UK
Britain is going through a difficult time, when its sustained ability to punch above its weight, economically and diplomatically, is ebbing. The end of irrational exuberance found the country ill at ease with itself, with rising inequalities and unhealthy nationalism, just when it needs to be fleet-footed in recognising that many of the traditional pillars of its strengths have changed. The need is to recognise other supports and partners and find a new common purpose after the pandemic. I live in hope.
what next ?
Saturday 21st May 2011
"Manchester is a city that plumbed the depths, picked ourselves up and had a good run. But what next ? If you don’t know where you’re going, all roads lead nowhere..." you can read the whole article on p26 of the current edition of DQ magazine...
ya boo birmingham
Saturday 21st May 2011
Rather rising to the bait of course, but couldn’t resist a pop at our good friends down the m6, when my mate digby jones popped up to say manchester was seriously challenging his home patch to the rather dubious title of second city. “We compare ourselves to brussels and barcelona, not some mediocre english city a few miles south of mighty manchester” I think I said. Meanwhile, a somewhat weightier article yesterday (p14)...
doom and gloom
Sunday 10th April 2011
My research team puts out a monthly economic newsletter, that gets quite a lot of local coverage, and notably more so when the story is rather pessimistic, as we were this month, as several negative trends got sufficient critical mass for us to call a downturn, which is our broad, though not smooth, forecast. A successful call on the ecb rate hike, though hardly rocket science, earned me a special mention, taken from the attached article
one to watch
Friday 4th February 2011
That’s me, apparently. IPPR north, which I guess I must now say is an excellent think tank, has come up with its list of the 50 people to watch out for in the north of england. I get an honourable mention with some bright talent indeed. You can see the whole list here.
talent maketh the city
Tuesday 25th January 2011
“Talent” is that thin layer on the top that makes all the difference. Incapable of precise definition, it is a small group of people, based on raw ability not worth or wealth, that make a massive difference, creating both monetary and social capital, building firms and communities, providing both the drive and glue that make things happen. I spoke today at an event designed to flag what we are doing in manchester to attract these flighty individuals. Politically difficult – as why should we spend brain power on people that don’t even live here – but vital, the clear message is: we want you. Read the report here
it's the governance, stupid
Saturday 22nd January 2011
Some months ago now I was a respondent at a research conference (p6), picking up the themes of 3 papers on how the right governance at the right level positively affects economic growth, “strong, stable governance prioritises, reaps opportunity and deals with challenges...”
the axe person cometh
Saturday 27th November 2010
Good coverage and editorial in the local newspaper of a report we wrote for manchester’s ten leaders on the likely affect of the current spending cuts. They are about to form themselves into a new statutory authority covering nearly 3 million people, so this intelligence is important. We concluded that things will be very grim, but you’d rather be in manchester than anywhere else in northern england. Despite the gloom, good things are afoot and if we stick with the programme, we’ll reap the rewards.
data, data, everywhere
Saturday 20th November 2010
I gave a presentation at a google-sponsored business breakfast aimed at getting businesses on-line, which apparently boosts chances of success by 4 times. What I gained was a better understanding about analytical literacy. There’s so much of it around that the potential to replace strategic educated guesswork with much more powerful data analysis is overwhelming, and those that can will be the new royalty. There’s a fantastic economist article on this: “when the sloan digital sky survey started work in 2000, its telescope in new mexico collected more data in its first few weeks than had been amassed in the entire history of astronomy. Now, a decade later, its archive contains a whopping 140 terabytes of information. A successor, the…
brazil
Saturday 26th June 2010
Brazil has the largest domestic market in south america, and in 2014 is likely to become the world’s fifth biggest economy – eclipsing both france and britain. “Once we identified brazil as a target, we looked at the synergies between the brazilian economy and the manchester economy to uncover the exact opportunities,” says director of economic strategy at new economy, baron frankal. “There is no point in just sending unprepared politicians to brazil...” (p2)
a society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in
Friday 18th June 2010
What made manchester greater was a combination of a moist climate, imperialism, routes to market like the manchester ship canal and a sustained knack for innovation and marketing, which somewhere along the line was lost to profit-taking, brain drain, an inability to see and seize change and inevitable decline. A crucial ingredient was the existence of an elite that had social capital, money-making zeal, civic pride, responsibility and an ethos to build a just and prosperous society in its own image. This was a central point of my speech to the city’s st james club.
how are we doing ?
Friday 18th June 2010
This is my periodic "plain talking economist" spot at our board meeting (making it less a bored meeting). The message was of the passing of the baton from west to east and how we must adjust or die; the national debt being symptomic but hugely problematic. You can get more from the manchester monitor but it's the bigger picture that fascinates most. Picked up on radio 4's "beyond westminster"
2010, year of moving sideways ?
Sunday 17th January 2010
2009 was not as bad as it might have been, due largely to fiscal and monetary stimulus never before seen. Stability seems the result, even in the labour market. However, the risk is weak recovery and that 2010 is worse than expected. The champagne cork pressure behind pumping up public expenditure and keeping interest rates at record lows will be released, though hopefully in a manageable way. So fasten your seatbelts, but put your foot on the accelerator... You can read the views of manchester's best "experts" here