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Stumbling and Mumbling: The right's "woke" capitalism problem
Whatever happened to the right's faith in market forces? I ask because of their complaints about "woke capitalism" after Coutts refused Nigel Farage's custom. Farage says: I find it extraordinary that in modern corporate Britain, being seen to be politically...
Stumbling and Mumbling: Fiscal conservatism, economic radicalism
Sir Keir Starmer has ruled out significant rises in public spending under a Labour government. He's partly right. What his supporters and many critics fail to appreciate, however, is that a tight fiscal stance is wholly consistent with some very...
Stumbling and Mumbling: On being conservative
Katherine Birbalsingh recently tweeted something insightful: "Having small c conservative values" is not political. Many lefties have them. True. I think of myself as one of these. The conservative disposition, wrote (pdf) Michael Oakeshott, "is averse from change, which appears...
Stumbling and Mumbling: What the people want
Years ago, before the Great Forgetting, economists knew that people's preferences often did not originate with themselves but were instead cultivated by producers themselves. Inspired by Vance Packard's best-selling 1957 book, The Hidden Persuaders, J.K. Galbraith wrote: Production fills only...
Stumbling and Mumbling: Lee Anderson & the nature of politics
Lee Anderson's promotion to deputy chairman of the Tory party highlights an under-rated fact about politics - one which perhaps the right understands instinctively better than the left. Defenders of his elevation claim that Anderson represents interests and ideas that...
Stumbling and Mumbling: Cargo cult economics
In the first pages of After Virtue Alasdair MacIntyre imagines people trying to revive science after it has been destroyed by catastrophes and know-nothing governments. They would, he said, have only fragments to build upon; bits of theories unrelated to...
Stumbling and Mumbling: Why economists need history
Should economists pay more attention to intellectual history? I'm prompted to ask by Jan Eeckhout's book, The Profit Paradox. His thesis is that, since the early 80s, many industries have become dominated by a handful of superstar companies whose increased...
Stumbling and Mumbling: Tories' structural stupidity
There’s widespread dissatisfaction at the low intellectual quality of the Tory leadership contest, with no candidate having any answer to our long-term productivity stagnation or cost of living crisis. As Phil says, they are “lightweights with no answers to the...
Stumbling and Mumbling: (Non) lessons of the fiasco
All of us tend to interpret political events as confirming our prior beliefs. We must, however, resist this temptation when thinking about the now-reversed Kwarteng/Truss Budget. There are two interpretations of this fiasco which are not as robust as you...
Stumbling and Mumbling: Energy bills: rentiers vs entrepreneurs
Everybody knows that soaring utility bills will plunge millions of people into desperate poverty in the autumn. Even those who don’t care about those on low incomes, however, should worry – because such huge price rises are a threat to...
Stumbling and Mumbling: Capitalism's self-preservation society
Here are three recent items: - E.On boss Michael Lewis calls for “very substantial" government help with fuel poverty. - CBI Director-General Tony Danker says the government must “help people facing real hardship now” - Some “patriotic millionaires” want higher...