There are a myriad of UK corona virus support schemes: for small firms, large firms, self employed, larger firms, sole directors, charities … no need… Read More »Government by press release

A major current problem for US policy makers is the exhaustion of the $350bn earmarked for the paycheck protection program, part of the $2trn of… Read More »The honey pot : why has the US paycheck protection program run out of money quite so fast?

yesterday’s OBR coronavirus reference scenario has featured prominently in the UK media over the last 24 hours. it has also been widely misinterpreted — it… Read More »The OBR coronovirus reference scenario for the UK – widely misinterpreted by many, including by Rishi Sunak

Save most of our SMEs from failure through 100% guaranteed loans, tailored to revenue loss, followed eventually by grants to cover essential expenditures; by my… Read More »My NIESR policy paper no 15 now published

Here is the link to this Excel workbook

Tomorrow is Easter Friday. Time for a four day break. Some good news on the economic front, the Fed dramatically widening its lending programs with… Read More »‘Never Seen Anything Like It’: Cars Line Up for Miles at Food Banks

The British Chamber of Commerce are in the process of releasing their second survey of the impact of the pandemic lock downs on smaller businesses.… Read More »BCC survey of coronavirus impact on UK smaller businesses … support has been slow to reach those who need it

An uncertain beginning to the $350bn program of loans to US small business, a key part of the $2trn congressional stimulus. Three articles overnight (again… Read More »US small business lending program: a rocky start; UK even rockier

A sobering headline and an instructive study reported in this WSJ article from yesterday (behind paywall, but may be worth paying a low cost two… Read More »“…at Least a Quarter of U.S. Economy Offline” Wall Street Journal