It took a long time – most would say far too long – but it’s really happening now: the traditional banking industry is being properly disrupted. Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending has been growing fast, as has …
I wrote last week about the way in which the UK benefits system affects productivity. The basic case is that tax credits encourage those in low-income jobs to work part time rather than full time, …
There is a theory that demand for London proeprty is completely inelastic – it doesn’t matter what happens to prices or to taxes, people will just keep buying. It’s a tempting theory. But look at …
Got a student loan? Think you might pay it all back over the years? Well, silly you. Hardly anyone else is going to. Repayment rates on student loans have now fallen so low that the …
We are fascinated by the government’s sudden focus on in-work benefits. Regular readers of MoneyWeek and this blog will know that we have long been campaigning for workers to earn their income from their employers …
I’ve just written an editor’s letter for this week’s magazine on how economists don’t spend enough time thinking about the things they can’t measure – and why that’s a problem. I am not the only …
When it comes to fund management, small is beautiful I have written before about what makes a good fund manager. The answer is much more simple than you might think. It comes down to having …
When the Help to Buy scheme was first introduced in the UK, we were distinctly unimpressed. You can read our thoughts from two years ago here. Our main worry was simple: subsidising one group of …
Which would you rather have for £43m a year: one Martin Sorrell, CEO of advertising group WPP, or 650 British MPs? That’s the question Kate Burgess asks in the FT today. I suspect that most …
We should cap the 100% capital-gains tax exemption that applies to homes We’ve often written here about housing taxation, and said along the way that we’d like to see stamp duty dumped on the basis …