Tag Archives for Inflation
Forecasting inflation amid uncertainty: have we forgotten the dog and the frisbee?
The Bank of England’s inflation forecasts in the period since the Brexit vote have been largely inaccurate – is this because the Bank has forgotten the rule of thumb championed by its own chief economist? This is the fifth post in our series on the impact of uncertainty on social science It is hard to prophecise, particularly about the future. … Continue reading
Domestic fortification and the home of neoliberalism
Homeownership and the increasing fortification of the domestic home are linked by our increasingly neoliberal society. Home goes to the heart of the economy. We know that homeownership has been integral to a series of national political projects, on both the political right and left, for decades. The growth of homeownership has occurred in tandem with the slow death of … Continue reading
The Coming Crisis: the monetary policy credibility trap
In the latest blog in SPERI’s series on ‘The Coming Crisis’ Jacqueline Best asks: what do central banks and governments do when exceptions to the monetary policy rules keep piling up? Quite a few commentators have noted that central bankers have become rather less boring of late. Since the 2008 financial crisis, central banks have taken on new roles and … Continue reading
How sustainable are the Anglo-American recoveries?
While both countries have experienced comparatively strong growth, divergence on the current account ensures that the UK’s situation looks much more perilous Staggering global payments imbalances are a defining feature of contemporary capitalism. From the 1980s, with the emergence of the ‘neoliberal’ phase of capitalism, two major categories of growth model have emerged: debt-led growth models, marked by current-account deficits, … Continue reading
The government is right on pensioner protection – but for the wrong reasons
Critics of the protection of pensioner benefit entitlements are playing into George Osborne’s hands The politics of austerity appears to have induced an unfortunate amnesia among the British political class. For a long time the state pensions ‘earnings link’ was a totemic issue on the left – almost mythically so. For her critics, Margaret Thatcher’s 1980 decision to index the … Continue reading
The political difficulties of ‘Corbynomics’
The problems are not really the economics at all, but much more the politics A month ago nobody had heard of ‘Corbynomics’. Today Google records 174,000 search results. It is becoming difficult to escape the term in any form of media. If Jeremy Corbyn wins the Labour leadership election, its contents and claims will shape political debate in the UK … Continue reading
Towards full employment in the UK?
George Osborne has promised full employment, but closer examination suggests a continuing lack of ambition In 1991 Norman Lamont, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Conservative government, famously stated that, if unemployment was the price that had to be paid for reducing inflation, it was ‘well worth paying’. Lamont’s words entered the public consciousness and served mainly to reinforce the … Continue reading
Don’t Panic! (At least not about inflation)
Concerns about high inflation – a key narrative underpinning recent financial volatility – are highly suspect As financial markets have been showing their panicky side in the last few weeks, we’ve been hearing various accounts of what’s driving the volatility. One of the key narratives goes something like this: 1) wages are moving up in the United States, and 2) inflation is … Continue reading →
22 March 2018 by Jacqueline Best
Categories: SPERI Comment | Tags: financial markets, Inflation, Jacqueline Best, volatility | Leave a comment