Economics

By James Clark The Thatcherite legacy has remained ingrained in the centre right consensus of mainstream political politics for decades. The Winter of Discontent hammered the final nail of stigma into the British Trade Union movement. Whilst a crisis of supply side inflationary pressure eat away at pay packets, strikes were the only reasonable means of maintaining a decent standard of living for the average public sector worker. Thatcher’s response in countering these external supply shocks was to obliterate workers pay,...

By Harold Stone Austerity comes from the Ancient Greek austērós meaning harshness, sourness or bitterness. It roughly translates as “to singe the tongue”. From this idea of discomfort, an austere person came to mean a stern person, someone who treats others harshly. One of the slaves in the Bible for example, says to his master “I feared thee, because thou art an austere man”. Around the time Christians started to denounce the world (“do not love the world nor the...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor A City University report has revealed that the Chancellor could be forced to borrow billions of pounds more than predicted by 2020 if he continues with his huge spending cuts. The Chancellor's autumn statement will be announced this week and the University study claims the Treasury has drastically underestimated the impact of departmental and welfare cuts on the wider economy. The report singled out the cuts to public sector investment as a major factor in...

By Ryan Carter @rwscarter There is a beautiful bottom-up revolution underway in the energy market, but like all revolutions there is hurdles the question is can the state facilitate the green revolution, I think it should. This requires putting into reverse how the state has been seen in market interventions as a monolithic agent ‘crowding-out’ competition. I believe that the state can and should act smart and counter to popular opinion 'crowd-in' the market, breaking the hegemonic cartel of the...

By Oliver Ward    Over the last three months, for the first time in history, Britain's renewable energy production surpassed its coal production. A monumental moment, the palpable demonstration of how far renewable energy has come in the UK and the changing attitudes towards our role as inhabitants on this planet. A view clearly not shared by the Conservative party who have announced that subsidies for renewable energy companies will be ended on the 1st of April next year. Leaving over...

By Professor Mary Mellor  The Labour U-turn to vote against Osborne’s fiscal charter ‘trap’ is welcome, but it cannot stop there – Labour needs to open up a real debate about public access to money in a modern economy. Osborne’s aim to enshrine in law that States must not run deficits is profoundly undemocratic. It reflects the demand of neoliberal ‘handbag economics’ that the public sector cannot and should not ‘create money’ by running a deficit. This denial of the right...

By James Clark The culmination of the much fabled Bretton Woods Conference of 1944 resulted in the brave claim that a system of monetary union, positioned unshakeably upon the benevolent foundation of US hegemony, had established the conditions for everlasting economic stability. What the Conference had however failed to adopt was one of none other than John Maynard Keynes' seemingly more abstract suggestions. Keynes had spotted and presented both weakness and solution within and as part of the proposed Monetary...

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent Small and medium-sized enterprises in London are set to eclipse the rest of the country with revenues forecasted to increase by over £160,000 by 2025 compared to the £82,000 increase expected around the country as a whole. Despite the government’s Summer Budget pledge to put the power into the Northern Powerhouse, the gap between London’s small businesses and those in the North looks set to more than double in the next ten years according to new...

By Ben Ramanauskas Greece has found itself in a modern day tragedy of Homeric proportions. However, this is a tragedy which is both very real and which has no heroes. There is no Achilles or Odysseus ready to save the day, only villains and victims. Whether it's previous Greek Governments who borrowed and spent far too recklessly, or the cunning investment bankers who helped them to hide their debt, or the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the German...