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Chris is not impressed with Beecroft
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Rick is good on Beecroft
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Bloomberg reports that “France finds itself in a sweet spot, drawing the strongest auction demand since the European debt crisis began in 2009 as bond investors give Francois Hollande, the country’s first Socialist president in 17 years, the benefit of the doubt.”
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A brilliant post by Jonathan Portes on trhe Not the Treasury View blog.
He says: "with long-term government borrowing as cheap as in living memory, with unemployed workers and plenty of spare capacity and with the UK suffering from both creaking infrastructure and a chronic lack of housing supply, now is the time for government to borrow and invest. This is not just basic macroeconomics, it is common sense. "
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In the 'Inequalities' blog, Lindsey Macmillan and Paul Gregg look at the evidence about inter-generational unemployment. There’s lot less than politicians and media sometimes suggest: “only 0.3% or 15,000 households are in a position where both generations have never worked” and in a third of these households the younger generation has been unemployed less than 1 year.
There +is+ inter-generational worklessness, but “it is only in the labour markets with high unemployment that sons with workless dads are disproportionately more likely to be workless than sons with employed dads.”
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Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez & Stefanie Stantcheva look at 18 OECD countries and disputes the claim that low taxes on the rich raise productivity and economic growth. The optimal top tax rate could be over 80% and no one but the mega rich would lose out.
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A new SKOPE pamphlet by Ewart Keep looks at what puts people off training & education (amongst other things).
If people know that they are members of a group or come from an area where people tend only to get lousy jobs (or none) they may not see much point in education & training. Raising the number & quality of jobs available may change their minds.
The UK has a high percentage of graduates working in jobs that don't require degrees: suggests over-supply & is likely to exacerbate problems for those who aren't graduates. If you see yourself as destined for unemployment or a bad job you will be even less likely to find learning attractive.
It is less and less credible to say education isn't producing numeracy & literacy skills. What it does fail to provide are maturity, a positive attitude and work experience – but these are best obtained in workplaces; they really should be seen as employers' responsibility.
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Center for American Progress's Matt Browne draws attention to Hollande's election campaign, which, though aimed at a French audience who want France to remain French, was resolutely about achieving change at a European level. Has any previous election campaign in a country of comparable scale seen such a progressive mix of nationalism and internationalism?
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A survey by the MS Society looks at attitudes to disability: 21% said disabled people should just accept they can’t have the same opportunities in life, 24% think disabled people often exaggerate the extent of their physical limitations (and 76% of people with MS say there has been at least one occasion when someone questioned whether they have MS because they ‘looked well’).
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Chris Dillow asks “What is happening to profits and wages?”. He looks at GDP by income (wages, profits and ‘other’) since 1955 and says that “the wage share fell between 1975 and 1997, but recovered thereafter, only to slip back since 2009.”
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The Northern Ireland Commissioner for children and young people's assessment of the Welfare Reform Act and the other welfare reforms concludes:
"The incomes of families with children in Northern Ireland have already been badly affected by welfare reforms introduced since 2010, with consequent lowering of living standards for those in the bottom half of society. Those families face a further drop in living standards over the coming three years and the Assembly needs to move to protect families with children in any way it can."
Northern Ireland has a relatively large proportion of households with children and higher levels of disability, so it will be especially hard hit.
The document also includes a useful timeline for welfare reforms affecting families with children since 2010.
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Robert Reich sets out an election-winning strategy for President Obama: growth not austerity, greater income equality, tackle mortgage arrears, and capping fuel prices.
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