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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell
@jomichell.bsky.social
7.8K followers 890 following 3.6K posts
Professor of economics at UWE Bristol. Chair of Post-Keynesian Economics Society. Interested in macro, finance, banking, climate change, inequality, demographics. https://people.uwe.ac.uk/Person/JoMichell
people.uwe.ac.uk
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · Nov 22
Got a longish read in @phenomenalworld.bsky.social on the budget, Labour's economic strategy and UK political economy.

www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/bey...
Beyond Growth | Jo Michell
Can Labour rise to the politics of growth after fourteen years of stagnation?
www.phenomenalworld.org
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 2m
Look, it's good that we can finally say the B-word, but for the love of god please stop saying that other B-word.
profjacob.bsky.social
Jacob Öberg @profjacob.bsky.social · 6h
🚨🚨Chancellor Rachel Reeves acknowledges she is looking at potential tax rises and spending cuts to fill a black hole in her Budget which she said was partly due to the lingering impact of #Brexit. 🧵
www.independent.co.uk/money/rachel...
Reeves eyes tax hikes as economy suffers ‘severe and long-lasting’ Brexit impact
Rachel Reeves said ‘austerity, Brexit, and the ongoing impact of Liz Truss’s mini-budget’ had weighed heavily on the UK economy.
www.independent.co.uk
Reposted by Jo Michell
jdportes.bsky.social
Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 49m
A much needed corrective by @chrisgiles.ft.com to the "welfare is out of control" narrative, drawing on research by my colleague @benbgeiger.bsky.social

www.ft.com/content/ee67...
No need for a moral panic about the welfare system
It’s far from perfect, but the UK’s spending is broadly controlled and employment is high
www.ft.com
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 1h
And here. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Do We Need Fiscal Targets?
The United Kingdom’s fiscal policy framework is increasingly recognised to be unfit for purpose. In particular, much-needed public investment has been sacrifice
papers.ssrn.com
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 1h
Here. www.elgaronline.com/view/journal...
www.elgaronline.com
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 1h
And here. ukandeu.ac.uk/lessons-from...
Lessons from the downfall of Truss for macroeconomic governance - UK in a changing Europe
Jo Michell examines the resignation of Liz Truss concluding that the UK should rethink its macroeconomic institutional framework.
ukandeu.ac.uk
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 1h
And here. fabians.org.uk/publication/...
In Tandem | Fabian Society
Fabian Society
fabians.org.uk
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 1h
I and colleagues have been making this case for some time now. For example here: progressiveeconomyforum.com/development/...
Can the Bank of England do it? – The Progressive Economy Forum
progressiveeconomyforum.com
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 1h
There is no plausible counter-argument to the claim that monetary policy and fiscal policy are irreversibly interwined. It is a question of when, and after how much incoherent debate, not if we get some form of coordination.
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 1h
The director of NIESR calling for monetary-fiscal coordination: "The current monetary-fiscal framework for big economies was devised for a world of low inflation, small central bank balance sheets and modest public debt... This is no longer the world we live in." www.ft.com/content/3640...
We need a new monetary-fiscal settlement
A fresh regime is required for a world of high debt and large central bank balance sheets
www.ft.com
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Reposted by Jo Michell
chrisgiles.ft.com
Chris Giles @chrisgiles.ft.com · 1h
There is no need for a moral panic about the UK's welfare system.

Far from perfect but recent discourse is nuts

Spending is controlled, not spiralling

Worklessness is near record lows

My column www.ft.com/content/ee67...
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 4h
yep just noticed i'm duplicating discussion!
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 4h
'you can't actually put the salami back in the donkey', as no wise person said ever.
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 4h
It's a bit more direct than Weller perhaps.
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 4h
Smithers-Jones was Foxton I think.
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 4h
This is a crucial point. I fear that Number 11 thinks that what the bond market cares about is the trajectory of the primary deficit over the next five years, and doesn't care about the underlying details. That's exactly the wrong way to think about it.
brokenbanker.bsky.social
BrokenBanker @brokenbanker.bsky.social · 4h
am I wrong to think Reeves cannot possibly build in a meaningful buffer for future deficits without touching one of the big 3 taxes ? because if it does become just spending cuts and salami-slicing tax increases, Gilts are not going to be impressed. surely they have learnt this lesson at least ?
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 4h
I can't see a way of doing it without touching one of those. You can just about get to say £30bn through incoherent salami slicing, but ...

And, no I really don't think they have learned the lesson. I think they have a very basic and basically wrong understanding of the bond market.
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 4h
You know what's a big factor in the perpetuation of the #doomloop? Journalists who are determined to prevent any prospect of an sober and coherent public discussion of fiscal policy and public finances.
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride claims UK in 'tax doom loop' and Reeves to blame In his Sky News interview with the chancellor, Sam Coates put it to her that the UK was in a “doom loop” where the government needed to come back every year with higher taxes to fill a black hole in the public finances. Rachel Reeves replied: “Nobody wants that cycle to end more than I do, Sam.”
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 5h
Spending cuts, or a collection of incoherent salami-slicing tax increases selected only because of the nominal price tag with no consideration of the implications for incentives, distribution etc.
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 6h
Yep. The danger here is Reeves does something silly at the budget, bond yields fall for entirely unrelated reasons, and once again the wrong lessons are learned.
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 7h
Indeed.
Andrew Wishart, economist at Berenberg, said the improvement partly reflected recent job cuts in hospitality and retail, the sectors hardest hit by April's tax and minimum wage changes. "Cutting the lowest-paid and least productive staff pushes up the average output of those still working," he said.
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 23h
Yep going to have to add some more Mokyr to my reading list.
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Reposted by Jo Michell
calebalthorpe.bsky.social
Caleb Althorpe @calebalthorpe.bsky.social · 9d
The next Visions speaker series event is approaching!

On Oct 17 I'll be talking with @christinejberry.bsky.social about her book project: 'Ours: Reclaiming Ownership of What Matters'

Join us for a conversation about what a democratic economy might mean & how we might go about building it together
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 1d
The determination of the discipline to exclude almost any other method of analysis from the realms of acceptable theory -- and the refusal to even discuss, let alone justify, this -- is at the heart of why so much goes wrong in academic economics.
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jomichell.bsky.social
Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 1d
Interesting post. If this is indeed an award for method, then what's rewarded, in terms of theoretical method, is 'try and say something interesting while sticking to the accepted -- indeed required -- method of representative agent inter-temporal optimisation'.
undercoverhist.bsky.social
undercoverhist.bsky.social @undercoverhist.bsky.social · 1d
What does a Nobel Prize on ‘innovation-driven economic growth’ actually reward?

A historian’s perspective on how to deal with the Nobel frenzy

beatricecherrier.wordpress.com/2025/10/13/w...
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Reposted by Jo Michell
t0nyyates.bsky.social
Tony Yates @t0nyyates.bsky.social · 1d
Thing by me on today's Econ nobel in @alphaville.ft.com : www.ft.com/content/b8aa...
Idealist and/or materialist theories of economic growth
[FREE TO READ] Nobel committee: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
www.ft.com
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