Unintended consequences and perverse incentives from political choices
Latest Blog Entries
Graduated benefits
While writing a blog piece on the Establishment, I wanted to include statistics for the number of MPs, civil servants etc. who graduated from Oxbridge, Russell Group or any university, and how the subjects they studied compared with the…
07 Apr 2020
Stepping back
Lots of comments about how exchange rates and equity-price movements show that the UK is (a) doomed or (b) well-placed post-Brexit. Movements and values over a few days tell us nothing except the climate of hope or fear in those few days…
11 Jul 2016
The worst form of government
An anti-democratic mini-meme developed amongst some of my liberal friends in the build-up to the EU referendum. For some people, democracy is a virtue and governance structures that provide more direct democratic accountability are…
09 Jul 2016
Letter to my employees about the Brexit referendum
All, The CBI think that bosses should inform employees about Brexit. http://news.sky.com/story/1697273/bosses-told-to-warn-workers-of-brexit-risks This patronising suggestion is typical of the Confederation of Big Business, and of a Remain…
20 May 2016
Talking Balls
Is Ed Balls a knave or a fool? On Newsnight, he just compared eliminating the deficit in four years to paying down a mortgage in short order. Let's consider the form that analogy should take if it were to reflect reality. Having engaged in…
16 Mar 2011
Promote industry. Bag a banker.
Boris Johnson is quoted in MoneyWeek as having said to Management Today: "To the banker bashers I say, what's your economic model? We can't ignore and hate the bankers. What would that achieve? Show me how reducing financial services boosts…
17 Jan 2011
Quotes
Bureaucratic management is management bound to comply with detailed rules and regulations fixed by the authority of a superior body. The task of the bureaucrat is to perform what these rules and regulations order him to do. His discretion to act according to his own best conviction is seriously restricted by them
Bureaucracy (1945), p.58
It is a fact that the policies which resulted in the establishment of the bureaucratic system were supported by the majority of the Members of Parliament
Bureaucracy, p.14
Nothing can prevent some seats in the theatre from being better than others.