Welcome to EconomicsUK, the personal website of David Smith, Economics Editor of The Sunday Times, London. The site, independent of the newspaper, aims to provide knowledge and stimulate debate on economics, for business people, students,economists and others. As well as my own articles and observations, it also includes material by other people and organisations, which is always welcome. Enjoy the site, and please take part in our forum.

Recent Blog Posts by David Smith

• UK Inflation Falls Across the Board May 21st, 2013
• Central Banks Drive the Stock Market Boom May 13th, 2013
• BoE On Hold as Manufacturing Perks Up May 9th, 2013
• Some Spring in the Economy’s Step May 3rd, 2013
• GDP Up 0.3% – No Triple-Dip and a Good Start to 2013 April 25th, 2013
• Borrowing Scrapes Lower – Treasury Warns Scotland on Sterling April 23rd, 2013
• Margaret Thatcher’s Four Ages of Monetary Policy April 10th, 2013
• Doubles or Triples All Round? March 27th, 2013
• UK Employment Up by a Further 154,000, Bank Split on Policy February 21st, 2013
• The Bank of England: Our Flexible Friend? February 13th, 2013
• Bank of England Has a Lot to Say February 7th, 2013
• UK Retail Sales Slip Back January 18th, 2013
• Inflation at 2.7%—The New Norm? January 16th, 2013
• Jobs the Bright Spot in a Downbeat Year December 31st, 2012
• Oil’s a Drag on the Economy: Energy Boost Needed December 17th, 2012
• Osborne Lives to Fight Another Day December 6th, 2012
• What’s Up, What’s Down? November 28th, 2012
• UK GDP Unrevised at 1% November 27th, 2012
• A Disappointing Inflation Jump in the UK November 13th, 2012
• Good News Starts to Blow Away the Gloom in London October 31st, 2012
• 1% GDP Bounce in UK Beats Expectations October 25th, 2012
• With a Fair Wind, A Lasting Recovery Starts Here October 22nd, 2012
• Strong UK Labor Market Data October 17th, 2012
• Turner Is for Turning October 12th, 2012
• Lending Is the Key to Putting the Fiscal Strategy On Track October 1st, 2012
• UK Retail Sales: No Olympic Gold Medal September 20th, 2012
• A Post-Jubilee Bounce in the UK September 7th, 2012
• UK Coalition Unveils its Autumnal Range September 4th, 2012
• A Modest GDP Revision August 24th, 2012
• UK Borrowing Still Overshooting August 21st, 2012
• UK Employment Keeps on Booming August 15th, 2012
• Lessons from Sweden in Assembling a Recovery August 6th, 2012
• UK: Gloomy Growth Numbers – But Not So Miserable Now July 22nd, 2012
• UK: ‘Guv’nor’ Needs to Use His Muscle to Boost Lending July 15th, 2012
• UK: We Were the Best – Now We’re Close to the Worst July 8th, 2012
• UK: Infrastructure’s Doing OK, But We Need More Houses July 2nd, 2012
• Bright Spots in a Very Peculiar Recession June 24th, 2012
• No Place to Hide if Greece Smashes the Euro June 17th, 2012
• Britain Needs a Lot More Monetary Oomph June 10th, 2012
• Government Borrowing Is Cheap But Risks Breaking the Bank June 3rd, 2012
• Greece Can Go – But Avoid a Bigger Euro Break-Up May 20th, 2012
• Safe-Haven Pound Need Not Kill Off Exports May 13th, 2012
• Euro Anti-Austerity Votes Pose Dangers for Britain May 6th, 2012
• UK: An Economy Starved of Credit Will Struggle to Grow April 29th, 2012
• UK: Bank Takes a Battering as it Gets it Wrong Again April 22nd, 2012
• UK: Consumers Start to Get Back into Their Stride April 15th, 2012
• UK: Growth Figures Become a National Lottery April 8th, 2012
• The British Tortoise and the American Hare April 1st, 2012
• UK: In Time, the Budget Will Fuel Recovery March 25th, 2012
• UK: The Budget Matters But the Bank Matters More March 18th, 2012
• Britain’s Jobs Machine Is Still Working March 11th, 2012
• Osborne Can Only Disappoint on Tax March 4th, 2012
• If Britain Were Greece February 26th, 2012
• Osborne’s Borrowing Headache Starts to Ease February 26th, 2012
• UK: Bank Unanimous on More Easing, Split on Amount February 23rd, 2012
• UK – The 50P Rate: A Bad Tax That’s Hard to Scrap February 12th, 2012
• UK: To QE or Not to QE? That Is the Question February 5th, 2012
