Wages, war bonds and winning interview techniques Top of the Charts 22 January 2021 Afternoon all, Donald Trump is back on the golf course, the US is signing up to Paris, and the QAnon loons have realised something is up. Nature is healing, albeit after the political equivalent of a nuclear winter. Here the currently peaking daily death rates are a sobering reminder of our failure to lockdown pre-Christmas. … Continued READ MORE
Biden, Brexit and the borrowing blues Top of the Charts 15 January 2021 Afternoon all, This morning brought news that UK economic output shrank 2.6 per cent in November, leaving it still 8.5 per cent below pre-pandemic levels. Output is almost certainly falling again now, but luckily as GDP goes down vaccinations are swiftly going up and indications are the government is doing a good job of further ramping … Continued READ MORE
Big cheques, teenage kicks and why the HR dept could decide your future Top of the Charts 8 January 2021 Afternoon all, Now I know this is going to be hard for some of you to accept, but there has been a full and fair process. None of the fraud allegations have been upheld. So it’s time to certify the winners of this year’s Resolution Foundation Christmas quiz. Almost 700 entries saw a mean score … Continued READ MORE
Getting Britain towards a zero-carbon, zero-destitution economy Top of the Charts 11 December 2020 Afternoon all, And no, I haven’t got a clue what’s going on either. Well, that’s not quite right, given it’s pretty clear what’s going on is a colossal failure by us and the EU to sort something in both of our economic and geo-political interests. But I’ve got no clue where this mess ends up. … Continued READ MORE
Muddy charts and the silencing of grief Top of the Charts 'Hidden gems' round-up: November 2020 8 December 2020 The latest from Resolution Foundation Chief Executive Torsten Bell’s weekly Observer column, Hidden gems from the world of research and academia. Read more of the latest economics and policy research in our weekly reading email, Top of the Charts. Vanity number plates are now status symbols not to be sneered at We humans care about social … Continued READ MORE
Losing boots, gaining debts, and handing it all over to the grandkids Top of the Charts 4 December 2020 Afternoon all, And happy “science is good” week to everyone. We’ve got vaccines being certified and protein structures getting determined – which all sounds very impressive. But the onward march of technology brings challenges too. This week saw retail reopen its doors but Arcadia and Debenhams on course to close theirs forever. So this week’s … Continued READ MORE
Spending Review Special Top of the Charts 27 November 2020 Morning all, We started the week learning that we could all drive home for Christmas but ended it with fears for tiers confirmed across parts of the country, from Maidstone to Manchester. To be honest we haven’t got much Christmas prep/tiny turkey hunting done yet, with this week wiped out by examining the Chancellor’s new … Continued READ MORE
New jobs, lazy kids, and trouble in the French supermarket Top of the Charts 20 November 2020 Afternoon all, I can’t quite tell which bits of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn is and isn’t in these days, while the line appears to be that Priti Patel is a bully but not an intentional one (whatever that means). At least this style of facing both ways on personnel decisions is in no way … Continued READ MORE
Old pandemics, new taxes and the return of being tired of experts Top of the Charts 13 November 2020 Afternoon all, I’m a little confused. Lee Cain was definitely offered Boris’ Chief of Staff job, but resigned. Dominic Cumming has most definitely not resigned, but will be leaving Downing Street before Christmas. It’s almost like some people think that reality is shaped by the words you say, rather than what you actually do. That … Continued READ MORE
Coronavirus· Fiscal policy· Economy and public finances· Tax Fiscal multi-tasking 12 November 2020 by Torsten Bell Multi-tasking can be hard. Ask any parent that survived lockdown by combining work with something resembling home schooling. But it’s also a fact of life, so the trick is to manage multiple objectives well, not wish them away. This is true for people and our Government. Indeed, fiscal multi-tasking is what the 2020s are all … Continued READ MORE
Big bungs and job-boosting elections Top of the Charts 6 November 2020 Afternoon all, It’s been a big week for decision taking. The US (probably) isn’t giving Trump four more years (🤞), but the UK has given the Job Retention Scheme four more months. UK politics nerds are horrified by it taking three days plus to count some ballots (while being secretly thrilled at the excuse to keep watching … Continued READ MORE
Green taxes and time-wasting filing Top of the Charts 'Hidden gems' round-up: October 2020 6 November 2020 The latest from Resolution Foundation Chief Executive Torsten Bell’s weekly Observer column, Hidden gems from the world of research and academia. Read more of the latest economics and policy research in our weekly reading email, Top of the Charts. Protect the poor from being penalised by carbon taxes In those glorious pre-pandemic days we only had … Continued READ MORE
Lacking economic diversity and losing creativity Top of the Charts 30 October 2020 Afternoon all, TOTCs this week comes from a misty South-West, which is a mixed blessing (low virus cases, high wind/rain). But even with low cases, the impact of the pandemic is everywhere – particularly in the face-to-face services in tourist reliant areas who, along with city centres, are in the front line of this crisis. … Continued READ MORE
