15th of May 2025 As John Lanchester recently remarked (LRB 27 April 2025) ‘However little money there is for anything else, there’s always enough money for a war’. The failures of neoliberal economics threaten all kinds of political backlashes, some of which have already been seen in the nationalist turn of international relations. ‘Military Keynesianism’ … Continue reading Military Keynesianism?
Economy
An ageing population and successive cuts by the last Conservative Government have left local council budgets on the brink, reports David Hencke
The Chancellor's decision to prioritise growth, while investing in green energy, social housing and levelling up the country, should be welcomed, argues Simon Nixon
The Chancellor's Spending Review was far more radical and transformative than anyone has yet realised, argues Josiah Mortimer
This agreement marks the beginning of the end of the suffocating Brexit consensus that has gripped British politics for a decade, argues Adam Bienkov
Where are the voices defending the huge benefits that globalisation has brought to the world, asks Matthew Gwyther
This trade war is really a fight for the future of the dollar. 16/04/2025 Trump’s tariff bombardment has torn up the rules by which Western elites have lived for the last 35 years: the rules of a globalising economy under the benign guardianship of a Pax Americana. He is openly challenging opinion makers to change … Continue reading New Statesman: Could John Maynard Keynes fix Trump’s tariff crisis?
Treasurer Jim Chalmers pulled one unexpected rabbit out of his hat in Tuesday’s 2025-26 federal budget. This was a 1 percentage point cut in the bottom marginal tax rate, from 16% to 15% from 1 July next year, and a further 1 percentage point cut to 14% from 1 July 2027, resulting in a tax Continue reading »
Labor’s pre-election budget provides well-targeted cost of living relief within the bounds of responsibility, but the restoration of living standards is some way off. As widely anticipated Labor’s budget contained no surprises, except for the small income tax cuts. Apart from these, all the other major new policy proposals had been announced prior to the Continue reading »
The Chancellor could have turned this crisis into an opportunity for a radical shakeup of Britain's relationship with Europe and the world, but instead reverted to economic orthodoxy, argues Simon Nixon