Unemployment figures aren’t reporting unemployment

The labour market will be at the heart of a post-pandemic economic recovery. We are in the middle of Britain’s sharpest recession in hundreds of years, but this is not any normal downturn. The virus and repeated lockdowns have reduced demand and, once restrictions are substantially eased, activity will certainly rebound. But the induced recession…

Internet traders take on hedge funds at their own game

As widely reported in the media, this week in equity markets has been a wild ride through the depths of the internet. GameStop, a consumer electronics store that looked destined to be another retail casualty, saw its stock price propelled to unthinkable heights over the last five days, after retail traders turned the company into…

A fraying of nerves

In the middle stages of the pandemic, when things had the potential for going very, very badly, there was a sense of global solidarity and unity among people and politicians. Maybe China received opprobrium – it was certainly demonised by many in the US – and the iconoclast in the White House enjoyed being different.…