Heresy of the week: Don’t read to your kids – it might give them an unfair advantage
The evidence that the home environment has a huge impact on educational and economic outcomes has become impossible to ignore
The unhappy result of America’s trade in happy pills
The reason why heroin use is falling in Europe but rising in the USA.
How the betrayal of aspiring homeowners wrecked the economy
The big economic story of our times is one of a cascade of economic and social distortions that have pushed up property prices, damaged productivity… and enriched those who haven’t earned it
Guess what the case for the London ‘Super Sewer’ is full of
Technological progress should encourage us to build smarter and faster, not necessarily bigger
Why I stand by the oil price prediction that I got completely wrong
Will oil prices rebound? I wouldn’t bet my house on it, but western governments shouldn’t take the current fall for granted.
Heresy of the week: Eliminating the deficit is the same thing as paying down our debts
It’s the debt-to-GDP ratio that counts when it comes to assessments of national solvency
Uh-oh, Belgium is getting interesting again
It’s not just the ‘peripheral’ members of the Eurozone who are suffering.
Mental illness: How we emptied the hospitals and filled up the prisons
The policy of ‘care in the community’ has become one of care in the penitentiary – not that ‘care’ is really the word
We ought to build more homes, but can young workers afford to buy them?
Affordability isn’t just a matter of property prices. Young people also need to earn enough to pay rent, save for a deposit and then keep up with mortgage payments.
Will UKIP actually change anything?
UKIP is, in both form and function a conventional political party
Heresy of the week: The fight for the Union has only just begun
No amount of further devolution is going to satisfy the SNP’s new supporters if they still end up with austerity
Oh good, the EU’s got a project to build an artificial human brain
This may sound like the plot of a sci-fi horror movie aimed at UKIP voters, but it’s actually happening.
Perhaps the voters aren’t so stupid after all
Political smart-arses should stop taking ordinary voters (and non-voters) for fools
Popular support for capitalism can’t be taken for granted
Ultimately, the fight for free markets comes down to emotion not economics, the heart not the wallet.
How and why should we tax land?
If an obviously flawed proposal like the mansion tax can get a hearing, one has to ask why there is so little political interest in Land Value Taxation