Category Archives: Economic policy

No, not Stern, but from this week’s Time Out comes a story (sorry, no link) perfectly illustrating the idea of trade-offs and unlike the usual environment-vs-business conflict, this has at its heart the conflict over two environmental goals. “…proposals to … Continue reading →

The Times reported last week how the Education Select Committee criticised Gordon Brown for pledging to raise the level of spending on state school students to match that of students in private schools. The story makes the very valid point … Continue reading →

Will Wilkinson criticises the happiness movement. Crucially, there is no limit to the possible forms of excellence. So, while the number of positions on any single dimension of status may be fixed, there is no reason why dimensions of status … Continue reading →

There’s not much I’d disagree with generally here, but I don’t understand the point about rebuilding the manufacturing base via investment in alternative energy sources. My problem is that the policy aim can become confused if stated like this. What’s … Continue reading →

Will the UK’s antitrust authority, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) achieve more success by reducing its caseload by up to 40%? I’m not sure. Firstly, the OFT has stated in the recent past that it intends to pursue the … Continue reading →

Mark Thoma invites us to consider whether the it is right that wealth, as a result of genetic factors or luck should be taxed. There are two key issue in the Economist excerpt quoted. Firstly, that the creation of a … Continue reading →

Janet Daley is getting frustrated at David Cameron’s refusal to promise and bring forward tax cuts if he is elected. To state, as Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne do ad nauseam, that you will put economic stability “before tax cuts” … Continue reading →