Author: |Posted: 4:33 pm on 30/06/09
Category: Faisal Islam on Economics
If there are green shoots appearing in the economy, then the slugs have started to munch them.
A shock fall of 2.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2009 is the worst quarter-on-quarter fall since 1958. The annual fall in the economy of -4.9 per cent of GDP is the largest since records began in 1948.
In fact, have a look at the historical attempts (Labour Market Trends 2003 with the help of Thelma Leisner) to create annual GDP figures, and that number is the worst peacetime number since 1926 and 1931.
So in the year to March the economy was collapsing at the fastest peacetime rate for 75 years. Alongside those years it is basically the joint worst peacetime figure since 1900. If you are under the age of 77, you have never had it so bad.
Author: |Posted: 10:59 am on 15/06/09
Category: World News Blog
TEHRAN, IRAN – Whenever the riot police charge, waving their batons, with their shields to the fore, people run down the streets to escape.
The black-clad riot squad move in phalanxes on motor-bikes, riding up on the pavements, swiping at passers-by. You don’t have to be a protestor to get hit. read more
Author: |Posted: 6:18 pm on 22/05/09
Category: Faisal Islam on Economics
I’ve just been in Liverpool with Monetary Policy Committee member Andrew Sentance. He told me it wasn’t helpful to talk about green shoots at the moment – instead, we should be looking for an indication that things are bottoming out (see the clip below).
Author: |Posted: 10:10 am on 20/05/09
Category: Snowblog
I first set eyes on Gordon Brown at Edinburgh University in 1970.
We were both involved in student protests in our respective universities and I’d been invited from Liverpool University to give a talk to him and his fellow protesters on the campus in Edinburgh.
