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economics

Value, Importance & Tomatoes 🍅

Value, Importance & Tomatoes 🍅

I wrote something for today's Sunday Times. The theme won’t come as much of a surprise if you’ve read a few of my other recent pieces here: that solving the current energy crisis and for that matter hitting net zero is a lot more complicated (and

Jelly rolls and coking drums: a bottom-up look at batteries 🔋

Jelly rolls and coking drums: a bottom-up look at batteries 🔋

I’ve spent a lot of the past few months thinking about batteries, which turn out to be one of the most fascinating topics in modern economics. Here’s a film I’ve made for Sky News about it. Please do watch it! The main problem I had while researching

The curse of big numbers

The curse of big numbers

There are many irritating things about the world of politics and economics but perhaps the most irritating of all is something I like to call numberism. The term might not be familiar but you will almost certainly know what I mean. Numberism is when politicians take a big number and

Unjolly hockey sticks

Unjolly hockey sticks

Someone asked an interesting question at the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ post-Budget briefing yesterday: have we ever seen a squeeze in real earnings like the one we’re currently experiencing? The question matters because real earnings are one of the most important barometers of the economy’s health. During the

Woods, trees and spending reviews

Woods, trees and spending reviews

It’s been a long time since we’ve had a proper spending review in this country - and by “proper spending review” I mean, something which actually sets the course of government policy for more than a year. These events are often overshadowed by the Budget, which is where

The industrial re-revolution

The industrial re-revolution

Economists are obsessed with the industrial revolution. And when I say obsessed I mean obsessed. The more economic history you read (and I read quite a lot) the more you realise how much of it is really about the industrial revolution - even when those words are nowhere in the

Climate change: why isn't government putting its money where their mouth is?

Climate change: why isn't government putting its money where their mouth is?

Let’s begin with a question. How much would you say governments around the developed world spend on research into energy? They certainly talk about it rather a lot, from Joe Biden to Boris Johnson (and for that matter from Barack Obama to David Cameron) they have talked continually about