Author Archives: Tony Yates

Niall Ferguson’s FT Op-Ed has sparked more rounds of artillery fire in the empirical macro wars over what can and cannot be read into the effects of austerity in the UK.  I come at this debate from the relatively more … Continue reading →

So, UK voters opted for redoubled deficit reduction while we are still trapped at the zero bound, followed by a spurt of spending towards the end of the next Parliament. I would have voted for the opposite, [although no-one was … Continue reading →

John Taylor has published Wall St Journal Piece rounding on Bernanke’s blog.  Some new points and some points repeated follow…. JT claims that the Taylor Rule emerged from ‘two decades of research on optimal policy’.  I think it’s important that … 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 →

Paul Krugman, Simon Wren-Lewis and Eric Lonergan weighed in on the issue of whether, in 2010, the Coalition’s initial inclination to ‘austerity’ was justified or not.  Mark Gregory also made a good point on Twitter which I want to recount. … Continue reading →

Simon Wren Lewis has a string of posts explaining what he describes as several ‘myths’ of ‘mediamacro’, and contrasting that with how he sees the true narrative of the financial crisis and the different governments’ conduct during it. I want … Continue reading →

The Conservative Party’s latest extra-manifestorial outburst that they would outlaw rises in certain taxes if they were elected takes the biscuit.  They have not been alone in electorally-motivated and economically inexplicable tax gestures – the Labour Party have indulged too … Continue reading →