"Last autumn's run on Northern Rock was arguably of more political than economic importance. However, it is significant that most of the deposits were lost from internet and postal accounts rather than withdrawn by the picturesque queues of small investors, which attracted so much media...

It has been argued that quantitative easing (QE) is designed to prevent a collapse of broad money. However, the official M4 broad-money measure was growing rapidly when QE was introduced. This figure was, though, exaggerated by artificial transactions within banking groups and some have...

The 2009 Budget projections imply that the ratio of general government expenditure to national income will rise to 53.4% in 2010, the highest ratio since World War II and 6.9% above the peak recorded in World War I. Public sector net borrowing is projected to increase from 8% of national income...