CIPD – The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has questioned the government’s priorities on improving the UK’s productivity. Although the UK’s GDP has grown in recent years, this has been predominantly as a result of immigration increasing the size of the work force; productivity in terms of output per head has been more or […]
Continue ReadingIn an assessment of the world economy, the Economist paints a downbeat picture. World stockmarkets are in bear territory; gold (which improves when all else is looking bleak) has had its best start to a year in more than three decades; the cost of insurance against bank default has surged; talk of recession in America is […]
Continue ReadingA report from the BBC headlines the recommendations of a Westminster committee that the UK and Scottish governments should work more closely to support the creative industries in Scotland.
Continue ReadingUK productivity has been flat since the banking crisis and is now 14 per cent below the level that would have been achieved if pre-crisis trends had continued. Addressing this, it is hard to disagree with the government’s overall strategic framework for raising productivity. It covers 15 policy areas from long term investment in […]
Continue Reading“The UK faces a productivity challenge whereby its performance has weakened compared to the rest of the G8 economies. Research demonstrates that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a key under-tapped resource for addressing this challenge… We believe the education of high-growth small businesses has a vital role to play in enhancing this enterprising economy” …Michael […]
Continue ReadingIt’s breath-taking that the UK government can seek to reduce its own debt burden by transferring that same burden to small businesses – specifically to the most innovative of the UK’s SME sector… Driven by the exchequer’s target to cut the deficit, Innovate UK, under the department of business, innovation and skills (BIS) misguided leadership looks […]
Continue ReadingQuantitative easing (QE) is defined by Investopedia as “…an unconventional monetary policy in which a central bank purchases government securities or other securities from the market in order to lower interest rates and increase the money supply. Quantitative easing increases the money supply by flooding financial institutions with capital in an effort to promote […]
Continue ReadingMost people, businesses and governments want more money, but where does it come from? This question is addressed in a 2012 book published by the new Economics Foundation called simply “Where Does Money Come From?” In this treatise, the authors Richard Werner and his co-authors Josh Ryan-Collins, Tony Greenham and Andrew Jackson piece together information […]
Continue ReadingThis was one of the conclusions reported by Oxfam in January 2015 tying in with Credit Suisse’s Global Wealth Report for 2014, which showed that the 0.7% of the world’s people with assets more than $1m controlled 44% of all the world’s wealth. The Oxfam report goes on to show that in 2010, the very […]
Continue ReadingMark Berrisford-Smith, the Head of Economics for HSBC UK Commercial Banking, gave an insightful address to Buckinghamshire Business First’s Focus Funding event in High Wycombe last week. He opened with the comment that the next economic downturn is closer than the last and then went on to say that can’t be a surprise since the […]
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