Sean O'Grady



Profile:
Full name: Sean O'Grady

Area of interest: Economics, Finance, Private investment, Motoring

Journals/Organisation: The Independent | The Independent on Sunday

Email: [mailto:s.ogrady@independent.co.uk s.ogrady@independent.co.uk] | http://seanogrady.co.uk/page4.htm

Personal website: http://seanogrady.co.uk

Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/biography/sean-o-grady

Blog: http://blogs.independent.co.uk/author/seanogrady

Representation:

Networks: https://twitter.com/_SeanOGrady | http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/sean-o-grady/30/120/615



Biography:
About: http://seanogrady.co.uk/page2.htm

Education:

Career: Worked for: the BBC; the NatWest Group; Shell; was press secretary to Paddy Ashdown (when Lib-Dem leader); joined The Independent: in charge of the Motoring and Save & Spend sections, Economics editor Current position/role: The Independent: Deputy Managing Editor (former Economics editor); also writes motoring reviews


 * also writes/has written for:

Other roles/Main role: A former advisor to Paddy Ashdown

Other activities:

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Viewpoints/Insight:

Broadcast media:

Video:

Controversy/Criticism:
 * Medialens: Forbidden Links: Media, Advertising, Corporate Power And Climate Chaos (Criticism by media-watch project over stance on SUV's and the environment.)

Awards/Honours:

Scoops:

Other:



Books & Debate:


Latest work:

Speaking/Appearances:

Debate: 

The Independent:
Column name:

Remit/Info:

Section:

Role: Deputy Managing Editor

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:s.ogrady@independent.co.uk s.ogrady@independent.co.uk]

Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/biography/sean-o-grady

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Varies

Regularity: Varies

Column format:

Average length:


 * see also: Econoblog



Articles: 2017

 * The Tories are giving up on austerity – at a time when we need it most - The great British public are dancing round the Magic Money Tree in some kind of Glastonbury inspired pagan ritual, willing it to bear fruit, dissolve the mortgage and get them a new Honda - 2nd July
 * Jeremy Corbyn sacking rebel frontbench MPs proves he would make a great Prime Minister - Even when they’re split, Labour somehow manages to evince an air of calm and, in the case of Corbyn, a prime ministerial decisiveness - 1st July
 * It might not be popular, but Brexit has made the public sector pay cap necessary - We endured austerity for a reason, and the coming of Brexit makes an even more powerful and unavoidable one for continuing austerity. Tired of austerity? Tough - 29th June
 * I voted for Brexit. But a year on, it looks less and less appealing - Jeremy Corbyn should promise a vote on the final deal. It's the only way the country can get through the shambles created by the Leave campaign - 24th June
 * Theresa May's inability to show emotion to the public proves that she isn't fit to be Prime Minister - Of course she has heart, but she doesn't think it's as important as a cool head in a crisis. Fine, but that's not what politics is about, or at least not in this political age - 18th June
 * After the NHS cyber attack from North Korea, Donald Trump is our only hope of taming the rogue state - It is getting more urgent as every nuclear missile launch becomes more sophisticated, accurate and longer-ranging - 17th June
 * Jeremy Corbyn could be forming his own government within weeks – and without another election - The only stable and certain thing we have to look forward to is that the instability and uncertainty we are now experiencing will be permanent - 14th June
 * Jeremy Corbyn could be forming his own government within weeks – and without another election - The only stable and certain thing we have to look forward to is that the instability and uncertainty we are now experiencing will be permanent - 13th June
 * This is how Corbyn could become Prime Minister in six steps - Kick Theresa May when she's down. She'd do the same to you. Keep taunting her with "strong and stable"; make jokes about the DUP; ask where Nick and Fiona, her disastrous advisers are these days - 11th June
 * It’s not over yet – Jeremy Corbyn could still become Prime Minister - Given his momentum and the taste of the British public for giving the establishment a kick up the jacksie, I’m guessing we won’t have to wait long for another election. It would not take much for Corbyn to take power - 9th June
 * Now we’ve got one, here’s how to make the best of a hung parliament - The parties and the voters need a rest. So no votes on fox hunting or plans for grammar schools or a dementia tax – and no hard Brexit. No coalitions or deals are needed in the short run - 9th June
 * Spare me the racist, misogynist rants about Diane Abbott – we all know Boris Johnson is far more incompetent - The tendency for interviewers to try to catch out politicians is getting tedious, because it’s all a game. The simple fact is that Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn have a more sensible, compassionate and secure plan to combat terrorism. And when I see Boris Johnson clowning around the spin rooms, I wonder what his expensive education was in aid of - 7th June
 * Why both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn should pray that they lose this election (by a whisker) - Circumstances mostly beyond the control of either of the two candidates for prime minister will push Britain towards recession, lower living standards and, most terrifyingly of all for a politician, a house price crash - 6th June
 * Corbyn, winning a TV debate won’t secure you the election – just ask Ed Miliband - The former Labour leader, in his ‘hell, yeah’ moment, did better than expected in the TV debates. He still failed in the 2015 election, to prevent the Conservatives winning their first overall majority since 1992 - 30th May
 * Young people, enough about my generation mugging you off with Brexit – now’s your chance to mug me - All the parties are standing on a platform that's skewed against older voters anyway, so take your pick. But try not to let your granny-bashing reach a fever pitch – we never did it to the generation above us - 28th May
 * A political truce during a general election campaign only hands power to the terrorists - If normal democratic activity can be suspended or disrupted via a bomb, that simply offers an incentive to those who seek to interfere with our way of life - 25th May
 * The most vile aspect of Katie Hopkins' Manchester tweet? She's doing exactly what Isis wants her to do - Not for the first time, Katie Hopkins may well have revealed herself to be foolish, ignorant (in the literal sense), and a bit of an extremist herself. But the conversation doesn't end there - 24th May
 * This is how Donald Trump's presidency will crumble in the next year - Sooner rather than later, Comey will tell Congress and the special prosecutor precisely what passed between himself and Trump on the subject of the Russians – and it won’t be nice. - 19th May
 * After the inevitable impeachment of Donald Trump will come President Mike Pence – and it won't be so bad - Pence, by contrast to Trump, is cautious, conservative and conventional – and plainly 'one of us' to the Republican elite - 18th May
 * It's not time to rejoice that Macron won – it's time to question why Le Pen nearly did - Jean Marie Le Pen barely added to his vote in the second round of voting when he challenged Jacques Chirac back in 2002, but his daughter has succeeded in broadening her party's appeal markedly. Who is to say that this is the high point and the end of the story? - 8th May
 * Ukip is finally dead – and the Tories battered us all while killing it - David Cameron put party before country in those panicky days in late 2012 and early 2013 when he got spooked by the Ukippers, and now we see a Tory party successful at the expense of the broader nation’s interests - 6th May
 * With her comments on the EU, Theresa May has gone full Trump - When in a tight corner make up some half-baked conspiracy theory to distract everyone from some gaffe policy flop of your own. In this case it would be the failure of the Brexit talks before they’ve even started - 4th May
 * Yes, Diane Abbott's LBC interview was awkward – but she doesn't deserve your onslaught of abuse - She has done some hypocritical things and some of her policies are wrong. But she does not deserve the vicious kicking she is getting now nor the unrelenting racism that has long filled the comments sections of political websites - 3rd May