• UK: Small Dip in GDP Equals a Big Drop in Confidence January 29th, 2012
• UK GDP Slips. But No Big Deal January 26th, 2012
• Britain, Japan and Low Gilt Yields, Part II January 23rd, 2012
• Britain Is Not Following the Japanese Script January 23rd, 2012
• We Need Productivity, But First We Need Growth January 15th, 2012
• Nice Surprises So Far – Can They Possibly Last? January 8th, 2012
• Chugging Along: If We Avoid the Nightmare Eurozone Scenario January 3rd, 2012
• UK: A Year of Struggle for Growth Against High Inflation December 27th, 2011
• UK: Inflation Fall Should Start to Ease the Misery December 18th, 2011
• Eurozone Rescue Rests on Shaky Foundations December 12th, 2011
• Gloom Takes Osborne Closer to the Edge December 4th, 2011
• What’s Worrying Mervyn December 2nd, 2011
• Osborne Faces Struggle to Stay on the Road November 27th, 2011
• UK: Job Carnage as Firms Give Up on Recovery November 20th, 2011
• UK: Downbeat Bank Looks Ready to Do More November 16th, 2011
• Breaking Up the Eurozone Is Hard but Not Impossible November 13th, 2011
• Slowing China Won’t Rescue the Eurozone November 6th, 2011
• Eurozone Deal Won’t Stop Growth Taking a Hit October 30th, 2011
• An Irish Alternative to High Inflation October 23rd, 2011
• Borrowing Is On Target October 21st, 2011
• UK – Unanimity at the Bank October 19th, 2011
• UK: Building a Jobs Recovery From Bricks and Mortar October 16th, 2011
• Better News on UK Trade October 13th, 2011
• UK Unemployment up to 2.57m October 12th, 2011
• The Wrong Kind of Easing for Britain October 9th, 2011
• UK – Banks Pump in Another £75 Billion October 7th, 2011
• The Spirit of 1981 Guides George Osborne October 3rd, 2011
• The Bank of England on Credit September 28th, 2011
• Which Pump to Pull to Rescue the Recovery? September 26th, 2011
• UK: Bank Swings Much Closer to More QE September 22nd, 2011
• UK: Scrambling for Ways to Rev Up the Recovery September 18th, 2011
• Osborne’s Euro Plea September 16th, 2011
• UK: Unemployment Up by 80,000 September 14th, 2011
• UK: Inflation at 4.5%, and the Case for a New Monetary Stimulus September 13th, 2011
• UK: How to Build a Stronger Recovery September 11th, 2011
• OECD Warns on Growth September 8th, 2011
• UK: Gloomy Consumers Prepare for the Long Hard Slog September 4th, 2011
• Only a Fiscal Union Will Hold the Eurozone Together August 28th, 2011
• UK: Misery Index Explains Why We’re All So Glum August 21st, 2011
• UK: Downbeat Bank Likely to Consider More QE August 11th, 2011
• Idle Hands: Will Britain Get Back to Productivity Growth? August 1st, 2011
• Osborne Struggles to Conquer the Debt Mountain July 25th, 2011
• Lending Drought Threatens Britain’s Recovery July 18th, 2011
• How Britain Can Grow Old Without Going Broke July 11th, 2011
• UK: Bank Must Share Blame for the Drop in Real Incomes July 4th, 2011
• Cut Tax to Make Britain a Magnet for the World June 27th, 2011
• Fears Grow But Global Locomotive Won’t Stop June 20th, 2011
• The Only Plan B Britain Needs Is to Boost Credit Growth June 13th, 2011
• Britain Needs a Stronger Pound June 7th, 2011
• UK: Is Osbourne Cutting Too Hard or Not Hard Enough? May 31st, 2011
• UK: There May Be No Alternative to Housing Boom and Bust May 22nd, 2011
• Consumers Leave Britain in the Slow Lane May 16th, 2011
• UK: Punch and Judy Show Ignores Fiscal Reality May 3rd, 2011
• UK: Better News Allows the Bank to Take a Breather April 18th, 2011
• UK: Light of Recovery Still Shining Through the Gloom April 11th, 2011
• UK: Inflation, Not Cuts, Is the Biggest Threat to Osborne’s Growth Plan March 28th, 2011
• UK: A Budget for Detail March 24th, 2011
• UK: Osborne Need Not Slip on High Oil Prices March 15th, 2011
• UK: The Other Side of Pay Misery February 22nd, 2011
• UK: Wave of Imports Hits Export-Led Growth February 16th, 2011
• UK: Bank Under Pressure as Inflation Hits Home February 7th, 2011
• UK: Hiking Rates Won’t Save the Bank’s Battered Reputation January 27th, 2011
