Recession
Sir Andrew Motion, there’s much more to rural life than housing
Five years of living in squalid parts of London has made me appreciate my rural upbringing. I grew up on a small farm on the borders of West Sussex, Surrey… Continue reading
18 Comments
Whisper it, but the British economy may in better shape than you think... - Spectator Blogs
Doom and gloom is all around. This is another winter, if not of discontent, then certainly of persistent grumbling. Optimism is as rare as a Scottish victory at Twickenham and,… Continue reading
7 Comments
Worst recovery in history: British GDP shrinks by 0.3 per cent
Now we know why David Cameron delivered his Europe speech on Wednesday. It’s time for bad headlines again: the GDP figures just announced show that the British economy is contracting… Continue reading
100 Comments
Eurozone enters double dip recession
The Eurozone is now in recession – this, at least, is what is implied by today’s avalanche of dire economic data. Eurostat has not (yet) made this calculation; but Capital… Continue reading
13 Comments
Employment returns to pre-crash levels
Employment has almost entirely recovered to its pre-recession peak, according to today’s new figures. Total employment for May to July stood at 29.56 million — up 236,000 on the previous… Continue reading
21 Comments
City retribution
When City AM editor Allister Heath was leaving the BBC’s Westminster studios on Friday, the last thing he would have expected was to be ‘arrested’. Out popped an overexcited viewer… Continue reading
11 Comments
Balls’s argument is detached from reality
So who killed the recovery? Ed Balls points to a ‘recession made in Downing St,’ and has gone on a victory tour today. ‘I have consistently warned David Cameron and… Continue reading
36 Comments
Britain’s longest downturn
As of today, we now have four years’ worth of GDP figures since the UK first went into recession — and they don’t look pretty. By this point in the… Continue reading
25 Comments
The economy adds to Cameron’s woes
This morning brought the economic news that the coalition has been dreading: the country has double dipped. Now, this is based on preliminary figures which may well be revised up.… Continue reading
26 Comments
Our economy fell back into recession
Or at least technically-speaking it did. The figures released this morning suggest that the economy shrank by 0.2 per cent in the first quarter of this year, which is the… Continue reading
29 Comments
The recession: four years and counting
It is now four years since recession hit the UK. It took just over three years for GDP to return to pre-recession levels in the much milder downturns of the… Continue reading
15 Comments
Bringing the squeeze into focus
The ‘word of the year’ for 2011 is already featuring prominently in 2012. Yep, the ‘squeezed middle’ is the focus of the Resolution Foundation’s latest report, which they launched in… Continue reading
14 Comments
Osborne visits China, but can’t escape Europe
Yet another day here in Westminster that’s all about the economy. Nick Clegg has just delivered a speech on the subject to Mansion House, focusing on ‘responsible capitalism’, which we’ll… Continue reading
15 CommentsBehold post-Putin Russia
Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Russia marked the beginning of the end of the Putin era. It won’t feel like it for another few years, as the Russian strongman ascends to… Continue reading
8 CommentsThose gloomy OECD projections in full
Thanks to the tremors along Westminster’s grapevine, we already knew that today’s OECD Economic Outlook would make for pretty dreary reading. But now that the report is actually out, we… Continue reading
7 CommentsCable can’t make any promises
Did you realise that today is the first anniversary of the government’s Spending Review? Neither did I until the politicians started making a fuss about it, starting with Vince Cable… Continue reading
11 CommentsEuro-zonked
Well, so much for that. The FTSE 100 fell as much as 1.7 per cent this morning, while overnight the euro and Asian stock markets tumbled, after Europe’s leaders announced… Continue reading
14 CommentsTime for the QE gamble, again
It’s time to warm up the printing presses. When growth evaporates and governments feel politically unable to cut spending or raise taxes, there’s only one tool left: printing more money.… Continue reading
32 CommentsDarling lifts lid on Brown’s chaotic government
Tieless, Alistair Darling appeared on Marr this morning to discuss his memoir. As with so many of these New Labour autobiographies, there was the strong whiff of a therapy session.… Continue reading
40 CommentsShaking our faith in money
Addictive though the hacking inquiry is, the average Brit is probably more worried about the slow decimation of his spending power at a time when salaries are flat. Against this… Continue reading
72 Comments