 * The Tories dropped by 10 points in the polls in the first week of the campaign. That could grow as the public gets to know Theresa May - May wants to fight on Brexit and leadership: the voters want a wider debate. Even prime ministers with overwhelming press support cannot dictate the agenda - 2nd May
 * Theresa May says the 27 EU countries are 'lining up to oppose' Brexit Britain – has she forgotten that that's how a union works? - Here’s some perspective from a marginal Leave voter from last June (me). In the longer run it will be good for the UK to drop its illusions about Europe – and that counts for Remainer illusions as well as Brexiteer ones. The EU is an unreformable nightmare – but we will suffer the negative consequences of leaving for possibly decades to come - 29th April
 * Trump’s first 100 days: Here’s why the President has proved far better than expected - The US constitution has proved its worth by demonstrating the power of Congress (over Obamacare) and the courts (over the Muslim travel ban) to restrain an imperial presidency - 27th April
 * Whatever Tim Farron thinks about homosexuality, his view on Brexit is more important - If anything I have been a little more disturbed about Farron's Europhilia than his alleged homophobia precisely because he doesn't seem homophobic, but he is a bit evangelical about the EU - 24th April
 * Here's why this general election matters more than any other in a generation - Boring? Yes. Heading for a poor turnout? Yes. But this vote is the most important we’ve seen in decades - 22nd April
 * Here are the 10 steps that could take Jeremy Corbyn to Downing Street - Some Tory MPs have dubious links with business or outside earnings that are embarrassingly large. An open goal for Labour - 21st April
 * General election: Theresa May has handed us our final chance to stop Brexit - The Prime Minister has given Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP the one attractive policy they need to fight a successful election campaign – an approach to Europe that is backed by at least half the country, and now possibly more - 18th April
 * The Sun is endangering its own future by indulging Kelvin MacKenzie - MacKenzie represents the golden era of The Sun, the time when it believed it could make or break governments and opposition parties and did its best to do so - 16th April
 * Compulsory exercise at work, with financial incentives and penalties, is a good idea whether you like it or not - Those endorphins I hear so much about would soon 'kick in' during your after-work sessions, and you’ll then associate pain with pleasure. After all, that is basically the effect your monthly pay cheque has. And this will save the NHS money along with it - 6th April
 * The battle with Spain over Gibraltar shows that many still live in the great shadow of the British Empire - The UK will also need to be mindful of its other associated territories that aren't in the EU but may be affected by Brexit. These include the crown dependencies of the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey plus the remaining possessions from Bermuda to the Falklands to the Pitcairn Islands - 2nd April
 * I voted for Brexit, but now Article 50 has been triggered I want a second referendum - I may still vote Leave, but I demand a vote on the deal, whatever it is, that Davis, Johnson and Fox bring back from Brussels. The fact is that Article 50 is reversible in the worst case scenario - 29th March
 * I spent a day at the first Momentum conference – and I still didn't convert to Corbynism - I did warm to the Momentumites. I liked the people – even though one called me ‘the enemy’ when he spotted my press badge, and his missus ran over my foot with her mobility scooter - 26th March
 * London attack: This is the new, low-tech face of modern terrorism - The terrorists on our streets no longer need sophisticated plans or complex, costly equipment to kill and seriously injure people - 23rd March
 * London attack: This is the new, low-tech face of modern terrorism - The terrorists on our streets no longer need sophisticated plans or complex, costly equipment to kill and seriously injure people - 22nd March
 * This is what Scottish independence could actually look like - Independence for Shetland and Orkney, a new political party, a hard border and a brand new currency are all possibilities – and this is how they'd work - 21st March
 * How to lose the second Scottish referendum in five easy steps - Insult them, patronise them, and terrify them - 18th March
 * When the Turkish foreign minister says 'holy wars will soon begin in Europe', he has a point - If a Dutch politician had been refused entry to attend some gig in Istanbul, what would Western commentators have made of that? The Turks are right to be aggrieved, and are right to call into question the real dedication of “mainstream” Western parties to the very values they purport to hold dear - 17th March
 * Far from virtuous unicorns, a lot of the self-employed are morally bankrupt – Hammond's right, they should pay up - They drive their white vans on the same roads as employees, they use the NHS the same as their employed neighbours, and their children go to school in the same academies that the offspring of wage slaves attend. Why on earth do they think they shouldn’t contribute? - 11th March
 * Is Donald Trump really the ultimate dealmaker? He may have met his match in Pyongyang - North Korea edges ever closer to be being able to nuke the US. “Not gonna happen”? It will and soon unless President Trump does something very bold - 7th March
 * Ukip is about to follow the Leicester City model of glorious victory followed by bitter defeat - The people of Stoke have reason to feel they have been “'left behind'. Ukip should have walked it. Instead, Nuttall’s blundering campaign has left the party floundering - 21st February
 * We need a Leveson-style inquiry into racist and sexist online abuse - You only need to take a stroll around the comment sections to see the sort of stuff chucked at Diane Abbott or Chuka Umunna or Keith Vaz. It is, frankly, sickening racism, these 'comments' – the 21st century equivalent of the Nazis' Der Sturmer - 20th February
 * We can survive outside of the EU when it comes to trade – the shipment of Californian lettuces prove this - The Common Agricultural Policy does somewhat cramp our style when shopping around world markets. For decades before the British joined the European Community in 1973 we had a magnificent tradition of sourcing cheap foodstuffs from all over the world - 7th February
 * Bannon is right, a war could break out in the South China Sea. Perhaps it’s time for Trump to look it up on a map - It would be foolish to underestimate the red mist that descends on even the most moderate Chinese patriot when faced with any challenge to China’s territorial integrity - 3rd February
 * It will be Mexicans paying for Trump's wall, not Brooklyn hipsters eating avocado brunch – sadly - By the time a Mexican avocado gets to a New York deli to go into a brunch, it will be there competing for its place on the plate with other avocados from all over the world. Another 12 cents cannot be added without a loss of sales and this is paid for by the Mexican farmer, out of his profits - 26th January
 * If they really want British businesses to thrive, our MPs should block Brexit - The Government risks undermining the positives in the industrial strategy proposals it has unveiled by exiting the single market - 24th January
 * British people marching against Donald Trump need to get a sense of perspective – he is not our problem - I fully concede, indeed am painfully aware, that what President Trump says and does affects the rest of the world. However, we are going to have to get used to him and get along with him; we need to persuade not hector - 24th January
 * Donald Trump undermined democracy as soon as he was sworn in as US President - People have always regarded politicians as ‘in it for themselves’, but this is different. Trump did not just take down individual politicians, but the whole political class – and the political system that put him where he is - 21st January
 * There are solid reasons to be optimistic about the presidency of Donald Trump – even for liberals - You have to concede that Trump's policies may work. His version of Reaganomics may be what America needs – and a detente with Russia makes the world safer for all of us - 21st January
 * Get real, the reason why Donald Trump is ‘soft’ on Russia has nothing to do with sexual exploits or spies - Trump simply doesn’t see that Putin is a threat to the United States, or its values for that matter, and never has. What’s more, they agree that Isis is the most virulent of the many diseases afflicting the Middle East’s body politic - 12th January



