From Polly Toynbee tonight: The cost of the monarchy, though a hundred times the price of the modestly likeable Irish presidency, is counted not in palaces and royal trains, but in the fantasy of imperial power the crown bestows on British politics. Punching above our weight, we have just ordered a new Trident to cling
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Economia is the new magazine of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. I’m not overwhelmed with it, but it’s better than its predecessor. And sometime it comes up with an OK article. There was one on corporation tax and why over the last three years the UK’s created a system so riddled with holes the
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George Osborne has announced that he’s U-turned on the cap on charitable donations attracting tax relief for the rich. The cost will be £50 million of tax relief for the rich a year, with not a penny’s worth of gain to charity. In the meantime, and on the same day HMRC have announced: Six new taskforces launched this week by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC)
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In November 2011 Angel Gurria, the Secretary General of the OECD said something many would think quite extraordinary on the OECD blog. The edited highlights are: In general, we see three main ways to tackle inequality: promoting employment for all; enhancing access and performance in education and training at every level by investing in people’s
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I’m on the Jeremy Vine show at 12 today. (UPDATE AT 11.15: No I’m not – I’ve been replaced by Paul Krugman – I guess I can’t complain) The question is a simple one – should Europe bail out Spain? The answer is equally simply – yes, of course it should. The ‘why not’ position is Spanish
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In March 2000 lastminute.com was the last big IPO in the UK before the stock market crashed. Its share price over the next year went like this: Facebook has now gone from $38 to $29 in a week or so after its IPO. Is it the portent of a crash to come? It seems these things have
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There’s a fascinating article on the Tax Justice Network blog today on the subject of information exchange for tax purposes. I know that sounds hard to believe, but I mean it: not least because information exchange is key to tackling tax evasion that imposes and enormous cost – in excess of £1,000 a year each – on everyone in the UK.
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My publication of a chart on UK government debt ratios seems to have started some debate. One of the myths is that it is private debt that is the problem in the UK. I turn to Steve Keen for clarification. This is from his blog, with sources noted: Let’s be clear in that case, the problem is
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