The most important change in half a century will occur in China

The most important change in half a century will occur in China

China’s problem is that it needs its consumer to do more. If it relies on exports, China is vulnerable to the problems in the West. If it relies on investment, it risks seeing a bubble. In some ways such a bubble already exists, and will burst imminently.

But at least China’s...Read More

All change please, the economic axis is flipping, but it’s not what you think

News just in is that apparently there have been problems in the Eurozone recently. Here is something else to startle you; the balance of power is shifting from West to East. And finally, and this time it’s not quite so obvious, what we are really seeing here is deep, underlying...Read More

Savers need to get real

Is it written that savers are entitled to a good rate of interest? Is this a God given right, one to stand alongside “thou shall not kill”?

Of course it isn’t, but some seem to act as if they think it is.

Last week it emerged that the deficit facing UK pension...Read More

Memo to Bank of England: it’s time for a new 3i – that’s innovation, innovation and innovation

The Bank England bravely turned its head and fled. By the standards of the UK’s central bank the plan that was unveiled last week was revolutionary. By the standards of what the UK economy needs, it was totally inadequate.

Credit where it is due, George Osborne was in fine form when he...Read More

Keynes did have the answer to euro ills

When Gordon Brown bailed out UK banks, and tried to kick-start the economy, German financiers accused him of practising crass Keynesianism.

But the truth is that Keynes put together a plan in 1944, which, if applied to the Eurozone today, would be the means by which the single currency could indeed...Read More

A new crossroads and a devil of a dilemma

According to the mythology of modern music, Rock ‘n’ Roll was born when the worst guitarist in the world, Robert Johnson, met the Devil on the intersection of Highway 49 and 61 in Clarksdale Mississippi. Johnson sold his soul, but in return was turned into the greatest guitarist in the...Read More

The new industrial revolution needs collaboration and perhaps fewer patents

KPMG also took a look at collaboration in charging this new revolution. So all of a sudden, rivals are working together.

KPMG cited the work of a Professor Chesbrough who said that it was no longer possible or desirable for the R&D department of a single firm to attempt...Read More

Innovation may pass us by

Debt is not always bad. If debt enables you to become richer, then surely it is a positive thing. If the UK economy could double in size, but government debt stayed the same, then debt as a percentage of GDP would halve.

Economists, wallowing in their gloom, are missing the...Read More

China runs out of breath and commodities sink

You can’t grow on the back of investment indefinitely. Sooner or later you get overcapacity. That is why many say China’s government created a bubble during the late noughties. It tried to insulate itself from the problems in the West, and as a consequence has created a whole new set...Read More

What banks, Nokia and disc drives have in common

Nokia may be on its last legs. Its problem is that it faces a dilemma, not dissimilar to the one facing banks.

Nokia has sold three million units of its Lumina phone since October. That may sound quite good, but this is a business which needs big sales. Over the same...Read More

Are banks fit for purpose?

Edmund Phelps is a wise old owl. Not only is he a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics, not only are his theories on the role of expectations in the economy among the most important ideas from economists of the last half a century, but back in 2008...Read More

The snag with single currencies

In the aftermath of the last world war, a system of fixed exchange did emerge, and it may have provided the foundation of a golden age of Western economic growth, lasting for a quarter of a century.

Of course the Bretton Woods system of exchange did allow for currencies to devalue,...Read More

Germany does not have the solution to euro crisis

Be under no doubt, if a new look Europe was moulded in Germany’s image, the result would be disaster.

The whole point of the German economic model is to produce more than you consume. Such a model can work if applied by one country, but only if it is balanced out...Read More

The enemy from within: is baby boomers rush from risk

Maybe if you want to rewind the clock back and look for the point when today’s troubles began, you could do a lot worse than recall the dotcom crash.

Back in 1999, it was a good time to retire. If you had put your money in the stock market ten or...Read More