Philippe Legrain

Coalition governments are par for the course in many countries in the world – and they often work fine. Bryan Gould points out on the Guardian’s Comment is Free that they work well even in a country with a Westminster-style democracy: New Zealand. The real significance of non-majority government is the change that it brings [...]

Tonight’s Panorama was a disgrace. It took as given that the population will rise to 70 million by 2030 when previous ONS projections have been wildly wrong. In 1965, they predicted a population of 75 million in 2000. It turned out to be 59 million, 16 million lower. It portrayed extra people solely as a [...]

On BBC Radio 5 Live this morning, I debated whether Britain is full up with Andrew Green of MigrationWatch. Listen here

Nine out of the top 10 areas for BNP votes actually have a below-average proportion of recent migrants, according to a new study by IPPR, Britain’s top think-tank for immigration research. Read the Guardian report here.

A great article by Bill Emmott, former editor of The Economist, in today’s Times (and not just because he very kindly quotes Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them). As he rightly says: Immigration is an issue on which all three main British parties are on the defensive and hence illiberal. This is an emerging tragedy for a country [...]

If there were a simple, single, universal theory of economic behaviour, then the suite of arguments comprising rational expectations, efficient markets and DSGE [dynamic stochastic general equilibrium] would be that theory. Any other way of describing the world would have to recognise that what people do depends on their fallible beliefs and perceptions, would have [...]

Apologies to those who tried to access philippelegrain.com yesterday but couldn’t. It was being migrated to a new server. The good news is that the site should now run faster and more smoothly.

Labour’s first election broadcast reminds voters how the Conservatives opposed most of the government’s anti-crisis measures. It highlights how Labour’s re-election pitch echoes the Tories’ in 1992: you might want a change, but can you trust the other lot with the economy? It worked for John Major… But will it work again this time?

China’s latest trade figures show that its imports soared by 66% over the past 12 months, while exports grew by 24%. As a result, China recorded its first monthly trade deficit in 6 years. Contrary to those who accuse China of being a drag on the global economy, it is a leading engine of growth.

The United States imported $2.7bn worth of the steel pipe used in oil and natural gas production in 2008, making it the highest-value US trade injury case on record. But because of slumping demand and US duties already imposed in the case, imports of the product from China fell last year to about $1.1bn. Now [...]

Excellent article by Avinash Persaud on Vox Highlights: The notion that the world was suffering from a savings glut, that would have pulled us all into recession were it not for America’s selfless consumption, is also as deficient in arithmetic as it is self-serving. You cannot save yourself into boom… But all it would take [...]

A truly excellent article. Excerpts On currency manipulation: The US treasury has been charged by Congress to assess whether China is a “currency manipulator”. Although President Barack Obama has now delayed for some months when the treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, must issue his report, the very concept of “currency manipulation” itself is flawed: all governments [...]

On liberalism: A liberal basically believes that what you should be doing, every waking minute if you are in politics, is trying to release potential, create opportunity, remove barriers to social progress, liberate social mobility. On Labour and the Tories: Yes, Labour has “betrayed the progressive cause”, destroyed civil liberties and taken the country into [...]

Patrick Messerlin, one of France’s most perceptive economists, has written an interesting piece in the new issue of Europe’s World about how OECD countries should respond to the rise of China, India and other emerging economies. Brazil, China, India, Korea and Mexico are already playing a key, positive role in the world economy. First, in [...]

During Britain’s early-1980s recession, a 4.7% loss in output caused employment to fall by 2.4%. In the early 1990s recession, a 2.5% loss in output led to a 3.4%  fall in the number of people in work. In the recent recession, output plunged by 6.2% but employment fell by only 1.9%. So whereas in the [...]

This is a more technical post. When financial panic spread even to sound emerging economies after Lehman collapsed in September 2008, the Fed responded by extending swap lines to central banks in Brazil, Korea, Mexico and Singapore, while the ECB provided them to Hungary and Poland. These unprecedented moves played a key role in quelling [...]

Guardian, 10 April 2010. A proper examination of ONS figures shows that despite an increase in immigration 1.2 million more Britons have jobs

Financial Times, 9 April 2010.

Prospect, April 2010. A new land tax is the only efficient and fair way to bring Britain’s finances back into line

In an election year, Kevin Rudd takes a page out of John Howard’s book. Despicable.