Business Secretary Lord Mandelson today made an important speech at a Progress event at the London School of Economics today, this is the full transcript: Before the summer I said that we are now the underdogs in politics. I posed the question whether our response to that fact was to give into defeatism or to fight back. I know what the answer will be from our friends in Progress. It is not a ques...

Peter Mandelson today made a stunning return to the government as he was appointed business secretary in today's reshuffle. We look back over his career so far

Herman Daly is sometimes regarded as the founder of “ecological economics”. The difference between environmental economics and ecological economics is often characterised as the former being bringing the insights of economics to hte environemnt. The latter, bringing the insights of ecology* to economics. Judging by this little piece ecological economics is rather the abandonment of any...

The report is, from the outset, fundamentally flawed as a result. Why ass this mistake mean made? Simply because this whole review is built on the bankrupt model of neoclassical economics. That’s how he greets the Mirrlees Review. You know, the voluminous review of the economics and politics of taxation undertaken by a Nobel Laureate in economics? During

That true conservative, Martin Kelly, writes: An academic named Guy Dammann has an article in today's 'Guardian' entitled 'The trouble with economics'. Like all critiques of economics, it fails to mention the blindingly obvious; that economics is not a science, but a religion. Like all religions, it states that its prescriptions are the path to wellbeing and fulfillment. The recent extension of ec...

Blimey - who ever would have thought that Gordon had the balls to bring back Peter Mandelson? In my view - a master stroke - unless M messes up again. Which is a gamble - though still as he said on the news clips - third time lucky. But in terms of keeping your enemies close and your friends even closer - bringing in Mandelson (who manages to be both enemy and friend) that close is to undermine th...

Jesse Norman sent me a copy of his new book "Compassionate Economics". Lots of good stuff…and a few slightly tangled arguments. But essentially, compassionate economics is:  In technical terms, it is a blend of institutional, behavioural and “Austrian” economics. Or as we might term that, classical liberalism. I fully agree of course but in trying to sell that

From the Guardian :: Gordon Brown defends decision to bring Peter Mandelson back into government Gordon Brown today explained his astonishing decision to bring his bitter rival Peter Mandelson back into the cabinet as business secretary, saying: “Serious people are needed for serious times.” At a press conference in Downing Street, the prime minister said he was appointing

They don’t really mix, do they, Seamus Milne and economics? That’s what makes Mandelson’s sudden conversion to industrial policy - anathema under the New Labour ancien regime - all the more emblematic. The new business secretary’s commitment to "industrial activism" to support low-carbon, hi-tech manufacturing, spelled out last night in his Hugo Young memorial lectu...

Editorial: Traditional economics now faces a serious challenge - because behavioural economics is much more than a buzzword