Written by Iain Griffiths Thursday, 16 July 2009 17:33
As Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan announced enormous profits this week, the UK also saw unemployment reach its highest level in over ten years. That these two announcements come at the same time has raised the question of whether or not the banks, having enjoyed the luxury of government bail outs, have suffered the pain they deserved for their role in causing the recession.
That the banks are...
Read more: Banks' big profits are welcome - but Government needs to move faster
Written by Iain Griffiths Wednesday, 24 June 2009 16:48
Today’s PMQs was again dominated by accusations of spending cuts from both sides of the House - yet outside the Houses of Parliament the Bank of England and OECD were piling more pressure on Alistair Darling to cut spending quicker and provide a more credible path back to manageable debt levels. It served to demonstrate again just how far removed the frontline political debate is from the...
Written by Iain Griffiths Tuesday, 23 June 2009 10:34
In a new CPS report out today - What’s Wrong with 50p? - Jill Kirby and I took a closer look at how the new top rate of income tax fares using Adam Smith’s four principles of taxation - fairness, simplicity, certainty and efficiency. We also examined how well it will succeed in raising revenue for our impoverished yet profligate government, and its likely effect on UK competitiveness....
Written by Iain Griffiths Tuesday, 19 May 2009 17:01
Last night Trevor Phillips, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, delivered a thoughtful and considered speech on the equality agenda and the recession here at the CPS.
He gave strong grounds to push ahead with the Equality Bill that will significantly simplify and consolidate the reams of existing legislation, thus reducing the burden on businesses struggling to comply with over 100 current acts and...
Read more: The Equality Bill: Unequal and Unhelpful to the Economy
Written by Iain Griffiths Thursday, 14 May 2009 15:24
Another day, another prediction. Yet people looking for predictions free from political manipulation will find something much closer to that from the Bank of England.
Yesterday’s Inflation Report delivered a much more sober view on the projected growth of GDP for the UK than the Treasury’s own figures, delivered in the Budget. The graphs below (from the Bank of England website) show how the Bank has amended...