Articles: 2016

 * Boris Johnson doesn't deserve our mockery for calling out Saudi Arabia – he deserves our admiration - For the liberal critics of Boris Johnson the hypocrisy is astonishing; our Foreign Secretary is merely saying exactly what they have been urging every representative of HMG to say since time immemorial - 9th December
 * Time Person of the Year is selected on the basis of power and influence, not likeability - If it was about being nice, or good, or holy, then Time’s person of the Year would year-in-year-out be a dull run of moral philosophers, religious leaders and blameless teachers - 7th December
 * These six elections are set to change Europe forever - Inspired by Donald Trump, the right, in all its varieties, is on the march. Here are the key election results to look out for in 2017 - 1st December
 * Will 2017 be the year of the 'Great Housing Crash'? - A buy-to-let bust, lower incomes, Brexit and homeowners failing interest rate stress tests could mean that the bubble is about to burst - 1st December
 * Why does the British left still worship Fidel Castro as a hero? - Castro was an enemy of a free press and free trade unionism. So what if he made the trains run on time? - 27th November
 * Brexit won't happen because Britain doesn't need it anymore. Here's why - Desperate for some reassurance on the future of Europe? Just watch as the next chapter begins - 23rd November
 * If you think spending £369m on the royals isn't worth it, remember how the Queen could sweeten a post-Brexit deal with Trump - £369m, is, oddly, about the same amount of money that the Brexiteers said would be available for the NHS rather than the EU budget if we left the European Union. And it's a price worth paying – even for the taxpayer - 22nd November
 * President Obama should pardon Hillary Clinton as his last act – it would do Donald Trump a huge favour - A pardon for Clinton would be the least the executive branch could proffer to her. It is a matter of natural justice. Without one the email allegations will politicise the judicial process - 20th November
 * Six reasons why Barack Obama would have beaten Donald Trump in 2016 - The Democrats had the perfect candidate ready and waiting, and at a mere 55 years of age, and the tempting audacity of a third term - 11th November
 * The global financial destruction that will happen under President Trump has already begun - The election of President Trump is seeing a huge sell-off of dollar assets against almost everything else except the Mexican peso. And remember it's not just the American currency; it's the world currency. If a Trump presidency destabilises the dollar then it will destabilise the entire global economy - 10th November
 * The fate of M&S tells you everything you need to know about modern Britain - The ‘haves’ are travelling BA Club World class, driving a Range Rover Evoque and popping down to Waitrose and M&S Simply Food for their weekly shop. The people Theresa May says are ‘just managing’ have to spend their cash carefully - 9th November
 * This is how putting Donald Trump in the White House would wreck the world economy - The great dollar crisis of 2017 will follow the banking crisis and the great Recession – and it will all be sparked by The Donald - 5th November
 * Hands off Mark Carney – if Brexit is to be a success we need him to stick around - The Governor of the Bank of England would have been slagged off just as badly if he had kept shtum over Brexit. He was damned if he did, damned if he didn’t - 31st October
 * As a Bregrexiteer, Tony Blair is right to call for a second referendum - The basic argument for a second referendum is sound, even to those of us who are still inclined to get the hell out of the EU - 29th October
 * Could Hillary Clinton start a world war? Sure as hell she could – and here’s how - You can condemn that semi-isolationist ‘America First'’mindset if you want, but the easiest way to prevent the next world war is simply to let the Russians have what they want, provided it makes no difference to you - 25th October
 * After her first 100 days in power, I’ve rated Theresa May on each of her successes and failures - Most of May’s challenges are related to Brexit – some she’s handled expertly, and others she’s completely fumbled - 21st October
 * Brexit means expensive Marmite, lost jobs and a housing crash – but I voted for it and it's worth the pain - The wasn't the message that Leave campaign gave to the voters, but it is the harsh truth – Brexit is for pessimists - 13th October
 * We are facing the possibility of a second Cold War – and if it happens, Isis will never be defeated - Every conflict during the Cold War was fought by armies or insurgents working on behalf of the Americans, Russians, or, occasionally the Chinese: Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Angola and the list goes on. These countries would use proxies again, but with a higher death count, in the 21st century - 13th October
 * Eventually Colombia, like Northern Ireland, will have to talk to its terrorists - Northern Ireland’s peace agreement, as with the Colombian deal, is far from perfect democratic politics. Allowing extremist groups a vested hold on jobs and power is not exactly pure – but it is better than the alternative - 5th October
 * Theresa May at 60: finally, the cult of political youth has been slain - Having lived through good times and bad, today’s political leaders are perhaps more inclined to follow Rudyard Kipling’s famous dictum to ‘meet with triumph and disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same’ - 1st October
 * The six things Labour can do now to avoid electoral Armageddon - Try attacking the Tories instead of each other. Seems obvious, but this has been rather neglected in recent months - 25th September
 * If cyclists want to stay safe on the roads, then they need to respect motorists - Cyclists are vulnerable – and all the more reason then for them to obey red lights, to stay off pavements, to avoid undertaking and to stop taking chances by squeezing through impossibly small gaps in the traffic - 19th September
 * Labour MPs, stop whining like bad losers – these boundary changes could actually be good for you - Start reaching out to the Tory, Ukip, Scottish Nationalist and Lib Dem voters you are about to inherit in formerly solid seats. These changes will force the party back to the centre ground and a competitive position - 13th September
 * We view dictators with comedy to pacify our ignorance of their crimes - Why do we regard so many despots and dictators as jokes? Why do we remember Benito Mussolini as a posturing fat fantasist rather than the man who dropped blistering mustard gas on 100,000 Ethiopians? - 10th September
 * I never liked Keith Vaz, but now I pity him – he's not a hypocrite and he doesn't deserve to be sacked - There are worse things to be caught doing, there really are, than a few poppers and rent boys. The right thing for Vaz’s colleagues to have done would have been to punish him quietly as they gather for their sessions on the select committee: ‘Hey Keith, my washing machine won’t go on full spin – any ideas?’ - 7th September
 * TTIP's 'failure' gives us a clue about Britain's post-Brexit trading future - Anti-business sentiment is often facile and hypocritical, or worse, but TTIP just offers up too many egregious potential abuses to be comfortable with - 29th August
 * Bank holidays are outdated, miserable and inconvenient: let's scrap them - A Victorian invention, the bank holiday no longer suits the lives of most British families - 29th August
 * Jeremy Corbyn's attempt to mimic Lenin doesn't simply mean we should renationalise the railways - One day we may learn the truth about that trip to Gateshead. Until then, here are my conclusions - 24th August
 * Labour supporters aren’t Trotskyists, they are just misguided - The difference between now and the 1980s is that the very few Trotskyists around today have as their allies a much larger wedge of fed-up decent people who think Corbyn is the sort of principled man who will not let them down - 14th August
 * My vote to Leave has hit the economy – but falling growth and low interest rates are good for Brexit Britain - A weak pound, helped along by the Bank's policy of making sterling less attractive as place to park savings, is absolutely essential if we are to make Brexit work - 5th August
 * Newsflash, young people: owning your own home isn't a human right – your sense of entitlement won't solve this crisis - In other countries, notably Germany, the fetish of home ownership is nowhere near as developed as it is in this country, and they hardly suffer as a result. And if you can’t afford to live in London, either renting or buying, then don’t - 2nd August
 * It's time for pensioners to lose their sense of entitlement - With a, happily, ageing population and, very likely, lower immigration to redress our increasing demographic imbalances, the burden of the triple lock on the social security budget is getting heavy indeed - 1st August
 * Owen Smith would be so much worse than Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader – and not just because of his Leadsom-like naivety - Smith explicitly declares himself a Corbynite and says he supports Jeremy's principles and policies; he'd apparently just be a better advocate for them. Well, Owen, that's really not good enough - 21st July
 * Yes, Brexit has damaged the British economy – but I was still right to vote to leave the EU - There is no doubt about it: ‘Brexit means Brexit’ means pain – but the long-term picture is much brighter - 20th July
 * Theresa May will fall on her Brexit-lite sword within a year - and Boris Johnson will swoop in - Having satisfied neither side in her EU negotiations the blond bomber will make his second bid for Number 10, “putting nation first”, “rescuing Brexit”, quoting Churchill and all that - 12th July
 * What would have happened if Tony Blair hadn't taken us to the Iraq War? - There are three possible scenarios that could have played out... - 7th July
 * How to start a new Labour party in 10 simple steps - Open talks with Liberal Democrats on an electoral pact or confederation, but please don't stress about the name - 3rd July
 * Michael Gove and I once spent a day filming in an enormous sex shop – he'd make a fantastic Prime Minister - Someone will very shortly dig out the archive of Michael doing his 'piece to camera' in front of a troupe of gay men in leather shorts dancing round Soho, delivering the line 'Out, Loud and Proud…' as punchily as he could in his soft Aberdonian accent - 30th June
 * Even though we voted for it, a Brexit won't happen in the end. Here's why - I voted Leave - but looking at the reasons, it's undeniable that we'll stay in the European Union after all - 28th June
 * 10 reasons to feel positive after Brexit - Some poorer communities who were sacrificed for the good of the EU could become prosperous again; we probably would have been forced to join the euro eventually; and savings on the EU budget contribution are real - 26th June
 * Why I decided to vote Out of the EU while watching Euro 2016 - To understand the argument, you have to think of European national economies as if they were football teams. Each nation, within wide rules, should be able set its own strategy and tactics just the same - 22nd June
 * Stop blaming Brexit for Jo Cox’s death. Political violence is as old as time itself - Why are commentators implying that there's something especially corrosive, especially conducive to violent acts, about the EU referendum? - 18th June



Articles: 2015

 * It's time to copy Finland and give every citizen a basic income - As a flat universal benefit payable to all, there is little administrative cost; and there can be no “poverty traps” or “income traps”, because the benefit would not be scaled back as wages increase - 9th December
 * The Commonwealth is liberal, lefty and more needed than ever - Far from being a watered down continuation of Empire, with all the racism, violence and condescension associated with that, it has in fact evolved into rather a liberal, easygoing, multi-racial and multicultural organisation of equals - 30th November



Articles: 2014

 * Autumn Statement 2014: Whether the Tories are in charge next year or not, austerity will remain - None of the main parties have a reliable plan to fix our public finances - 4th December
 * So $100m is the price of justice for Bernie Ecclestone – we could learn from him - The case leads us into an interesting moral maze - 6th August
 * Ed Miliband's wreath was a mistake, but can we really call him unpatriotic? - Questioning a leader's allegiance has always been an easy way to tarnish their image - 4th August
 * Shopper’s view: Sweaty and frustrating - the Tesco experience - “Unexpected item in bagging area”. One of the most irritating phrases in modern life, of course - 22nd July
 * You think the NUS is left-wing now - you should have been there in the 80's - There are worse games for students to play than politics, in Oxford and anywhere else - 23rd May
 * What’s new? My class of 1980 got there first - 22nd May
 * Nigel Farage is making waves but he lacks a crucial quality in leadership: courage - If the Ukip leader knew his history he would have stood in the Newark by-election - 30th April
 * A divorce could be very costly if Alex Salmond runs off with Scotland - How will we carve up assets like the Bank of England, the BBC, the DVLA and the premium bond HQ? - 29th April
 * Want a mortgage? Then put up with being asked a few questions - Children of the Thatcher era need a better sense of social history - 28th April
 * Upmarket and downmarket – why the modern consumer loves a bit of both - The arrival of Aldi and Lidl have attracted value-conscious shoppers away from their traditional choice of supermarket - 18th April
 * Budget 2014: The changes to pensions are revolutionary - Scrapping all those rules about annuities will transform the lives of millions - 20th March
 * Bob Crow death: This trade union leader was different, rare and largely misunderstood - It was silly to loathe him for simply doing his job - 12th March
 * Sean O'Grady: who will fix the UK's grotesque housing situation? - If we don't like rich landlords then we can raise taxes on the rich generally, but it will be a brave politician who suggests it - 19th February
 * Over your dead body, Danny? Then it could be that the 40p tax rate kills you off - If the Tories make gains in 2015, Alexander and co will be in no position to negotiate - 6th February
 * Why is the unemployment news so good? Well, a lot of it stems from keeping wage rises to a minimum - Still, the question of a return to a more normal interest rate regime is in play - 23rd January