• Can Asia Remain the World’s Locomotive? January 20th, 2011
• UK: Financial Fragility Keeps Interest Rates Low January 11th, 2011
• UK: At the Crossroads of Growth and Inflation January 5th, 2011
• For Britain, Inflation Was the Surprise in 2010 December 28th, 2010
• UK Labor Market Softens December 16th, 2010
• Pumping Up Inflation in Emerging Economies December 13th, 2010
• Sterling and the Recovery December 6th, 2010
• Keeping the Euro Jigsaw from Breaking Up November 21st, 2010
• UK: Sobering Up an Unbalanced Economy October 25th, 2010
• Lone Wolf on the MPC September 22nd, 2010
• UK: Looking Good for the First Quarter April 8th, 2010
• Tax at 50% is a Good Way to Kill the Golden Goose January 13th, 2010
• A Decade to Tip the World to the East January 5th, 2010
• A Record Breaking Year – For all the Wrong Reasons December 29th, 2009
• Two Bank Speeches and a New Job December 3rd, 2009
• A Mini-Split on the MPC November 18th, 2009
• Bank Moderately Upbeat – Good Unemployment News November 11th, 2009
• King on the Banks October 21st, 2009
• Good News on Unemployment October 15th, 2009
• We’re Still a Nation of Spenders, Not Squirrels September 30th, 2009
• Inflation Lowest in Nearly Five Years September 16th, 2009
• Growing Again September 8th, 2009
• Second Quarter GDP Revised Up August 31st, 2009
• Nationwide Starts to Look Like a Trend August 27th, 2009
• The UK Private Sector Hasn’t Shrunk August 18th, 2009
• Bank’s Easing Clips the Wings of the Rising Pound August 12th, 2009
• Young are Hit Hardest as Jobs Take a Dive August 3rd, 2009
• VAT Will Surely Rise to Fill the Treasury Hole July 28th, 2009
• No Clear Signal on Quantatative Easing July 22nd, 2009
• Britain’s Banks May be Too Weak to Support the Recovery July 22nd, 2009
• A Strange Set of Job Market Figures July 16th, 2009
• Tear up the Rule-Book: It’s All about Borrowing July 13th, 2009
• Industrial Output Disappoints – too Soon to Call the Recovery July 9th, 2009
• GDP down 2.4% – a 50-year record June 30th, 2009
• Bank plots when to light the interest rate fuse June 22nd, 2009
• Retail Sales Slip June 19th, 2009
• The lending tap won’t open for some time June 8th, 2009
• Service sector returning to growth June 3rd, 2009
• IEA’s shadow MPC warns of re-entry risks from quantitative easing May 31st, 2009
• Nationwide says house prices rose in May May 29th, 2009
• No easy way out of the debt maze May 26th, 2009
• First quarter GDP fall confirmed at 1.9% May 22nd, 2009
• The IMF on the UK May 21st, 2009
• A big fall in inflation May 20th, 2009
• British consumers: down but not necessarily out May 18th, 2009
• Bank: The only certainty is uncertainty May 15th, 2009
• RICS up again, OECD more optimistic May 12th, 2009
• Weak pipeline inflation, lower house prices May 8th, 2009
• Bank holds at 0.5%, boosts quantitative easing to £125 billion – ECB 1% May 7th, 2009
• Service sector getting better May 6th, 2009
• Lights are flickering at the end of the tunnel May 4th, 2009
• Consumer confidence up, Nationwide house prices only modestly down April 30th, 2009
• Radical surgery still needed – and it will hurt April 27th, 2009
• Smaller rise in unemployment – Bank sees some hopeful signs April 22nd, 2009
• Darling tries to climb out of a financial hole April 19th, 2009
• Spending is the key to avoiding Ireland’s plight April 12th, 2009
• Better news on trade April 11th, 2009
• Carry on easing April 9th, 2009
• G20 gives us less reason to wallow in the gloom April 6th, 2009
• A Nationwide surprise April 2nd, 2009
• GDP fall revised to 1.6% March 27th, 2009
• Revolving door spins faster for the unemployed March 23rd, 2009
• King on regulation – Japan’s quantitative easing March 20th, 2009
• Fed’s new tactics – UK deeper in the red March 19th, 2009
• The Bank of England on deflation March 17th, 2009
• Bank must be ready to prick the inflation balloon March 15th, 2009
• Bank injection means we are all monetarists now March 9th, 2009