Economy
Is Farrow & Ball’s business model flaking?
The happiest thing that happens in May is the coming into leaf of my long beech hedge. The shift from…
The pandemic’s transatlantic divide in executive salaries
‘Consider a temporary cut in executive salaries’ was the Confederation of British Industry’s advice to members at the start of…
Sturgeon can’t hide the economic costs of Scexit
Might the 2020s be the seismic decade in which the post-war consensus, that liberal democracies do not and should not…
Can Melinda still keep Bill Gates in check?
‘We are seeing very substantial inflation,’ the great investor Warren Buffett told shareholders in his master company Berkshire Hathaway at…
Money to burn: shoppers, not the state, will lead our recovery
Consumers, not ministers, will lead the recovery
Can the ‘next Bicester Village’ take off without tourists?
Retail footfall will be the first measure of recovery this spring. Everywhere I look, from central London to small-town Yorkshire,…
Why the West should stop investing in China
The Prime Minister has called for an international coalition of free countries to oppose the growing influence of China’s authoritarian…
Will Covid cost less than expected?
It’s no surprise that the bill for Covid-19 keeps racking up. The Office for Budget Responsibility’s latest forecast predicts borrowing will…
Are Wall Street’s ‘Spacs’ about to make waves in the City?
This column generally takes a sceptical view of financial novelties and gimmicks. So my antennae have twitched in recent days…
Letters: What happens if interest rates rise?
Spinning plates Sir: Kate Andrews is right to highlight the looming risk of inflation (‘Rishi’s nightmare’, 6 March), but to…
Boris, Biden and the era of big government
Bill Clinton’s declaration that ‘the era of big government is over’ summed up the late 1990s political zeitgeist. Centre-left political…
The UK economy is suffering worse than most
Last week The Spectator highlighted new data from the OECD that offers a weekly update comparing a country’s current GDP…
Rishi’s nightmare: will inflation crush the recovery?
Fear of inflation is stalking the Treasury
What Rishi Sunak could learn from the vaccine rollout
Barely a year has passed since Rishi Sunak’s first Budget. Its centrepiece was a £30 billion stimulus designed to calm…
Up Crash: why are markets soaring as the economy tanks?
The economy is tanking but stock markets are soaring. Why?
Will freedom always be just over the horizon?
We should talk about horizons, and the setting of desirable ones. A newspaper gave it a go the other day…
Why it’s a good time to invest in a pub
It’s obvious from the body language of Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey that negative interest rates — much talked…
Business rebirth is always possible – with the right help
The online fashion retailer Boohoo is buying Debenhams without its stores and staff, confirming the demise of the high street.…
‘Inessential’ workers have helped keep the country afloat
A common sight across Britain these past ten months has been those rainbow flags fluttering in urban and village streets:…
Capital punishment: why wealth taxes don’t work
Why wealth taxes don’t work
The rise of the super pessimist
Covid isn’t the only thing to have developed a dangerous strain in the UK; pessimism has also mutated and is…
Are there any mountains left unclimbed?
Bad service Economic growth fell by 2.6% in November, the month of the second lockdown, compared with falls of 7.3%…
Could the Australian approach to Covid work in Britain?
The government’s most important economic policy is its vaccination programme. The speed at which people are immunised will determine when…
Why 2021 could be the year of economic Armageddon
The British economy is wrapped in bandages – we won’t know whether the wound has scabbed or turned septic until…
The ideological bankruptcy of modern monetary theory
There’s nothing new about ‘new monetary theory’