Articles: 2013

 * Mutual – the magic word that doesn’t mean so much - Do customers really fare better with a model like the Co-op bank's? - 23rd October
 * Royal Mail’s privatisation has been long delayed but it is welcome nonetheless - Life can be full of ironies. To make sure of meeting Tuesday night’s deadline I wanted to post an application for shares late on Friday night. When I got to the local pillar box it was blocked up - 8th October
 * Just thank the great cars we make (and the economy) - This country still dominates the top-end with products from likes of Land Rover, Jaguar, Bentley, Aston Martin and Rolls-Royce - 5th October
 * A tale of previous hits and misses – but I’m in for Royal Mail shares... - Once upon a time I was one of those people who refused to buy privatisation shares on the grounds that the Government (“wicked Tory” then as now being the usual adjectives attached to that phrase) was selling something that already belonged to me - 28th September
 * Keynes might have had time for the George Osborne plan - The target of Niall Ferguson's attack has also been traduced by economic convervatives - 6th May
 * Reinhart and Rogoff vs Herndon: the austerity maths doesn’t add up – but the theory does - It is impossible to tax your way out of a chronic level of debt run up by a government. There does come a point when taxing and borrowing no longer yields the results governments seek - 23rd April
 * How I wish I had got a piece of the Mongolian economic miracle - The country's economy is heading to be the world’s fastest-growing this year - 3rd April
 * We might try to shop the pain away, but far better to face it and save - Saving's sheer dullness can stop people taking care of their money - 1st March



Articles: 2012

 * When a ‘sacred’ text is not so much the word of God as the word of man - Christians accept the reinterpretation of Jesus in a way that Muslims can’t with Mohamed - 22nd September
 * Logic points inexorably towards political union - José Manuel Barroso is hardly the first European Commission President to call for a federation of..... - 13th September
 * The German authorities seem to favour management by crisis - My understanding is that, even now, there is as yet no final, definitive policy that has been developed in Frankfurt or Berlin - 3rd August
 * Life will be longer but poorer - We don't produce enough to pay for public services - 13th July



Articles: 2011

 * What kind of nation can't maintain its own roads? - The benefits of an efficient, fast road system accrue hugely to society as a whole - 20th March
 * will keep gold on a high, for now'' - Economic Studies: To all intents and purposes, gold is at an all-time high in its nominal price – now in excess of $1,900 an ounce in trading – and in real terms - 24th August
 * right kind of jobs will avert a new lost generation'' - It is impossible to think about the latest depressing figures on youth unemployment without remembering the riots - 18th August
 * a fool would call this a recovery'' - Economic Studies: It is a bad habit of economic journalism to focus hard on whether a given figure is marginally positive or marginally negative - 17th August
 * short-selling ban is short-sighted and could do more harm than good'' - Economic View: 'When I find a short-seller, I want to tear his heart out and eat it before his eyes while he's still alive." So said Dick "the Gorilla" Fuld, former boss of Lehman Brothers, before its downfall - 14th August
 * may not be as safeas you think, Mr Osborne'' - There is another danger closer to home, unacknowledged by the Chancellor; slow growth - 12th August
 * shouldn't have shot the messenger'' - Economic Studies: No matter what some agency may say," President Obama declared on Monday, "we've always been and always will be a triple-A country." Right and wrong, Mr President - 10th August
 * the US can't bail out the world, then who do we turn to? Mars?'' - So here we are. The debt endgame. The reckoning. The pain postponed is about be endured - 7th August
 * to top-rate tax are symbolic, not seismic'' - Purely in terms of the effects on government revenues and borrowings, moving the 50p rate to 45p in the pound will make little difference in the great scheme of things - 5th August
 * again, the lessons of Keynes are being ignored'' - After a brief but spirited revival, John Maynard Keynes has been put back in his box. A panicked world re-discovered the merit of the master's teachings when a re-run of the Great Depression loomed in the autumn of 2008 - 2nd August
 * reduction in America's credit rating will affect every person on the planet'' - Pretty much every bank, national treasury, pension fund, insurer and mutual investment fund in the world has got some money tied up in United States Treasury bonds - 1st August
 * to do with our 14-year-olds'' - When Digby Jones says that disruptive 14-year-olds should be allowed to quit school and "go out and earn a few bob", he ought to know that this is not really what they want - 27th July
 * rescue package was so warmly received because no one understood it'' - The UK's unfamiliar experiment with coalition government is delivering better results than the three great economic blocs - 25th July
 * deal ties Europe ever more closely – and leaves us on the margins'' - Analysis: The European project is much like riding a bicycle; the rider either pedals forward or falls over. The current sovereign debt crisis is forcing the pace of political integration in a way few thought possible - 23rd July
 * long-term gain, the EU will have to share the pain'' - So: will it work? Short term, it offers reassurance on three fronts - 22nd July
 * NHS is a religion and we'll all have to pay 'church tithes' to support its existence'' - Economic Outlook: Immigrants tend to be younger than the indigenous population, and that helps the demographics, crucial for fiscal health - 18th July
 * way out is for the eurozone nations to pay up'' - It was Sir Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, who put it best. The sovereign debt crises affecting so many of the eurozone nations are not of liquidity but of solvency - 13th July
 * Italians on the slow train to ruin'' - Il miracolo economico of the 1960s was possible because a vast reservoir of underemployed agricultural workers could be lured into the cities - 12th July
 * ladies are America's royals'' - Jackie Kennedy was the most regal, sometimes eclipsing the famous dynasty she married into - 11th July
 * can put the Great back in Britain'' - Ending immigration has never eliminated benefit fraud - 4th July
 * more people come to the UK, the better it is for us all'' - You may wonder what the latest population data might have to do with the wave of public strikes over pensions yesterday. The answer is: demographics - 1st July
 * wasn't like this when Michael Gove was on the picket line'' - I once stood on a picket line with Michael Gove. About 20 years ago we were working at the BBC - 29th June
 * to make the euro work'' - In the medium term, the best option would be for all the eurozone nations to hold themselves liable for each other's debts - 27th June
 * had no option in rush to prevent a horror show'' - The Greeks have everyone over a barrel, as the ECB, the French and the Italians see clearer than most - 17th June
 * all you want: the economic facts remain the same'' - The protesters in Athens can riot all they want, but they cannot alter the fundamental economic fact of their country – it is busted, mainly because it has been consuming more than it produces for many years - 16th June
