Antony Mason is concerned that the government’s current plans for universities are deeply flawed, will damage a key sector of the economy – and won’t even reduce the deficit. And it’s the next generation that will have to foot the bill.
Category: Government Debt
Sharing the cake – an intergenerational dilemma
Angus Hanton shows how the cake analogy is a useful way of seeing the difficulties of apportioning the burden of intergenerational legacies, such as carbon emissions
Cashflow mentality exposes government short-termism
Angus Hanton points to the negative intergenerational implications in four key areas of government policy
How much are we willing to sacrifice for the future?
Martha Bicket, a postgraduate student at Imperial College London, asks, when it comes to discount rates, how low can we go?
Intergenerational Accounting in the UK
Angus Hanton explains why the UK needs to start looking at its assets and liabilities from an intergenerational perspective
Calculating the cost: the consequences of excessive optimism in projections of economic growth
David Kingman argues that current assessments for spending on the aged as a percentage of GDP are flawed, and unfair to future generations. The cost of future liabilities is often expressed as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), i.e. how much of the country’s economic output they are projected to be worth. However, this… Read more »
Inflation and its intergenerational impact
Angus Hanton looks at the pros and cons of rising inflation, and its effects on interest rates Inflation is now running at about 5% pa, with interest rates standing at below 1%. The result is that, when you take account of inflation, real interest rates are negative, so that savers are seeing their savings reduced… Read more »
Jilted Generation: a student’s view
Sam Desborough explains why he was gripped by Jilted Generation, and why he thinks it should be required reading for fellow students The blurb for Jilted Generation describes it as a work of ‘irresistible polemical energy’ and this proves to be a most apt summary of Ed Howker and Shiv Malik’s writing.
Does the increase in pension contributions for government workers matter intergenerationally?
Angus Hanton looks at the proposals for meeting the gaping liabilities in public-service pensions In the UK we are saving too little, according to the experts such as Martin Weale of the Bank of England. This ties up with personal observations: people expect to live longer, they expect to spend more, and they retire at… Read more »
Is Italy heading for an intergenerational crisis?
Antony Mason notes that the intergenerational debate is hotting up in Italy, and asks if Italians have even greater reasons to be worried Last Sunday (22 May) the respected Italian TV programme Report (the equivalent the UK’s Panorama) broadcast an investigation on Rai 3 entitled Generazione a Perdere, making a convincing case that Italy’s young… Read more »