Marketplace
A European tragedy
‘No frightened rabbit could be more petrified than the European Union, for the Covid-19 crisis has hammered all its weakest points: its democratic deficit, the fragility of its solidarity, and—most dangerous of all—the inherent faults in its financial and economic structure’
Social democracy will struggle to retain political relevance
‘Parties of the Left may move back towards the political centre, but they will need a much better story to tell on the economy’
Our system is awash with debt. Austrian-school economics explains why
We are experiencing the side effects of a system that accommodates the perverse incentives of governments to spend, without paying any attention to other economic principles
The myth of ‘meritocracy’
‘Merit’ is a sham — paths that used to be available for the middle class have become blocked, and the gap between the one per cent and the rest is ever-widening
Financial flaws
‘You do not have to be a radical socialist to admit that since the financial crisis capitalism has failed to deliver the goods’
The £350 million wasn’t a lie — here’s why
‘Was the £350 million claim really a lie? Has our probable future Prime Minister indulged in tabloid-level mendacity?’
The Bocconi boys take on Keynes
‘If the Bocconi boys’ work is correct, three generations of macroeconomic textbooks should be binned and the fiscalist element in Keynesianism has become intellectual junk’
Debates that never die
‘The Brexit shambles could have been largely avoided if there had been from June 2016 a government which — unlike Theresa May’s — was 100 per committed to taking Britain out of the EU’
Maps and legends
‘Russia is governed by semi-deranged confidence men who dupe their fellow citizens into believing in their nation’s geopolitical greatness’
Splendid isolation
‘If it were true that “isolation costs jobs, costs growth, costs people’s livelihood”, New Zealand ought to be the poorest nation on the planet, and Australia shouldn’t be far behind’
Will the green agenda be killed off by the pandemic?
‘Will the green agenda be killed off by the longer-term coronavirus recovery? Or might the closure of so much business, and the cleaner air that results from planes not flying and factories not working, give us extra years to gain control of our environment?’
Why T.S. Eliot still matters
His contemporaries’ reputations have diminished. But Eliot’s has grown: he is the poet who shows us what can be saved from the ruins
Music’s in the house
Rappers have found a role in lockdown: chronicling coronavirus with topical tunes. Most people, though, are rushing to the safety of the past