About: robert

David Cameron’s speech threatening to pull the UK out of the EU unless the other members agree to its demands may have started a process of withdrawal that could become irreversible. Although this outcome would be contrary to the stated objectives of the UK prime minister and British government, commentators on both sides of the…
» Continue Reading

Gordon Brown is far from being my favourite politician. As economic Czar of Britain’s Labour government from 1997 to 2007 he started well – struggling hard and long to establish fiscal credibility – only to throw it all away. He then spent a miserable three years as prime minister to 2010 trying to contain the…
» Continue Reading

  Last week Charles Goodhart uttered what I called his cry of despair (See RP’s Diary 13/01/13); now it is BOE’s Andy Haldane’s turn. Goodhart has realised that we are running out of monetary policy models – rules or frameworks like inflation targeting (IT) by which central banks steer interest rate policies. He warns of…
» Continue Reading

Not many central bankers or regulators are willing or able to think deeply about the nature of money and the implications of the collapse of trust in banking.  Two exceptions are Mervyn King and Peter Praet. This post is about them and other thinkers worth attending to.   King’s views are well known and he…
» Continue Reading

I first came across James Buchanan through his long-term collaborator and colleague, Professor Gordon Tullock. It must have been in 1972 or 1973. Gordon and I met by accident in Frankfurt, where I was interviewing the then president of the Bundesbank for The Banker, of which I was then editor. We had one of those…
» Continue Reading