 * choice between being run over by a lorry or a train'' - Analysis: The economists who object to George Osborne's policy are right and wrong. One reason for the financial crisis was that we saved too little to sustain investment and consumption at the levels we enjoyed. So we borrowed too much as a result - 6th June
 * Cross won't be the last private 'partner' to hit the rocks'' - As with the banks, so with care homes: some private enterprises are just too important to fail. Gordon Brown had to promise bank depositors their money was safe; now David Cameron has to make a similar promise to the residents of Southern Cross - 2nd June
 * generation has to learn that there's no God-given right to a home'' - The banking system is in no fit state to resume the borrowing binge seen in the bubble years - 31st May
 * a job for Europe's rock star'' - The IMF used to be an organisation in which the rich economies of the West bailed out the distressed economies of the emerging world. Now the position is precisely reversed - 20th May
 * charismatic intellectual who is no stranger to scandal'' - Dominique Strauss-Kahn will be a loss. The world recovery is fragile, its financial system still weak, and debt is a problem almost everywhere - 16th May
 * with Scotland would make for a messy divorce'' - Economic Outlook: The debt-to-GDP ratio of an independent Scotland might prove so large as to sink it financially before it was even born - 9th May
 * tips for bubble watchers: Ten signs of an impending bust'' - Economic View: Where will the next crash emerge from? I don't know, but I do know the past few years have challenged the efficient markets nostrum that you can never know a bubble until it bursts. Actually you can - 24th April
 * needs to get real before it is humiliated at the hands of the market'' - Economic Life: Debt is a hot topic on the US news channels but there is no sober expert taking you through how the US came to be where it is and what its options are - 22nd April
 * isn't the fault of food traders'' - Economic Studies: is food speculation really bad? We did not, for example, thank the traders for cutting the cost of food and other commodities in 2009 - 20th April
 * doomsday in Athens may help to stave off economic apocalypse'' - Analysis: The intelligent gossip in the markets is that Greek bond holders might face a "haircut" of 50 per cent - 19th April
 * pledge distorts the Coalition's spending choices'' - Economic Outlook: Had the Coalition listened to Mr Cable's initial advice, the pain in other areas might now be a little less acute - 18th April
 * all-too-real chance of an economic nightmare'' - As a collection of horror stories, the IMF's Global Financial Stability Report is right up there with the best of Edgar Alan Poe or Stephen King. Except, of course, that the IMF's tales have rather more chance of turning into terrifying reality - 14th April
 * good news for us and for the Chancellor'' - For a long time now, no advance "insider" knowledge has been necessary to guess what was happening to British inflation; it would usually be a lot higher than anyone expected - 13th April
 * risk is everywhere as the European debt crisis continues'' - The ECB's interest rate rise yesterday was badly timed and probably triggered Portugal's capitulation - 8th April
 * Spain fails, it will be too expensive to save'' - As the fourth largest economy in the eurozone a potential Spanish bailout has so far been too horrible for Europe's leaders to contemplate - 7th April
 * Britain really going to have to pay for the bailout?'' - The UK will indeed be liable for about £3bn in loan assistance to Portugal if she is bailed out – but there is confusion over why - 26th March
 * Britain a one speed recovery beckons – slow'' - It may well have been called the 'growth budget' but it contained some highly disappointing indicators - 24th March
 * has so far confounded all his critics'' - Only a short but eventful year ago, George Osborne was no one's idea of a chancellor. He routinely trailed Vince Cable and Alistair Darling in polls of the City, the public and business for competence - 23rd March
 * to get real about our crazy taxation system'' - Our graphic of the UK's chaotic system of taxation illustrates precisely what is wrong with it – it is erratic, irrational and unfair - 17th March
 * now this is a natural disaster. If it becomes nuclear, the economic fallout will affect us all'' - Serious nuclear contamination might make the Japanese – already inclined to save rather than spend – more fearful - 16th March
 * this together – but Mr Osborne should put women and children first'' - You can call it a patriarchal offensive if you wish; I would say it was an unfortunate accident of the way the economy happens to be structured - 14th March
 * means different things to different folk'' - Public sector unions are on their own if they want to fight the Hutton reforms. The reponse by Labour's shadow treasury minister Angela Eagle was thunderous in its ambiguity - 11th March
 * Issues: Stop moaning about your bank - just go somewhere else'' - Capitalism is an undemocratic system. Unlike democracy, some have more "votes" than others, because they own more shares in an institution, or because they have more to spend on certain things in certain places - 27th February
 * get jitters as oil price heads for the sky'' - Fears that the unrest in North Africa and the Middle East could seriously disrupt oil supplies and throttle the world economy turned to reality yesterday and propelled the price of oil to more than $108 a barrel - 23rd February See: Concerns over oil supply cause spike in prices as uprising hits exports
 * the jobs aren't there, the stick won't work'' - There is a big lie at the heart of the Government's welfare-to-work plan: that the reason people are unemployed and on benefits is because they prefer to be – what the Chancellor calls a "lifestyle choice" - 18th February
 * another squeeze on households will be felt across the whole economy'' - The truth is, we don't need the Office for National Statistics, the Bank of England or anyone else to tell us inflation is high – we feel it every time we fill up the car, do the weekly shop or buy a season ticket - 16th February
 * sorry Sir, but the dog ate my quarterly inflation and GDP forecasts'' - Mr King has been very unfortunate indeed; it's just hard to believe that anyone could bequite so unlucky - 14th February
 * plan arrives too late for economy'' - The most damning indictment of Project Merlin – the Government's deal with the banks that green-lights big bonuses in return for promises of more lending to businesses – is not so much that it is too little, but that it is too late - 11th February
 * City 'friends' may be in for a shock'' - George Osborne is not a stupid man, though often underestimated. He and Vince Cable know that nothing would be more damaging to the Coalition parties than a public perception, lovingly nourished by Ed Balls, that they are "The Bankers' Friends" - 9th February
 * troubles look likely to give us all a new 'oil shock''' - Analysis: In many ways events in Egypt are reminiscent of the Iranian revolution of 1979 - 31st January
 * real pain of the financial crisis is only just beginning'' - Well, what would you do if you were George Osborne? What would you do if you were Mervyn King? For both men, the dilemmas are exquisitely difficult - 26th January
 * is all our fury directed at Bob Diamond and the 'fat cat' bankers?'' - If we want to have a fair society we must face up to human nature and treat all rich the same - 14th January
 * isn't as bad as it feels, but it will be painful, all the same'' - At the risk of sounding like a Mervyn King stooge, you just can't make policy like that. A war in Korea would push up inflation. So would a scrap over Iran - 10th January



