About the Blog

The idea for this blog came from people I know asking me questions about what’s going on with the economy.  It opened my eyes to a potential gap in news dealing with the economy. Articles on business and finance tend to focus on narrow issues providing only small pieces of larger stories.  This makes it tough even for someone with knowledge of economics to get to grips with what’s going on both locally and globally.  The blog aims to look at the bigger picture and find the missing pieces to help a wider audience understand different topics in economics and finance.

A further reason for writing this blog is that economics is coming to greater prominence as governments and central banks play a larger role in the direction of the economy.  It’s difficult to retain a sense of control over our own lives when ideas which only few people understand have such a high level of influence.  We are affected not only by local issues but also by the actions of central banks in other countries as well as economic growth in emerging markets such as China.

My experiences have taught me that blindly following what we are told is not always the best policy, as shown by the global financial crisis.  I cast a critical eye over economic ideas and policies without being afraid to point out where economic theory departs from reality.  This means that I don’t always follow the normal prescriptions seen in economic policy but come up with my own ideas about what solutions might work.

Based in my local neighbourhood, I explain economics using everyday language without the jargon commonly used by industry experts.  I aim for quality writing with a tone more appropriate to a chat in a coffee shop (where I do most of my thinking).  Each post in the blog is linked to other posts so that one story flows into another and it is possible to follow up on any topic that might tickle your interest.