Economy
How Boris can get Britain back to work
This week was built up by the Prime Minister to be the moment that would mark the return of economic…
Can Scotland afford independence?
How would an independent Scotland have fared during the pandemic? We found out this week on the annual release of…
The stock market isn’t the success story Trump thinks it is
COVID-19 is still raging, with little sign of coming under control. The economy is already a tenth smaller than it…
The battle to tackle excess boardroom pay may already be won
At a low moment in late March, I suggested that all large companies should consider temporary cuts in executive salaries…
Portrait of the week: Employment falls, exam failures and a roundabout rigmarole
Home In fine weather with calm seas, 565 migrants in four days crossed the Channel in small craft. French officials…
In the race to recovery, Britain is losing
Britain is losing the race to recovery
Economies run on confidence – the government mustn’t undermine it
Throughout the past few months the government has appeared to face an unenviable choice between saving lives and saving livelihoods.…
London in limbo: can the capital survive this crisis?
The capital is the motor of Britain’s economy. It needs to get moving again
Trump’s election delay tweet smacks of desperation
Donald Trump’s tweet mooting an election delay isn’t a sign of strength but weakness. Maybe he’ll say it was just…
No, Trump can’t delay the election
While cries of ‘authoritarian dictator’ have been lobbied at the President by America’s progressives over the past three and a…
Will masks mean the end of smiling at strangers?
I’ve been a regular runner for 40 years, pounding my way across Hampstead Heath to Kenwood House and back. This…
Italy owes Wales reparations for the wrongs of the Roman Empire
There’s talk of reparations in the air. Lobbyists from around the world are demanding sin-payments from former colonial powers. Let…
Why isn’t the government learning the lessons of ‘red wall’ towns?
A rare illness has broken out in Westminster. Last week a case of what was known before Brexit as ‘consensus’…
The young are the most vulnerable to the Covid crash
Coronavirus is deadlier for the old than the young. But for the young, it is economically devastating. A third of…
The extinction of the arts has been deferred – for now
The government’s £1.57 billion lifeline for the cultural sector was bigger than most practitioners were expecting — and drew a…
Portrait of the week: Sunak’s statement, shop closures and a hoo-ha over Boohoo
Home Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced measures intended to stimulate the economy. Under a £111 million scheme,…
The left-wing case for Keir Starmer
Do you remember where you were when the BBC showed a rerun of Bowie’s Glastonbury set? When we ask each…
Does Boris's 'new deal' offer anything new?
Today Boris Johnson launched his ‘new deal’ for Britain – billed as an economic recovery plan to follow the Covid…
The rioters and the rentiers
It was inevitable that the wave of destructive rioting and looting that has swept through cities that are almost all…
Is there anywhere visitors will be welcome this summer?
Do stock markets foretell the future while politicians fudge and economists mumble? No: share prices collectively have a life of…
How fast can Britain recover from its economic free-fall?
Putting the UK into lockdown was only going to send growth in one direction: down. While today’s figures from the…
America’s 2.5 million jobs miracle
The US economy created 2.5 million jobs last month — the biggest monthly jobs gain since records began a century…
X days to save the economy!
I wonder what the Labour party will use as its scare slogan at the next election? After all, the usual…
Why are US shares performing so well when the economy isn’t?
A staggering 20 million Americans lost their jobs in April and yet the US stock market had its best month…
It isn’t necessarily the economy, stupid!
‘It’s the economy, stupid!’ With those now famous words, the Democratic strategist James Carville summarized the 1992 election between President…
