Last night, Greece delivered new proposals to their creditors that appear to cut even deeper than those rejected by the Greek people last Sunday. In exchange for another three-year bailout loan, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras has proposed savings of €13bn in reforms. Tspiras has tried to stand firm in his rejection of austerity at… [Read More]
Yesterday, Professor Will Stewart’s team from the Institution of Engineering and Technology recommended a surprising update to the 999 emergency service. In the age of the smartphone, with the majority of young and middle aged people using texts or their equivalents such as Snapchat or Facebook messenger, Professor Stewart argues that the young, increasingly being… [Read More]
David Cameron and George Osborne kicked off the pre-Budget weekend with an article last Saturday promising to support home ownership. “Having your own place is an important stake in our economy,” they wrote in The Times. “It’s also one of the best expressions of the aspirational country we want to build, where hard work is… [Read More]
British productivity has flat-lined since 2010 in a manner unprecedented in the post-war era. A worker in France will complete in four days what it takes a British worker to complete in five. We are 40% less productive than US workers and 20% less than the G7 average. British output per man hour improved under… [Read More]
Alternative for Germany (AfD), the party that was founded on the basis of middle-class intellectual criticism of the single currency, has ousted its academic leader Bernd Lucke in favour of Frauke Petry. Previously Petry, Lucke and Konrad Adam shared power in an uncertain triumvirate, but co-founder Petry was voted to sole leadership by 68% of… [Read More]
After what seemed to be an everlasting series of meetings and 11th hour negotiations, Greece finally defaulted on its debt to the IMF this Tuesday. The European Union, set up to secure peace and prosperity across the continent, is experiencing quite the opposite. The IMF’s exhausted patience and Greece’s exhausting funds have created more chaos.… [Read More]
British banking has escaped disruption or any real dose of creative destruction for an astonishingly long time. Even after the financial crisis, five banks continue to dominate the financial market comfortably. Their size allows them to make mistakes (e.g. miss-selling PPI) with little real market repercussions. Battered reputations and low customer satisfaction rarely impact business,… [Read More]