Search Results for: macpherson

Nick Macpherson, of course, isn’t dead. But EJ Thribb of Private Eye might well have written something like that about his latest speech, of which there cannot yet remain many more in his capacity as Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, … Continue reading →

A quick one to note this Civil Service blog by Nick Macpherson, a review of a William Keegan book, and mentioned in a Tweet recently by Danny Blanchflower. Danny picked it up to point out that this blog excuses Labour … Continue reading →

Last week the UK underwent a surprising constitutional change, and one that seems to have gone without much comment or analysis in UK media, as pointed out to me in an email from Jonathan Portes.  The Treasury’s top civil servant, … Continue reading →

Yesterday [13 Feb 2014] was a big moment in the  life of the UK constitution.  As part of an all party media campaign to communicate that no possible future UK government would agree to a currency union with a putative … Continue reading →

Probably not, it seems. Nick Macpherson was interviewed by the FT, and, amongst other things, pointed out that the financial stability team there was ‘quite small’ before the financial crisis hit, using the number 20.  Alex White from the Economist … Continue reading →

Written in haste during a visit to South Africa, talking about fixing monetary and fiscal policy after the crisis [slides here], and recapping on recent tweets for those who don’t do Twitter. Yesterday, Carney appeared before Treasury Select Committee and … Continue reading →

Paul Krugman, Brad DeLong, and Larry Summers have been having a debate about just why they think the Fed might have been premature in raising interest rates.  The conversation surfaced a disagreement between Krugman and Summers over the legitimacy of … Continue reading →

Simon Wren-Lewis calls for an extension of the remit of the Office for Budget Responsibility, (OBR), the fiscal watchdog set up by Coalition Chancellor George Osborne, echoing Giles Wilkes.  The idea is to include in their services the option to … Continue reading →

A document listing the desired attributes of a future leader of a Ministerial Department has caused a storm in the UK.  One of its recommendations is that a candidate be able to “balance ministers’ or high-level stakeholders’ immediate needs or … Continue reading →