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Bank deposits cannot be guaranteed across the eurozone
G. R. Steele
25 March 2013
comments

In March 2009 an EU directive increased the value of the protection afforded by a deposit guarantee scheme (DGS) to a uniform ceiling of €100,000. Events involving Cyprus have undermined the...
Negative interest rates? Negative!
G. R. Steele
4 March 2013
2 comments

Keynesian economists have an enduring disposition to spend their way out of trouble. This is so even when overspending has caused the trouble. Gone are the days when expenditure and taxation were...
Keynes Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics
G. R. Steele
14 January 2013
2 comments

A review of Keynes Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics by Nicholas Wapshott. As the Luftwaffe targeted culturally-rich cities in 1942, two economists took their turn in fire-watching...
London 2012: gold, but not growth
G. R. Steele
30 October 2012
comments

One estimate (from the Olympic Delivery Authority) for the overall ‘Public Sector Funding Package’ for the London 2012 Olympic Games, placed it in the region of £10...
Ben Bernanke’s road to inflation
G. R. Steele
18 September 2012
comments

  President Obama’s 2009 stimulus has been a disappointment: the Keynesian response is that it failed because it was not big enough. So, now we have Ben Bernanke’s rescue act:...
No ruse to save the euro
G. R. Steele
10 August 2012
1 comment

If ever you see a €100 banknote in the gutter, don’t bother to stop. If it were real, someone would already have picked it up. The same is true of a ruse to save the euro. Writing in the...
The answer is 'inflation'. What was the question?
G. R. Steele
1 June 2012
comments

Martin Wolf recently committed the Financial Times to a $71.88 lunch-time interview with Paul Krugman. Whatever the quality of the meal, the interview was poor value. Three questions were covered:...
Economic fundamentals and the eurozone
G. R. Steele
23 November 2011
comments

Mainstream macroeconomics presents monetary and fiscal interventions as independent policy options, and this spills over to institutional structures. In the UK, for example, the Bank of England and...
The ECB cannot hold back the tide of euro credit and banknotes
G. R. Steele
17 November 2011
comments

The European Central Bank (ECB) sits at the centre of a clearing system (‘TARGET2’) for national central banks (NCBs) within the eurozone. The pattern that has built up, particularly...
Hayek’s overcoat
G. R. Steele
24 August 2011
11 comments

Lord Robert Skidelsky is unlikely to have understood the anecdote in his opening remarks in the LSE Hayek/Keynes debate. He related that, after addressing an audience of Cambridge economists in...
Keynesian paradoxes
G. R. Steele
18 August 2011
6 comments

Keynes gave little thought to generalities. He acknowledged that his prescriptions were limited to the special circumstances of the 1930s. With Bolshevism in mind, any fiscal deficit spending was...
Democracy and taxation
G. R. Steele
22 June 2011
comments

The condemnation of benefit fraud and tax avoidance obscures a difference. Benefit cheats make fraudulent claims upon the earnings of others. Tax avoiders use legitimate means to retain their own...
No situation is so bad that government intervention cannot make it worse
G. R. Steele
16 June 2011
comments

State infrastructure projects may be funded by private capital through PFI (private finance initiative) contracts.This week, BBC Radio’s File on Four put great effort into addressing the...
A Promethean tragedy: the ultimate green economy
G. R. Steele
12 June 2011
4 comments

The decision to abandon nuclear power will increase Germany’s short-term dependency upon fossil fuel as it engages with long-term aspirations for politically correct (PC) alternatives. In...
Sovereign debt restructuring and the euro crisis
G. R. Steele
18 April 2011
2 comments

The eurozone came with fine aspirations: according to article 127 in the consolidated version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union ‘the primary objective of the European...
Is Ireland exploiting eurosystem loopholes at Germany’s expense?
G. R. Steele
1 April 2011
1 comment

Ireland is not stupid. When credit is offered, it chooses the lowest rate. Ireland’s ‘bailout’ from the European System of Central Banks (ESCB - the eurosystem) is larger (€...
Oil prices and inflation
G. R. Steele
14 March 2011
2 comments

Inflation is the process whereby ‘things’ – balloons, tyres, opinions, etc. – wbecome enlarged. Deflation is the reverse process. In economics, inflation generally refers to...
Taylor Rules - far from ‘OK’!
G. R. Steele
21 February 2011
1 comment

While the full complexity of an economic cycle can never be gauged, economists point to many contributory factors, each with its tinge of plausibility; but every recession, recovery, over-extension...
How can so many economists be wrong-headed on inflation?
G. R. Steele
21 January 2011
16 comments

A member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee believes that inflation has been driven ‘by higher food and energy costs’; and the head of the European Central Bank...
The tragedy of the eurozone
G. R. Steele
10 December 2010
4 comments

Mervyn King has been criticised for crossing a line which separates monetary policy (the Bank’s remit) and fiscal policy (the Treasury’s remit). That line is imaginary: a legacy of...

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