policies to maintain economic activity, but lack of policy instruments is not one of them, writes Samuel Brittan
Business growth is not an end in itself
The present danger is to confuse a straightforward economic slowdown with the saturation of wants, writes Samuel Brittan