Articles: 2010

 * that coming over the hill?'' - Inflation, and lots of it. We know about Vat going up to 20 per cent on 4 January, but it's what's going to come after that should really worry us, for a depressed economy is no barrier to rising prices, as we will shortly see - 29th December
 * good news and the bad news after Britain's very old-fashioned slump'' - It doesn't take much imagination to see how higher rates would now be crucifying mortgage holders if we were suffering from a Greek-style crisis - 13th December
 * rise gives India the edge over one-child China'' - Economic View - 12th December
 * truth is that Mervyn King is the leader of the Bank of England Party'' - Economic Life: The Governor did cross an important line in May. If he agrees with the Coalition, as he has said, then he necessarily disagrees with Labour - 10th December
 * firms should give money back'' - It is one thing to be fleeced by a bank; quite another to be fleeced by a bank you actually own - 9th December
 * the rescue Eire's troubles really begin'' - The trouble with being rescued, as the Irish may discover, is that the people from the European Union or the International Monetary Fund who fly in to run your economy have no more a monopoly on wisdom than the "Useless gobshites" who have recently been relieved of that duty - 8th December
 * be fooled – the federalist agenda in Europe is still being slowly accomplished'' - Economic View - 5th December
 * won't win even if football does come home'' - Would hosting the 2018 World Cup be in the national interest? It is hard to be definitive, but talk of a boost to the economy should be taken with a pinch of salt - 2nd December
 * Portugal is small enough to rescue, Spain may be "too big to save"'' - Spain's small regional banks, the cajas, are virtually bust as a result of reckless lending into the now-collapsed property market - 22nd November
 * bailout is on the way, if the markets are to be believed'' - When it comes to bewildering financial crises it is usually best to start with the crisp wisdom of Nouriel Roubini, the man who called the credit crunch right - 18th November
 * tuition fees will be paid for in lower house prices'' - Outlook: Cutting back 'reckless' lending means those without a thriving Bank of Mum 'n' Dadwon't have access to the property market's leveraged returns - 7th November
 * new fivers are on the way – but that's the least of our problems'' - Economic Life: Things must be getting back to normal if the Governor of the Bank of England has returned to where he was rudely interrupted in 2007 - 29th October
 * is this promised land where anyone can find a job?'' - There is a pernicious – and frankly fairly insulting – assumption that lies at the heart of much government thinking. It is, as Iain Duncan Smith put it on Thursday night, that "the jobs are out there" - 23rd October
 * may have gained the confidence of global investors, but he's shredded it at home'' - Sometimes a politician only has to open their mouth for confidence to drain from an economy - 21st October
 * of quangos? More of a damp squib'' - These cuts may cost more than they save - and could leave lucrative opportunities for beady-eyed City types - 15th October
 * is Gordon Brown, just when we need him again?'' - What happens if everyone deflates at the same time? You don't have to be Keynes to work it out, though it was he who first offered the world the revolutionary intellectual insight - 7th October
 * the crucial factor in the welfare equation Osborne has ignored'' - Analysis: Some 800,000 more Britons are out of work because of the recession, not because being on the dole is so cushy - 5th October
 * is not Paris 1968, and it is probably self-defeating'' - Just as Ed Miliband tells his party to set its face against "waves of irresponsible strikes" to resist the cuts, the Europeans show the British how it's done - 30th September
 * corporates ship out, burden falls on families and small firms'' - The truth about corporation tax is that someone, somewhere will undercut you - 28th September
 * tangles with HMRC's culture of bullying and fear'' - A polite, rather sterile word for the way that HM Revenue and Customs interacts with the general public would be "asymmetric"
 * out at Jackson Hole - the world's central bankers take aim at deflation'' - Economic Life: Nouriel Roubini, sage of our time, wants more concerted action for fear of something much worse. He says the US faces a revival that is sub-par for many years - 27th August
 * to TUC: I'm on your side. Sort of'' - Like a comic at the Glasgow Empire performing after both Rangers and Celtic had lost at home, the Governor of the Bank of England will be lucky to escape a hostile reception when he faces the Trades Union Congress in Manchester next month - 25th August
 * are alternative policies, but Labour hasn't yet discovered them'' - Older readers may recall Tina – "There Is No Alternative". Many books have been written about the Thatcherite reforms of the 1980s, but none sums up The Iron Lady's approach better than that little gem of a soundbite. which summed up the "tough-but-unavoidable" message - 22nd August (IoS)
 * trouble: The banks don't want to lend and we don't want to borrow'' - Economic Life: Confidence, that hot-house flower, has wilted under the frosts and harsh winds of successive economic crises - 20th August
 * growth has shaky foundations'' - Sino-scepticism is something of a minority interest, less fashionable than Euro-scepticism, but the case for it is strong - 18th August
 * has slumped but 'double dip' is not in the Bank's vocabulary'' - Outlook: Why is the Bank of England so chirpy? - 16th August
 * car makers show us how to speed out of a slump'' - Economic view: Blessed be the car makers, for they shall inherit the earth - 15th August
 * – the combination the Bank of England fears most'' - Growth will be slow but prices will be higher thanks to commodity prices rising and the depreciation of the pound - 10th August
 * inflation forecasts and mixed messages can lead to dizzying confusion'' - Outlook: This week, the Bank of England will present its latest Inflation Report to the world - 9th August
 * Government of straight, white, privately educated men'' - If Britain looked like its government, about four million adults would have gone to Eton, there would be no black people, and for every one woman there would be six men - 7th August
 * in charge in a crisis? It is now very much Mervyn, but it should be George'' - Outlook: It may – or may not, looking at recent events across the Channel – be too early to ask the question: "Who's in charge in a financial crisis?" But the Treasury's latest proposals on banking regulation do not in any event answer it very satisfactorily - 2nd August
 * the boom? Me neither'' - The brutal truth is that we won’t get back to normal levels of output until about 2012, maybe later. Your living standards will take equally long to get back to normal - 24th July
 * seems like good news – but the cuts will soon bite'' - It will be a miracle if employers suddenly decide, as the Chancellor claims, that Britain is 'open for business' - 15th July
 * crisis has created unlikely alliances for Cameron'' - These must be heady days for Conservatives, and especially for David Cameron. Not so long ago the easy prediction was that a Tory election victory would mean a new cold war between Downing Street and Brussels - 26th June
 * Greece was Northern Rock, Spain is Lehman Brothers'' - Unlike the football result, Spain's financial fiasco was entirely predictable - 17th June
 * entente over the euro is not so cordiale'' - What is the difference between "economic government" and "economic governance"? Though technical, it lies at the heart of the rift between the German and French governments - 15th June
 * think Africa's dark age is all over... but is it?'' - China and India have escaped from their history with spectacular results and Africa could do the same - 11th June
 * Chancellor's 'Axe Factor', which cut will you vote for?'' - What would you rather see closed – your local library or the swimming pool? - 9th June
 * has become a hostage of its own quest for energy security'' - America faces a problem, a dilemma so fundamental that not even the political skills of Barack Obama can disguise it, heightened by, but not originating in the BP affair
 * who's going to take the blame for triggering a second credit crunch?'' - This looming funding gap is a hulking great iceberg that ought to be worrying ministers and the rest of us as much as it worries the bankers - 7th June
 * diplomatic temperature rises, but the people stay cool'' - As you drive along one of the 12-lane freeways out of Seoul, a capital city uncomfortably close to the border with the North and a million-man army led by a lunatic who has pledged to destroy it, there is little sign of war-fever - 27th May
 * you get all the bad news out at once, the only way left to go will be up. Or will it?'' - Alastair Campbell, who understood such matters better than most, said that all governments need a "narrative" – a simple, straightforward way of saying what they are about - 18th May
 * will hold Osborne and Cable together'' - For months and years the coalitionists will face the wrath of disillusioned voters - 13th May
 * out. PR back on the table. Has Clegg snatched victory from the jaws of defeat?'' - The last time the Liberal party joined the Tories in a coalition the party split three ways - 11th May
 * there will be nowhere left for the losses to go'' - The echoes of 2007 and 2008 are striking, and terrifying. Instead of worthless mortgage-backed securities backed by sub-prime mortgages, we now have worthless Greek government securities backed by a sub-prime economy - 7th May
 * only our banks would back some risky ventures...'' - Tighter regulation of the banks would mean lower economic growth. A financial system that was rendered purely "utility" – like an old-fashioned building society – would mean fewer dragons in the den for start-ups to turn to - 5th May
 * is a problem – but Spain could destroy the euro'' - Like a bacillus coursing its way through a weakened body, the Greek debt crisis is infecting the eurozone, and spreading though a variety of channels - 30th April
 * the candidates were economical with the truth'' - Judged by the brutal test of whether they made their numbers add up, all the leaders failed badly - 30th April
 * politics is here to stay'' - Tories could usefully stop claiming that a hung parliament - already priced in by the markets - or a proportional voting system would lead to a sterling crisis - 23rd April
 * with 1976 do not stand up to scrutiny'' - There was a television dramatisation of the crucial cabinet meeting; someone wrote a book about it called Bye Bye Great Britain; and it was a trauma that even now sends aftershocks though the body politic - 21st April
 * or not, the Greek crisis will last until her economy is fixed'' - Economic Life: There is nothing to stop a state in a single currency zone from defaulting. Look at New York City in 1975 - 9th April
 * much for the fabled 'big choice''' - We could easily have a 1930s-style National Government to overcome the crisis - 7th April
 * ready for Vince in Number 11'' - A Lib-Lab coalition has the air of inevitability about it - 2nd April
 * a lot of money for overseeing library fines and speeding tickets'' - Why are chief executives of local councils paid so much? According to their own propaganda, it is because they compete with, and are comparable to, bosses of large private companies - 1st April
 * Darling got away with it but the pain has been postponed – again'' - Mr Darling disclosed limited information about where the new cuts would be found - 25th March
 * was a Budget for the many, but even they won't prosper'' - The financial crisis means Britain will be a grimier, meaner, nastier place to live - 25th March
 * the beginning of the car's evolution'' - The name Leaf puts me in mind of a famous quotation of Chairman Mao's: "Let a thousand flowers bloom." This, it is fair to say, is what is happening in the motoring world now. Alternative – and practical – technologies are blossoming, and they are mostly greener than we have ever seen before - 19th March
 * will the pain be felt? Nobody wants to say'' - Though the angry political exchanges may disguise it, the Government is already embarked on one of the tightest fiscal squeezes among the advanced economies, or in British history - 17th March
 * to set up a European Monetary Fund and avoid a sequel to Greece'' - The EMF should be encouraged to lean on surplus nations to reflate as often as it urges deficit countries to deflate - 15th March
 * few surprises and plenty of caution'' - Apart from the date, Gordon Brown gave little away about the Budget or any longer-term plans to tackle the budget deficit - 11th March
 * a European Monetary Fund work?'' - 10th March
 * has one last chance to preserve his legacy'' - Alistair Darling has a claim to be the most unlucky Chancellor of the Exchequer since the Second World War. He moved into Number 11 just before the credit crunch and will leave office, in all likelihood, before the slump has properly ended - 25th February
 * would happen if the country really went bust?'' - A British sovereign debt crisis would make sub-prime look like a tea party - 23rd February
 * on the streets – and in the markets'' - We're in this together, you might say. While all the talk has been about fixing the national public finances – with so far no real consensus on how this is to be done – local government, as ever, will find itself under even more pressure -19th February
 * where on earth have all the proper jobs gone?'' - We are witnessing the slow death of the full-time job -18th February
 * Motorway Man, the decisive voter in Election 2010'' - He is in his thirties. He drives. He voted Labour in 1997, and has a small family -18th February
 * does this mean interest rates are about to go up?'' - British inflation always seems to end up higher for longer than anyone thinks - 17th February
 * economy stumbles'' - First the Greek crisis, and now the eurozone recovery is faltering - 13th February
 * mess the Pigs are in will affect us all'' - In the eurozone, contagion spreads instantaneously among economies - 8th February
 * King didn't quite get the temperature right'' - Have you ever, like I have, had trouble using the shower controls in a strange hotel? - 5th February
 * time the jokes are on Toyota'' - Reliability is the main selling point – perhaps the only one – of its colossally dull cars - 5th February
 * rye bread, African scarves and the 'magic of Davos''' - 28th January (Davos)
 * is little to celebrate in these latest feeble figures'' - Where's Plan B? The UK's abysmal economic performance is reminiscent of the 1970s, when we were last the undisputed sick man of Europe: Hardly a moment to break out the Bollinger - 27th January 2010



