Economics – Rus Newton

Quick Take on Brexit

Here’s my very quick take on UK’s vote to leave EU. I think a lot of voters felt very patronised by the political ‘elite’ of UK, EU and further afield over this subject. “Project Fear” inasmuch as it existed therefore probably backfired. It won’t be the financial cataclysm George Osborne suggested — weaker GBP great… Continue reading Quick Take on Brexit

#BrokenBritain

Let’s face it: Britain’s a mess. London is creaking under the weight of residents and tourists visiting one of the world’s trendiest cities. Its infrastructure was not designed for this. But corporate incompetence adds to the misery. On 3 January I had the misfortune to be travelling back from north London to Jersey, via a… Continue reading #BrokenBritain

Jersey Is Not Bust, @OliverBullough

Reading today’s Guardian article, The Fall of Jersey leaves one hoping for better-quality journalism… or certainly some balanced reporting. Oliver Bullough argues that Jersey is heading towards an abyss financially, as its government deficit is forecast to expand to £125mn by 2019. Let’s put the numbers in perspective to start with. Checking the States of Jersey’s… Continue reading Jersey Is Not Bust, @OliverBullough

Inter-company Credit & Inventories

I attended an excellent dinner a few weeks ago, hosted by UBS Jersey. The speaker was their Global Economist, Paul Donovan, author of The Truth About Inflation. During his interesting & thought-provoking talk he spent some time discussing small businesses. In the UK, according to a Parliamentary Briefing, Small & Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) represent 60% of… Continue reading Inter-company Credit & Inventories

China Slowdown: Are There Lessons From Japan?

I have been wondering for some time whether there might be clues in the future trajectory of the Chinese economy & stock-markets in the behaviour of other large economies that have emerged since World War II. As neighbours, Japan seemed like the obvious starting point. I started off by looking at both countries’ GDP Deflators… Continue reading China Slowdown: Are There Lessons From Japan?

Wage Inequality: How Not to Fix It

There was a great little piece on Business Insider this morning about Patricia Arquette’s acceptance speech at the Oscars. It got me thinking. Let me start by saying that I am a firm believer in equality in all areas: male/female, black/white, whatever. Whilst there are undoubtedly differences in individuals’ capabilities that’s what makes the world… Continue reading Wage Inequality: How Not to Fix It

Putting the Gini Back in the Bottle

An article by The Economist on Twitter caught my eye a couple of days ago. It shows that the wealthiest 0.1% of Americans control around 22% of the nation’s wealth — almost exactly the same proportion as the bottom 90% of citizens. This hasn’t happened since the late 1930s and the article seems to be… Continue reading Putting the Gini Back in the Bottle

Should You Pay The Ransom?

The recent surge in popularity of “ransom-ware”, along with Islamic State’s penchant for hostage-taking got me thinking about kidnapping & ransom. In last weekend’s FT, Tim Harford reviewed the work of Reinhard Selten on the ‘Chain Store Paradox’ and it struck me that there was a strong parallel between the rational response of a monopoly… Continue reading Should You Pay The Ransom?

Dying on Payday

This is from the egalitarian Sweden: “In this paper, we study the short-run effect of salary receipt on mortality among Swedish public sector employees. By exploiting variation in pay-days across work-places, we completely control for mortality patterns related to, for example, public holidays and other special days or events coinciding with paydays and for general… Continue reading Dying on Payday