By Mary Mellor, Emeritus Professor, Northumbria University author of The Future of Money Pluto 2010 Things have not been going well for the bitcoin experiment recently. There have been accusations of money laundering, enabling the global drugs trade, tax and capital control evasion, fraud and theft (leading to the collapse of the MtGox exchange). Prices have fluctuated wildly and monetary authorities are suspicious, if not actively hostile. What is bitcoin? It is a privately issued digital currency. It can be earned by...

By Lock Bailey Iraqi-Kurdistan President Barzani turned down a White House invitation last month.  Barzani has asked the American government for years to remove the Kurdish people from Washington’s terrorist list yet he has been denied each time.  Barzani’s refusal to visit sends a clear plea: The Kurds are not terrorists, but a peaceful people long oppressed and victims of genocide. In 1988, at the tail end of the eight year war between Iraq and Iran, Saddam Hussein and his Ba’ath pilots...

By Tim Stacey from The Equality Trust This week is Budget week and there’s been plenty of talk about the tax and spending changes that could be announced. These include increasing the personal tax allowance, which is talked about in terms of helping ‘low earners’, and raising the starting point for the 40p tax rate, which is believed to help those on ‘middle incomes’. The focus of these tax measures, and usage of these terms, suggests a slightly skewed view is present...

By Adam Walker, Economics Correspondent Are Academic Attitudes Degrading The Manufacturing Industry? Over the past 30 years the UK has gone from housing a manufacturing industry to being an almost entirely service-based economy with a particular emphasis on the financial sector. On The London Economic we have discussed this in a number of articles including Jack Peat’s article on 3D printing aiding British manufacturing and one of my previous articles on whether London’s service sector is draining the UK. Regardless of the...

The abominable human rights questions being raised over gay marriage will fall on deaf ears until we start asking the right question. Equality has never been the issue. There’s some bizarre notion that members of the clergy come out in a rash when confronted with same-sex marriage, wielding their crucifix and throwing holy water at the door to protect the church against a new ‘fad’ that is sure to fade in the same way the punk rock movement’s brand of...

By Valentina Magri A missed goal and a missing report. They are the main drivers of a revitalised debate over immigration in the UK. The missed goal concerns net flow of migrants. According to recent data over migration in the UK, David Cameron is unlikely to meet his migration target of under 100,000 migrants by 2015. The Office for National Statistics estimated a net flow of 212,000 migrants to the UK in the 12 months to September 2013 (compared to...

By Lock Bailey If opposites truly do attract, then there could be no better chemistry than that of US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Unfortunately, opposites make the poorest couplings in foreign relations—and Bibi and Obama prove this true. Obama is quite left and Netanyahu is quite right, to understate these antipodal leaders. Netanyahu showed favor in Republican nominee Mitt Romney in the 2008 elections, for example (years earlier the two of them worked in The...

By Artur Salles Lisboa de Oliveira, writer for Exame The Brazilian economy benefited significantly from the commodities boom throughout the 2000’s, allowing it to keep a strong inflow of capital which led to rising reserves and currency stability. Despite these favourable conditions, authorities didn’t succeed in promoting economic growth by addressing crucial issues such as infrastructure bottlenecks, high energy costs and excessive bureaucracy. Instead of tackling these aspects, the government exhibits a strong inclination to replicate the failing policies of...

By Jack Peat, Editor  We looked into the internet phenomenon known as Clickbait; we didn’t expect to uncover this mindblowing secret! Ten reasons why posting content to an online audience differs from attracting readership in the real world. Ok, perhaps we don’t have ten, but we do have one thing; your attention. You see, the internet is like a vast ocean home to a unique ecosystem of animals without properties of the material world. In the same way marine creatures...