Articles: 2009

 * of the Year 2009: Economics'' - Recession, but no Depression - 23rd December
 * master of the dismal science – with equations'' - Economics students must age themselves in 'Samuelson years - 15th December
 * of the IMF looms over Darling'' - To recall a political campaign song rarely heard these days, can things only get better? - 10th December
 * can celebrate as France wins in Europe'' - The British have only themselves to blame for this poor deal - 3rd December
 * be the next victim? Take your pick'' - Dubai is not the first state, and will not be the last, that finds itself in difficulties in this financial crisis - 28th November
 * banks are in the right'' - Maybe, just maybe, we have now reached the natural limits of the crass, facile consumerism that kicked off the 1970s with Esther Rantzen, heaven help us, as its vicar on Earth - 26th November
 * neat sidestep of an age-old dilemma, but only if Labour lose'' - At first sight, Nick Clegg has devised a neat way of avoiding the tricky question that has trapped Liberal leaders from Asquith to Ashdown – "whom do you prefer?" – by simply bouncing the question back to the electorate - 23rd November
 * worst is yet to come'' - There are three powerful reasons why the financial pain is far from over - 12th November
 * house of horrors has frightened the Bank'' - Spooked. Though the Bank of England and its Governor, Mervyn King, would never use such indelicate language, it was not just the Hallowe'en experience that has them quaking. The Bank is spooked – shocked might be a better word – by the economy's continuing weakness - 6th November (See: The Big Question: Is quantitative easing creating more problems than it is solving?
 * governments care so much about saving their car firms'' - What's so special about the car companies? Why save them? - 6th November
 * ladybirds are bugging me'' - This is one of the moral dilemmas unleashed by climate change - 5th November (Comment)
 * be paying for this for decades to come'' - Forget, if you're not already inclined to do so, the dizzying merry-go-round of billions of pounds circulating between the government and the banks they own. It is bad news – the equivalent of the schools budget being ploughed into keeping the financial system afloat (again) - 4th November
 * sell-offs aren't a great move, but they are a good one NEW'' - Forget, if you're not inclined to do so, the merry go round of billions of pounds circulating between the government and the banks they own - 3rd November
 * the euroland centre hold?'' - We Europeans have far less in common than we might think. It has taken the crisis to show us this - 2nd November
 * banks cannot fail because a depression would result – and they know it'' - We have become mesmerised by the City and the contribution it makes to the economy - 21st October
 * the numbers. Think of the grannies'' - "The cheque's in the post" will soon be a more legitimate excuse - 14th October
 * mass immunisation is essential'' - Whatever the cost to the taxpayer of immunising people against swine flu turns out be, it will almost certainly be money well spent if it helps slow the spread of the disease and minimises the gigantic damage to the economy it is likely to inflict in terms of days off sick and lost output - 7th October
 * will overtake America, the only question is when'' - Few things would be more powerfully symbolic of the shift in the balance of global economic power than to have oil traded in the Chinese renminbi rather than the American dollar - 6th October
 * the true value of Brown's economic pledge'' - What are the economic consequences of Mr Brown's speech? They're pretty minimal, and not just because few expect him to be Prime Minister for long - 30th September
 * winners in the global blame game'' - Who do you blame for the economic crisis: the bankers, or the Chinese? - 26th September
 * shows signs of new life'' - Germany has been on a rollercoaster ride. Despite the fact that she was conspicuous by her absence from the Anglo-Saxon credit party, Germany's recession has been the sharpest among all the major advanced economies, with the exception of Japan - 18th September
 * would never have happened in France'' - It is very difficult to suppress a suspicion of betrayal when you examine what happened to MG Rover - 12th September
 * few anoraks shouldn't keep us up all night'' - The nostalgia for the all-night election show is overdone. Before the 1970s it was normal for many constituency results, especially rural ones, to be counted and declared the next day - 11th September
 * the alphabet soup that is world economics, the skewed W is my bet'' - Well, which is it to be: a W or a V? Economists seem to enjoy this parlour game, and you'd be surprised at how inventive they can be when describing the likely trajectory of the economy in figurative terms. The "V" school obviously think we're in for a rapid recovery, though I'm not sure what they think will happen next - 6th September
 * may be time to thank the G20 for getting us out of this mess'' - Splits. Rows. Insults. We should expect no less from a G20 meeting. Expecting the finance ministers and central bankers of the world's most powerful economic powers to have a love-in in the middle of what remains the most severe financial crisis in three-quarters of a century is probably to ask a little too much - 5th September
 * debt hangover is stopping us joining the global growth party'' - We need to pause and drink in the pure milk of Keynesian orthodoxy, and remind ourselves of the paradox of thrift - 4th September
 * empty words returning to haunt Brown'' - I'm sure the PM has a copy of his 1989 book on a shelf somewhere. It's worth digging out - 19th August
 * must resent France and Germany's growth'' - The modest upturn in Europe’s largest economies is more than we have seen - 14th August
 * quantitative easing working? The Bank's latest projections won't tell us'' - In a few days' time we ought to get a definitive view from the Bank of England about the prospects for the economy over the next couple of years. Definitive, though not necessarily right - 9th August
 * feelgood Roller for plutocrats with a conscience'' - An electric Rolls-Royce is a shockingly good idea. Replacing its V12 internal combustion engine, its noise and vibrations already well-suppressed, with a practically inaudible electric motor would lend the firm's Phantom limousine still greater levels of refinement - 7th August
 * bonuses will get us nowhere'' - Bankers are no more greedy than the rest of us, apart from a few Buddhist monks - 5th August
 * Bank has two big questions to answer about quantitative easing'' - When the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee meets this week it will have to answer two straightforward questions - 3rd August
 * quantitative easing could hold the key to economic recovery'' - Which should have been the most significant news event of last week, at least as far as Gordon Brown's future is concerned? The political or the economic news? - 27th July
 * revenue predictions were irrational'' - the National Audit Office has refused to sign off part of the Treasury's accounts over its exposure to vast potential losses on the money it has used to prop up the banks and the wider financial system - 21st July
 * the boot was on the other foot'' - Wheel-clamping abuses cause untold distress. Action is needed - 10th July
 * are supposed to worship brutality'' - Once my city boasted Roman walls, medieval halls and Georgian terraces - 23rd June
 * about 'V' for victory, this recession is more of a wobbly 'W''' - The first of our Double-Us is mostly behind us. You can understand how this might be mistaken for a V, and a V-shaped recovery declared. V for victory, indeed. That however is premature, even if the worst is behind us - 22nd June
 * has a good-news story. And it might just be true'' - There is every prospect relief for Brown will arrive in time for the election - 11th June
 * the UK's van makers are disappearing over the horizon'' - LDV's collapse yesterday may mark the final chapter in the story of a British industry - 9th June
 * long march out of the Celtic fringes continues'' - The next few years could be extremely cheerful for the Liberal Democrats. There has long been a law stating that exhausted Labour administrations are bad for the third party... But it is not so true now - 6th June
 * bounce back for sure, but what goes up must come down'' - This is a recession like no other we have seen in 75 years because the banks are broken - 26th May
 * exposes Labour's poverty of ambition'' - That relative poverty – the gap between rich and poor rather than the absolute availability of basic necessities – should be higher than it was when Harold Macmillan was prime minister is a galling discovery - 8th May (see: Labour's record on poverty in tatters)
 * report was damning – but there's light on the horizon'' - With headlines and chatter about "green shoots" growing, the media might be even be accused of talking us into a recovery - 7th May (see: MPs demolish Budget forecasts as 'optimistic')
 * two people can get us out of this mess, and they're both French'' - there is a growing likelihood that, whoever wins the next general election, the economic policies of the UK will be set by gentlemen from the International Monetary Fund - 26th April
 * set out to fight famine, war, pestilence and death'' - Less glamorous than the G20, this weekend's food summit is still crucial - 18th April
 * the books: Repairing the public finances'' - Last year the Government shredded its fiscal rules; in next week's Budget it must show that it has a credible plan to repair the public finances - 16th April
 * new scandal erodes the vestiges of faith in politicians'' - The Treasury has been a nursery of these tough-but useless types - 15th April
 * scheme sells the UK motor industry short'' - Good news: according to some reports, at least, the Government is ready to help the motor industry. The bad news? We'll be helping the French, German, Korean, Polish, Czech, Slovakian and Korean motor industries rather than our own - 14th April
 * time can dispel the charges against electric cars'' - Anyone watching a late 1980s movie nowadays is reduced to giggles when they spot someone using a "mobile" phone the size of a cornflakes packet. Perhaps in 15 years' time we will look back at today's electric vehicles with the same bemused nostalgia - 8th April
 * big spender – how's your hangover?'' - As any heavy drinker will tell you, while one "cure" for a hangover may be to have another drink – a "hair of the dog" – that will surely result in a worse headache in due course - 7th April
 * east European economies are the zombies stalking the IMF'' - When the leaders of the G20 sat down to their Jamie Oliver dinner at Downing Street last week there was a ghost at the feast - 6th April
 * so much green shoots as seeds of hope, but welcome all the same'' - Good news: the Germans may be right. There are straws in the wind that suggest that the economy may indeed improve more rapidly than seemed possible even a few weeks ago - 3rd April
 * not recklessness, is the problem now'' - It would be easy to dismiss the threats by President Sarkozy to wreck the G20 summit with a Gallic walkout as a typical piece of French chauvinism - 2nd April
 * stop in the crisis could be the collapse of the euro'' - It makes no sense in a single-currency zone if one country does its own thing - 1st April
 * the protesters: someone separate the leaders'' - On the basis of the text of the G20 summit communiqué, leaked comprehensively yesterday, it seems pretty clear that the event will be a flop. But could Thursday's G20 Summit do more harm than good? - 31st March
 * are caught in the new inflation trap'' - City shocked as weak pound triggers food and petrol price rises, but spectre of deflation remains - 25th March
 * Do what we say, not what we do'' - The G20 finance ministers may have yet again reaffirmed their opposition to protectionism, but there's plenty of it around - 17th March
 * clear of 'sub-prime on wheels''' - the Bank of England prefers to stay aloof from attacks on its dignity. It prefers covert disciplinary actions. Gentle as the Bank's rebuke to Peter Mandelson is, it is unprecedented - 13th March
 * Yes, but that doesn't mean it's right'' - At first glance, paying an employer to take on or retain staff seems a no-brainer. Lower the cost of something – labour – and you will increase the quantity demanded. Jobs done, so to speak - 12th March
 * it seems too good to be true...'' - How did Madoff's victims ever allow themselves to be taken in? - 12th March
 * Bank's £200bn gamble'' - The Bank of England will this week announce its intention to flood the economy with 'helicopter money', its latest attempt to tackle the recession - 3rd March
 * the number of jobless continues to soar collapsing confidence will create vicious circle'' - Unemployment tends to lag behind the economy's fortunes, so the jobless numbers will not decline significantly until the economic recovery is well under way – which could take many years - 12th February
 * the mindset of the past and cut interest rates again'' - Outlook: Who cares about the pound? Not, by the looks of things, the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee - 4th February
 * world out of work'' - UK unemployment is on the verge of breaking through 2 million, but joblessness is a global epidemic and the number of workers at risk is without precedent - 3rd February
 * What is it? And why Britain should be scared'' - Traditionally one of the most outward-looking economies, a power that built the greatest empire the world has ever seen on the back of its international trade and commerce, Britain has more to lose than most from a revival in protectionism and a disintegration of the world economy - 31st January
 * get poorer faster than since Attlee's time'' - The IMF's forecasts are more than merely embarrassing. It isn't simply that the Treasury misjudged the prospects for the economy when the pre-Budget report was unveiled in November - 29th January
 * cut puts Britain in uncharted waters'' - Bank of England sets lowest base rate in 315 years in response to 'synchronised downturn' - 9th January
 * I'm glad we are not in the euro'' - How much more painful it would be without the flexibility of a floating pound - 7th January



