Private finance initiative
Public investment is now prioritised according to whether it can be disguised by the private finance initiative: Goodhart’s Law has come into play once again.
Passes and returns
Dalglish arrives at Newcastle and Horlick moves to ABN Amro. The common theme: do teams, or individuals, capture the returns to outstanding performance?
A German lesson
The great German experiment teaches us a great deal. One of the lessons is that microeconomic policy is of critical important.
Investment quality
Does it matter if all of Britain's electricity generating companies are owned by Americans? Neither laissez-faire nor chauvinism is the appropriate response to foreign ownership.
A Theory of the Social Market
The communitarian view of politics and society - whereby our actions and views are inseperable from the communities in which we live - is not incompatible with mainstream economic thinking. Rather, it heightens our understanding of how markets work.
The Business of Economics – 1996
John combines common sense and rigorous economic thinking in a number of essays on business and economic issues - the competitiveness o...
What’s in a name?
What is a brand? Sometimes it is a quality certificate and sometimes, simply part of the product itself. It matters which.
The new Newspeak
George Orwell dissected the use of language in politics. He would have found a similar target in the language of business.
Now mind the gap
The Bank of England should get on with the job of setting interest rates and other monetary activities, and be held accountable for how well it performs. Instead, everyone wants to retain control over decisions while shedding responsibility for outcomes.
Happy combination
Core competencies is one of the most used and abused phrases in business strategy. But a proper understanding of the idea behind the jargon is essential