Author Archives: Tony Yates

Ben Chu kindly hosted and edited this version of an old blog post of mine on the Independent’s ‘Chunomics’ blog, explaining why think it was a bad idea for the Chancellor to let pensioners take their pensions as lump sums. … Continue reading →

Here are some grumbles about the current econ election debate. 1.  That the Coalition claim credit for the extraordinary job-creation.  This almost certainly had nothing whatsoever to do with Government policy.  Except by comparison to some counterfactual Government that would … Continue reading →

More of a question than a post. A while ago, after reading another interesting take on Italian politics describing the many failures of that state, which ascribed the 20 year-long stagnation in GDP/head to these, I wondered:  hasn’t it always … Continue reading →

Ben Bernanke’s new blog has gripped the Econternet. Bernanke has argued that the US economy is not experiencing secular stagnation.  Sooner or later, warranted real interest rates will rise above -2 per cent, and the Fed will be free to … Continue reading →

Mark Thoma sent round this interesting post from Cecchetti and Schoenholtz’s blog, [CS] asking whether 2% inflation targets were still appropriate.  In a nutshell, they argue that if central banks were starting over, they should pick a higher number.  But … Continue reading →

Karl Whelan commented on Twitter, after the ‘ruling out’ tax change competition was replayed on Newsnight, that this might be the worst general election campaign ever.  I think he and I are too young to comment on that authoritatively, but … Continue reading →

Despite the evident contradiction in further blogging, given my ‘why bother?’ post, I thought I would explain why I tweeted ‘er, no’ in response to a blog by Robert Peston [UK BBC Economics Editor] on issue of whether the zero … Continue reading →