Nicolò Fraccaroli

The Economic Consequences of Mr. Osborne

The Ferguson-Skidelsky debate opens with an article by Ferguson which appeared in the Financial Times on 10 May 2015 [omitted] following the general election in which he claimed that the architect of the Conservative victory was George Osborne.

Myths of Austerity

When I was young and naive, I believed that important people took positions based on careful consideration of the options. Now I know better. Much of what Serious People believe rests on prejudices, not analysis. And these prejudices are subject to fads and fashions. Which brings me to the subject [of this article]. For the last few months, I and others have watched, with amazement and horror, the emergence of a consensus in policy circles in favor of immediate fiscal austerity. That is, somehow it has become conventional wisdom that now is the time to slash spending, despite the fact that the world’s major economies remain deeply depressed.

Confidence in the UK Is Different from the One in the Eurozone

Why does the Spanish government pay significantly more to borrow than the UK government—despite having a smaller deficit and lower overall debt? This column argues that the reason lies in the Eurozone’s fragility. Its members lose their ability to issue debt in a currency over which they have full control. The column discusses ways to deal with this weakness.

Britain’s Confidence

Vince Cable’s essay […] is the first, and very welcome, sign of a senior coalition politician being willing to engage in a serious public debate on economic policy. It is in a different intellectual league from the jejune meditations of the Chancellor, George Osborne.

A Stimulus Policy for the UK

This is a modified version of the article published in The New Statesman on January 16, 2016 with the title The Optimism Error.

The Political Power of Austerity

This book has tried to answer many questions on austerity. What arguments is austerity based on, in what respects are they wrong, and where does the idea of austerity come from? We also explored why confidence has gained such an important role in the debate on fiscal policy and why it has to do with politics and ideology.

George Osborne’s Economics: Austerity in the UK

The same straightforward argument proposed by Graeber is used in this open letter by Ha-Joon Chang, Thomas Piketty, Mariana Mazzucato et al. addressed to the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.

Austerity vs Stimulus

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Contemporary Arguments for Austerity

price are net prices, subject to local VAT. Prices indicated with * include VAT for books; the €(D) includes 7% for Germany, the €(A) includes 10% for Austria. Prices indicated with ** include VAT for electronic products; 19% for Germany, 20% for Austria. All prices exclusive of carriage charges. Prices and other details are subject to change without notice. All errors and omissions excepted. R. Skidelsky, N. Fraccaroli Austerity vs Stimulus

Stimulus for the UK

The concept of austerity was revived by a group of Italian graduates at Bocconi University in Milan. According to Mark Blyth, author of a book on the history of austerity, the “modern argument for austerity” was developed by this group of scholars, of which the two most prominent members is Alberto Alesina (Harvard University, former Bocconi graduate), the author of the following article. In Blyth’s words, “the importance of Alesina and his collaborators’ work in defining and defending the modern policy case for austerity cannot be overestimated” as reported by Blyth (Austerity: The history of a dangerous idea, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013, p. 167).