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Robert Skidelsky

Stories from Robert Skidelsky

Hyper inflation in German in 1923: Giant baskets where needed to the mountains of paper money | Photo: Deutsches Bundesarchiv
The Consequences of Angela Merkel
History never repeats itself exactly, but in the case of Greece there are a few things Germany should recall about its own interwar inflation and John Maynard Keynes
Robert Skidelsky
03/10/2011

Germany has been leading the opposition in the European Union to any write-down of troubled eurozone members’ sovereign debt.

Democracy or Finance?
Popular anger at budget cuts has toppled leaders in Europe’s troubled economies
Robert Skidelsky
18/05/2011

LONDON – “Shorting” is a tactic well known among the financial cognoscenti. It means betting against an asset with borrowed money in the expectation of making a profit when its value goes down.

06 Maynard Keynes
Keynes and Social Democracy Today
AThe main cause of prolonged unemployment is not worker encroachment on profits, but the fluctuation prospects of private investment in an uncertain world.
Robert Skidelsky
01/09/2010

For decades, Keynesianism was associated with social democratic big-government policies. But John Maynard Keynes’s relationship with social democracy is complex. Although he was an architect of core components of social democratic policy – particularly its emphasis on maintaining full employment – he did not subscribe to other key social democratic objectives, such as public ownership or massive expansion of the welfare state.

The Naked Euro
The Greek financial crisis is the latest example of the gap between reality and rhetoric in European integration
Robert Skidelsky
01/04/2010

Dramatic challenges, and mediocre responses: that is the history of the European Union. All too rarely does the EU rise to the level of events, which is why Europe is fading economically and geopolitically.

The 1958 Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community, was Europe’s great leap forward. But the decision to create a common market without a common government was simply storing up trouble for the future. Everything since - enlargement to 27 member states and the creation of the 16-member euro-zone - has widened the gap between rhetoric and reality. Euroland has gone on promising far more than its history enables it to deliver.

The End of Neo-Classicism
Once governement intervenes, it usually stays for a long time
Robert Skidelsky
02/10/2008

The looming bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, and the forced sale of Merrill Lynch, two of the greatest names in finance, mark the end of an era. But what will come next?

Cycles of economic fashion are as old as business cycles, and are usually caused by deep business disturbances. 'Liberal' cycles are followed by 'conservative' cycles, which give way to new 'liberal' cycles, and so on.

The Press vs. Privacy
What Started Off as Entertaining Gossip About Royalty and Film Stars has Burgeoned Into a Massive Assault on the Private Sphere
Robert Skidelsky
02/09/2008

 

Privacy has become a big issue in contemporary jurisprudence. The 'right to privacy' is enshrined in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, and guaranteed by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. But Article 8 is balanced by Article 10, which guarantees 'free expression of opinion.' So what right has priority when they conflict?

Under what circumstances, for example, is it right to curtail press freedom in order to protect the right to privacy, or vice versa? The same balance is being sought between the right of citizens to data privacy and government demands for access to personal information to fight crime, terrorism, and so on.

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