Rupert Willis

魏 儒 賓 Economist, Eurocrat (ECFIN), interests mainly global economics (China, US, UK). Former UK civil servant. Monobrit. Opinions strictly my own.

[Rupert Willis @RupertWillis4]

@anandMenon1 This is really a great shame. Have always found UKICE outputs to be very good, and a bastion of sanity in a fractious debate.

[Rupert Willis @RupertWillis4]

@mtkonczal @CrisisStudent Thx for the heads up, I will be reading it

[Rupert Willis @RupertWillis4]

@JohnSpringford @GoldmanSachs Agreed, very nice piece.

[Rupert Willis @RupertWillis4]

@dandolfa Well, if the various comments to that post are to be believed, one just has to read Hazlitt’s “Economics in one lesson” and all will be crystal clear, no debate needed 🙂 A little (or too little) economics is a dangerous thing.

[Rupert Willis @RupertWillis4]

@Davejones0305 @mickytomo1 Also, a lot of private bank credit is mortgage lending. One can debate how productive that is. With an inflexible housing supply, mostly pushes up prices.

[Rupert Willis @RupertWillis4]

@JustRowena Even within Oxbridge it is a cliquey, marginal thing. Most students are far too busy to bother with this kind of thing.

[Rupert Willis @RupertWillis4]

@NewLeftEViews Always thought his paper on the methodology of positive economics was one of the dumbest things I ever read.

[Rupert Willis @RupertWillis4]

@stevefolan @gardener_the Indeed, a masterpiece, and Michael Jayston was quite superb. RIP.

[Rupert Willis @RupertWillis4]

@GerriisalsoGigi @Davengerri @JenWilliams_FT With decimation of local authority funding post 2010, that effect was weakened somewhat, and compounded by changes to funding system post 2016, iirc. To put it another way, policy has gone directly contrary to levelling up over past decade or so

[Rupert Willis @RupertWillis4]

@GerriisalsoGigi @Davengerri @JenWilliams_FT The allocation of central govt funds to local authority services always had a strong “levelling up” function, because subsidy was calculated to bridge gap between (local) needs and (local) tax base.

[Rupert Willis @RupertWillis4]

@jmhorp They should label that curve “marginal product of janitors” though, rather than marginal product of “labour”. The subtle insinuation that the wage reflects an embodied feature of the employee, rather than the job itself. And that “labour” is therefore paid “what it is worth”.

[Rupert Willis @RupertWillis4]

@Samfr Then again….

[Rupert Willis @RupertWillis4]

@Samfr I have absolutely no idea who inspired this.

[Rupert Willis @RupertWillis4]

@krankepantzen @UnlearnEcon Yes. Also why I dislike the heavy platonism of the subject - that is, seeing everything real as a deviation from some ideal type. Unavoidable to a degree, but can lead to very shoddy thinking.

[Rupert Willis @RupertWillis4]

@krankepantzen @UnlearnEcon Think we are saying the same thing

[Rupert Willis @RupertWillis4]

@krankepantzen @UnlearnEcon Fully agreed. But not just that. Impossible to understand political economy of most countries without understanding how distributional questions have shaped institutions, which in turn shape pattern of development.

[Rupert Willis @RupertWillis4]

@krankepantzen @UnlearnEcon The notion that issues of equity or distribution are kinda irrelevant for economics is just incredibly ignorant, frankly. A product of too many economists thinking history is an awkward inconvenience to be ignored whenever possible (venting….)

[Rupert Willis @RupertWillis4]

@donjovi2 @rfesteadman @carolejanehay @PaulKirkby3 https://t.co/4fWToLOxDP

[Rupert Willis @RupertWillis4]

@donjovi2 @rfesteadman @carolejanehay @PaulKirkby3 Made up. I checked the ONS data (the “pink book” for 2023). Over 40% of exports go to EU, around 47% of imports come from EU. That is 2022, the last full year. But quarterly data for 2023 is basically the same story.

[Rupert Willis @RupertWillis4]

@rfesteadman Er, no. Take a look at the “Pink Book 2023” on the UK’s Office for National Statistics website. Chapter 9. Table 9.16. In 2022 the UK’s exports to the EU were over 40% of total exports. Imports from the EU were around 47% of total imports. Why do you just make stuff up?