Economics
Warning: rationality could be bad for your health
Almost every popular commercial product owes its success to two different qualities. First, it does the job it is ostensibly…
Why the Spanish may be better off without a government
The Spanish seem to be doing better without one
Warning: the FTSE100 isn’t out of the woods just yet
When the FTSE100 fell close to 5,500 in February, we all said ‘Mr Bear is back’. On Tuesday the index…
What makes Argos worth £1.4 billion? I reckon I know
When I was at school in the 1970s, some of the richer kids would come back from their summer holidays…
It’s not the Corbynites who are in denial – it’s the Labour moderates
It has become commonplace to remark that there exists in Britain a mainstream political grouping that seems to be dwelling…
Who killed murder?
The mystery of violent crime’s dramatic decline
France can’t build its own new nuclear power stations, let alone ours
Amid all the turmoil in global energy markets, we should not lose sight of the UK power programme that we’re…
The one thing most people think they know about economics is wrong
The one thing most people think they know about economics is wrong
If the world economy crashes again, blame the central bankers
Like the Christmas pudding sampled by Hercule Poirot at Kings Lacey — but six weeks early — our Spectator Money…
John McDonnell’s true economic guru: the emperor Nero
John McDonnell, shadow chancellor in the Corbynite splinter-group, has announced that £120 billion is waiting to be reclaimed from tax…
The good economic news that we forgot in the China panic
Home from the hot Aegean, huddled by the fire as rain ruins the bank holiday weekend, I’m thinking: what gloom…
Sorry, but I can’t join in the China panic (especially not while I’m on a cruise)
MS Queen Victoria, 38°N 19°E I’ll do my best, but I’ve got to be honest: being surrounded by shining Ionian…
Paul Mason's Postcapitalism is proof that the left is out of ideas
The left is always eager to be told that capitalism’s final crisis is upon us – and it is always disappointed
How British universities spread misery around the world
From Greece to Kenya, the worst economic ideas come from alumni of British universities
Osborne’s false prophet: why Jim O’Neill will never deliver a ‘northern powerhouse’
Why Jim O’Neill isn’t fit to run the Northern Powerhouse
A better way to be charitable: just give money
Seven years ago I wrote here about a site called Kiva.org. I had met the co-founder of this charity when…
The dinner where laissez-faire banking died
Last week’s deadline did not allow me to report from ringside at the Mansion House dinner, but there was so…
The trick that makes self-checkouts almost tolerable
I spent the last few days in Deal and Folkestone with Professor Richard Thaler at Nudgestock, Ogilvy’s seaside festival of…
Jonathan Portes, master of the political correction
Jonathan Portes, master of the political correction
‘The problem isn’t that we’ve been slaves to free markets’: Joseph Stiglitz interview
Joseph Stiglitz, the left’s favourite economist,on making the free market work
Can Cameron bring us full employment? And do we want it?
‘Two million jobs have been created since 2010 — but there will not be a moment of rest until we…
Why the internet hasn’t killed estate agents (and what might)
I don’t like to make business predictions, but — barring some apocalypse — I suspect there will be plenty of…
David Starkey’s diary: Why don’t we celebrate the triumphs of private dentistry?
To the dentist. And for an extraction. I hadn’t had a tooth out in decades. But the twinges when I…
The Green party manifesto is even crazier than you’ve heard
I’m disappointed that Ed Balls’s suggestion that the Office of Budget Responsibility should audit the parties’ manifestos was never taken…
John Maynard Keynes: transforming global economy while reading Virginia Woolf
To the 21st-century right, especially in the United States, John Maynard Keynes has become a much-hated figure whose name is…
