I am glad I am not rich! If I were, I would be subjected to bombardment by the financial services sector, attempting to sell me fancy products just when they are going out of style. The plumbing of financial services is very apparent: as far as possible you want to get to the source of […]

Since the middle 1990s, investors and entrepreneurs have focused almost solely on the youth market, generating endless devices and amusements for youth. Many of these (smartphones, for example) older people can use only with difficulty, because of limited eyesight or coordination. This has been demographically foolish and has increasingly stymied economic growth. The real opportunity, […]

Prime Minister Liz Truss’s £150 billion subsidy to energy consumers is yet another economically foolish policy, of a type that have been regrettably predominant since Lord Liverpool left office in 1827. For a country where previously sound policies had produced the Industrial Revolution, Britain has developed a remarkable propensity to shoot itself in the foot […]

Edward Chancellor’s admirable “The Price of Time” (Allen Lane, 2022) demonstrates clearly that interest rates are a matter of time preference; lenders charge interest because $1 today is worth more than $1 in say two years’ time. That is all very well, but at present, with markets heading downwards, interest rates heading upwards and interest […]