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Edmund Conway

The first cuts are the deepest

Let’s start off by putting this into perspective. Exciting as the Chancellor’s announcement of 10% spending cuts at seven (count ‘em) Government departments may sound, it amounts to barely more than a drop in the increasingly vast ocean that constitutes the public sector’s annual outgoings. [https://i0.

Britain's bank mortgage market is still imploding

[https://i0.wp.com/www.edmundconway.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/BBAdown1.jpg?ssl=1] If you wanted evidence of the problems in the UK mortgage market, look no further than this chart from the British Bankers Association. Mortgage lending annual growth has just dipped into negative territory for the

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[https://i0.wp.com/www.edmundconway.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/divergent.jpg?ssl=1] Further proof, if it were needed, that Britain is the most regionally imbalanced economy in Europe. Chart from Capital Economics. For more on this subject see here [https://www.edmundconway.com/2012/12/the-lopsided-recovery/].

George Osborne, the IMF and why Plan A never existed in the first place

Here’s a prediction: tomorrow morning some of the country’s esteemed newspapers will run stories saying the International Monetary Fund has just dealt a fresh blow to George Osborne, blasting his fiscal plans. At the same time, some newspapers will run stories saying quite the opposite: declaring a victory

Osborne 1 IMF 0

After all the fuss the International Monetary Fund has made over the past month about the need for the UK to change course on austerity, about how George Osborne’s policies are “playing with fire”, one might have expected a harsh verdict from the Fund in its annual survey of

Public finance update (for normal people)

Last month I wrote a lengthy piece about the disturbingly complex state of the public finances. Well, the latest month’s numbers [http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/psa/public-sector-finances/april-2013/index.html] – those for April – have come in. The good news for the Chancellor is that they are

The Jawbone Up and me

After a week or so wearing the Jawbone Up [https://jawbone.com/up] I suddenly realised I had started to develop some rather unusual habits. For one thing, I’d taken to swinging my arms rather more than usual when I walked. If I had a bag to carry I’