Ben's blog and articles

How does the thought of renting your home for your entire life sound? For many Britons, it probably evokes a horror show of chronic insecurity and broken homeownership dreams. But for the typical German, lifelong renting isn’t a nightmare; it’s just normal life. The UK home ownership rate has slumped from 73 per cent a decade ago, to just 63 per cent today. For those born after 1980 – the millennial generation – the ownership rate has, of course, collapsed even more dramatica

Not long ago there was an official Government target for UK exports. “We want to double our nation’s exports to £1 trillion this decade,” the former Chancellor, George Osborne, proclaimed in his 2012 Budget speech. Many said at the time that it was a foolishly unrealistic target. But ministers insisted it really could be done. Comparing it to Maoist pledges of a great leap in steel production was unduly cynical, we were told. So, five years on, are we nearly there yet? Not ex

Even stopped clocks are occasionally right, albeit by accident. Donald Trump has been complaining that Germany is “very bad on trade” and that the country’s whopping current account surplus (which hit $294bn last year, the biggest in the world) is a problem. He’s right. Germany’s surplus really is economically harmful for the US. And, indeed, the surplus is a drag on the wider world too, not least the other members of the eurozone. But it’s not for the reasons Trump articulat