A very sectoral crisis and rewriting fiscal standards Top of the Charts 23 October 2020 Afternoon all, The ramping up of restrictions is getting very real today – Wales is in hard lockdown and post-row Greater Manchester has entered tier 3. South Yorkshire has got less than eight hours left before it follows suit. All of which shows why the Chancellor was right to basically totally reinvent his Job Support … Continued READ MORE
Coronavirus Worse for some The economic pain is being felt differently by different people. And for many of them, rock bottom is still to come 23 October 2020 by Torsten Bell The pan in pandemic is a dangerous prefix. While the virus now straddles the globe, those three letters can give the impression of an equality of impact that is very far from the truth. On the health side this is blindingly obvious, with death rates from the virus climbing sharply with age and, as in … Continued READ MORE
History tells us to brace for 1990s-style tax rises rather than spending cuts 21 October 2020 by Torsten Bell A common human flaw is to believe the future will look like our immediate past. If something unusual has happened we conclude it’s likely to happen again. The person unlucky enough to be struck by lightning spends more time than the rest of us worrying about storms. That a lucky gambler thinks they’ll get lucky … Continued READ MORE
Analysing plagues, paying for pandemics and searching for aliens Top of the Charts 16 October 2020 Afternoon all, This is the week the music consensus died. It’s hardly surprising, with political fracturing between parties and places reflecting the tensions all of us feel confronting the reality that this pandemic is here to stay. But it’s a disaster if public faith in collective decision taking is undermined in the midst of a … Continued READ MORE
Talking tax, gender divides and predicting crises Top of the Charts 9 October 2020 Afternoon all, Today is impressively managing to combine the (inevitable) end of the V-shaped recovery, with the overdue catching-up of policy with local lockdown reality. At 7am we learnt that GDP grew by 2.1 per cent in August, down from 6.4 per cent in July and 9.1 per cent in June. Almost all that growth … Continued READ MORE
Epidemics of unhappiness and getting lost at sea Top of the Charts 'Hidden gems' round-up: September 2020 2 October 2020 The latest from Resolution Foundation Chief Executive Torsten Bell’s weekly Observer column, Hidden gems from the world of research and academia. Read more of the latest economics and policy research in our weekly reading email, Top of the Charts. How coronavirus piled misery on India’s workers Cities are the centres of this crisis, but not all … Continued READ MORE
Vaccine predictions and sleep restrictions Top of the Charts 2 October 2020 Afternoon all, I see the 2020 gods have decided we haven’t had enough uncertainty and chaos. At least Donald Trump seems to understand that you quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19 – not something all our own politicians have got the hang of it appears. For the increasing number of you entering quarantine (or just … Continued READ MORE
(Economic) Winter is Coming special Top of the Charts 25 September 2020 Afternoon all, Winter is coming and so is the Chancellor’s Winter Economy Plan, announced yesterday. Since the plan is a) brand new and b) fiendishly complex, we thought we’d devote a TOTCs special to it. It’s complicated, so there are inevitably good and less good elements. But the big picture is this – it is … Continued READ MORE
Rich partners, poor parents and Trump-loving neighbours Top of the Charts 18 September 2020 Afternoon all, So we’re going from opening up to closing back down again. Local lockdowns, rules of six and (apparently) circuit breaks. All I’m saying is that the last remaining V-shapers out there must be smoking something very strong indeed. In fact, if rising cases and rising unemployment have one silver lining it’s to end … Continued READ MORE
Losing the home team advantage and parental support vs the welfare state Top of the Charts 'Hidden gems' round-up: August 2020 11 September 2020 The latest from Resolution Foundation Chief Executive Torsten Bell’s weekly Observer column, Hidden gems from the world of research and academia. Read more of the latest economics and policy research in our weekly reading email, Top of the Charts. Britain might look to Germany to heal the north-south divide Before the government was forced into locking … Continued READ MORE
Explaining economics through rivers, mountains and concrete Top of the Charts 11 September 2020 Afternoon all, Lawbreaking aside, the big news this week is that the rule of six is on, and Christmas is off. The kids are going to riot when someone tells them what’s going on, but the upside is a notably lower turkey-related divorce rate this year. That today’s GDP stats also followed the rule of … Continued READ MORE
Mutant algorithims, dodgy hair salons and bad debts Top of the Charts 4 September 2020 Afternoon all, Schools’ back. Well actually, ours isn’t – which I am totally, 100 per cent, relaxed about… But everyone other one seems to be, which is good news. I’ve always been in the “we should probably educate the kids” camp. It’s a rather basic civic duty. Like voting, which apparently Donald Trump is now … Continued READ MORE