Articles: 2008

 * at a turning point for capitalism'' - People are about to be thrown out of work and their homes for no rational reason - 31st December 2008
 * fears grew through 2008, but 2009 will be wonderful for some'' - Is the media talking us into a deeper recession than we might otherwise suffer? Will 2009really be that bad when interest rates and prices will be falling? As a proxy for the intensity of what passes for a "national conversation" about the economy, you can count the number of times the word"recession" appears in the press - 22nd December 2008
 * 'Imaginative companies' try to keep skilled staff'' - Increasing numbers of companies are imposing pay freezes, deferring wage settlements, offering part-paid "sabbaticals" and even cutting pay in an attempt to preserve skilled workforces as they try their best to survive - 18th December 2008 (with Jonathan Brown)
 * row with a political sub-plot'' - The unity of the EU has become the latest victim of the recession and the scene of an unprecedented war of words between London and Berlin, shattering the previously robust international consensus over the best way to fight the economic downturn - 12th December 2008
 * road to recovery'' - Few economists believe the Chancellor has yet done enough to save Britain from a serious recession, but what other policy options does the UK have left? - 9th December 2008
 * the old certainties have gone'' - A few years ago, you knew where you were. If you took a job in the private sector the chances were you'd enjoy a higher salary, but have a little less job security and a rather less generous pension than if you became a public servant - 28th November 2008
 * up the fiscal rule book'' - It's 11 years since Gordon Brown made his fiscal rules the cornerstone of Labour's economic policy. Now they are to be replaced by a vague set of principles - 26th November 2008
 * matter what Darling does, this is not going to be a short, sharp shock'' - 25th November 2008
 * Darling seems to believe our economy will soon enjoy a Lazarus-style comeback'' - 13th November 2008
 * New Deal'' - The Chinese government has unveiled a boost to its slowing economy that is worth almost $600bn - 12th November 2008
 * speech with echoes of Lincoln and Nixon'' - It seems a strange thing to say about such a fresh figure, but the President-elect's victory speech was vintage Obama - 6th November 2008
 * crisis in manufacturing'' - Manufacturing accounts for half of UK exports, worth £150bn a year. But despite the sharp fall in sterling, the sector is still bearing the brunt of the downturn - 4th November 2008
 * was to blame for the credit crisis?'' - 3rd November 2008
 * credibility has been devalued as much as sterling'' - 30th October 2008
 * roads to nowhere and the danger of deflation'' - There is no tax cut large enough to make you spend if you are scared you will lose you job - 17th October 2008
 * financial crisis – the vital questions answered'' - 11th October 2008
 * Over to you, Gordon'' - With the US set to get its bailout after all, does the UK need its own silver bullet? Sean O'Grady reports on the options - 3rd October 2008
 * havens for troubled times'' - Where do investors put their spare funds when banks are no longer regarded as invincible institutions? - 26th September 2008
 * relies on confidence – and there isn't any'' - 18th September 2008
 * world depends on the two Fs'' - "Too big to fail" is an expression that suits Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two institutions "are so large and interwoven in our financial system that a failure of either of them would create great turmoil in financial markets" - 8th September 2008
 * rain on Government's parade of housing reforms'' - The markets dismissed Alistair Darling's attempts to arrest crashing house prices as a 'drop in the ocean'. But is it the Chancellor's responsibility to save private homeowners anyway? - 3rd September 2008
 * A windfall tax would be a disaster'' - The truth about a "windfall tax" on the energy companies is that it would raise a lot of money and wouldn't raise much protest - 27th August 2008
 * mourn the death of ITV's glory days'' - 11th August 2008
 * gold medal for Alistair Darling'' - 8th August 2008
 * Gesture politics may be just enough to make difference'' - Wednesday, 6th August 2008
 * A missed chance to give world a tax cut - Wednesday, 30th July 2008
 * Economic View: Our best chance of staying out of recession may be to back the Treasury against the Bank - Sunday, 27th July 2008
 * The unfortunate fall guy for Gordon Brown - Wednesday, 23rd July 2008
 * A freeze in fuel duty will do little to ease motorists' pain - Tuesday, 1st July 2008
 * Now Brown must tell us how he can defeat stagflation - Wednesday, 18th June 2008
 * What links Scotland to Donald Trump? Nothing... - Thursday, 12th June 2008
 * The global economy will have to adjust – and it will - Wednesday, 11th June 2008
 * The euro answered a question we didn't ask - What if Britain has joined the single currency 10 years ago? It might have been a disaster - Tuesday, 3rd June 2008
 * UK oil profits are largely an illusion - Saturday, 31st May 2008
 * Hooray! House prices are falling again - Friday, 2nd May 2008
 * How the Bank became a pawnbroker - Tuesday, 22nd April 2008
 * Rich countries have ability to solve (food crisis) problem - Saturday, 12th April 2008
 * What difference will the currency crunch make? - Isn't the euro meant to be a "toilet currency"? - Thursday, 10th April 2008
 * Fall in house prices is cause for celebration - Tuesday, 8th April 2008
 * Darling has the chance to practise what he preaches - Wednesday, 5th March 2008
 * Recession? He simply doesn't know - 'In 2001, Mr Brown turned on the public spending taps. All Darling did was wave his Budget box as he drowns' - Thursday, 13th March 2008
 * A bewildering week of bad news – so how did the market recover? - Saturday, 26th January 2008
 * Their spending power may save us all from recession - Tuesday, 1st January 2008



The Independent: 'Private Investor'
Column name:

Remit/Info: Private investment

Section: Money / Invest & Save

Role: Economics editor

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:s.o'grady@independent.co.uk s.o'grady@independent.co.uk]

Personal website:

Website: Independent.co / Business Comment;Invest & Save

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Saturday

Regularity: Weekly

Column format:

Average length:



Articles:

 * beware: net ITV at your peril...'' - 9th August 2008
 * I'm putting my money into couch potatoes - 2nd August 2008
 * One man's evil is another man's wise investment - 26th July 2008
 * B&B pulls it back from the brink – phew... - 28th June 2008
 * Dirt cheap doesn't mean it's a bargain - 21st June 2008
 * House-builder limbo - how low can they go? - 14th June 2008
 * I can still spot a gleam amid the banking gloom - 7th June 2008
 * The restaurant sector's making me feel queasy - 31st May 2008
 * Seduced by the romance of black gold - 17th May 2008
 * Now's the time to buy some bank shares - 10th May 2008
 * I'm banking on an upturn – but not just yet - 3rd May 2008
 * What's wrong with taking up my RBS rights? - 26th April 2008
 * Why I'm taking the long-term view with BA - 19th April 2008
 * If the boiler room calls, boil 'em right back - 12th April 2008
 * Forget equities – put your cash in cars instead - 15th March 2008
 * With Arriva, at least dividends arrive on time - 8th March 2008
 * Don't ever bank on an A&L takeover - 1st March 2008
 * Don't get mad about Northern Rock, get even - 23rd February 2008
 * Without money, I'll just have to grin and bear it - 16th February 2008
 * Feeling brave? Ride the tiger and you'll profit - 9th February 2008
 * In uncertain markets, even banks gamble - 2nd February 2008
 * Don't waste your sympathy on shareholders - 19th January 2008
 * It's my money, taxwoman: ask me nicely for it - 12th January 2008

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