Philippe Legrain

Excellent piece by Peter Sutherland in today’s FT: An honourable tradition of the European Union is that of turning a crisis into an opportunity… The past three months have provided painful lessons to the leaders of the eurozone about the design flaws of the single European currency… Without the single currency, Europe would be an economic [...]

This article first appeared on the Guardian‘s Comment is Free. To anyone concerned that immigration is out of control, a promise to capthe number of people entering Britain seems very appealing. That’s why the Conservatives made the pledge during the election campaign. Such is the anti-immigrant fervour among the Tory grassroots that David Cameron didn’t dare [...]

The Guardian, 28 June 2010. The government’s arbitrary limit will deprive the economy of skilled workers it needs but barely dent overall migrant numbers

I gave a talk about Aftershock at the RSA on 17 June. A video of it is now on YouTube. Audio is here.

George Osborne described it as “unavoidable” and “progressive”, Vince Cable as “necessary” and “fair”. Don’t blame us, Tweedledee and Tweedledum suggest, Labour left the public finances in a mess – and unless we tighten our belts drastically now, the markets will force our hand. But in fact, the timing, extent and manner of this brutal [...]

The Times, 16 June 2010. Adopting Churchill’s plan would benefit wealth creators at the expense of the idle rich

This article appeared in The Times on 16 June 2010. Filling the gaping hole in the Government’s finances is, in George Osborne’s words, the “great national challenge of our generation”. Unwise spending cuts and tax rises could sap economic growth; unfair ones provoke political unrest; inaction a market panic. Faced with a national crisis, who [...]

Forbes, 28 June 2010. Opening America’s borders is morally right, economically beneficial–and would even make America safer.

The case for open borders, the cover article in the new Forbes magazine.

As the world economy tiptoes back from the precipice, there is a growing appetite for books that try to read the future. Two thoughtful studies—one by a former Economist journalist and commentator on globalisation, Philippe Legrain, and the other by Raghuram Rajan, once the chief economist at the IMF and now at the University of Chicago—aim [...]

In his blog post, Dealing with Chermany, Paul Krugman advocates threatening China (and, indirectly, Germany) with an anti-dumping duty to get them to boost domestic demand. China has done nothing to change its policy of massive currency manipulation…  Europe is going wild for fiscal austerity… everyone is counting on the US to become the consumer [...]

Bill Emmott, a distinguished author and former editor of The Economist, has reviewed Aftershock in Survival, the magazine of The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). He says: Many of the books about the economic crisis have been descriptions of the dramatic events at Lehman Brothers, say, or of what it was like to be [...]

In his column in The Times today, David Aaronovitch uses Aftershock to buttress his arguments: Legrain is looking at how to fashion policy after the crisis. And he reminds his readers that Britain exists in a world of constant change, one that demands that we keep up. For example, we speak all the time about [...]

Paschal Donohoe, Senator for Dublin Central, and @PaschalD on Twitter, has posted a very positive review of Aftershock on his blog. Thank you.

I debated the issue on BBC’s Hardtalk with Irwin Stelzer of the Hudson Institute and Italian politician Emma Bonino. Interview by Zeinab Badawi. Watch it on BBC iPlayer For those outside the UK who cannot access BBC iPlayer, watch it on YouTube. Part 2 Part 3

Great piece of photo journalism by Dulce Pinzón on ForeignPolicy.com