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Torture was officially outlawed in France in the 1780s and in Europe during the nineteenth century. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, it has returned as an instrument of state policy.
T. S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland” was the voice of a disillusioned generation and reflected a world in disarray. This lecture will consider that conversion with three interlinked questions in mind: From what was he converted? Why did he convert? What was the immediate effect of that conversion?
In this final lecture we will consider whether we can plot a more successful future than our recent history might suggest and what that implies for our economic and political institutions.
The experience of inter-mediation in the UK does not encourage the thought that long term finance can easily be located. Do we need a Development Bank?
Housing represents the main asset class held by UK households and we shall try to understand why it is held as such a large share of assets. We shall then outline whether this choice has other knock on effects in the economy such as labour and social mobility.
We will carefully outline the categories of savings held by households and link that to the operation of financial intermediaries in providing loanable funds.
Edward VII had an instinctive understanding of the human side of monarchy. At home he faced a constitutional crisis when the House of Lords rejected the budget in 1909. The crisis remained unresolved at Edward’s death in 1910.
Productivity growth in the UK economy has lagged behind that of our major trading partners. We will examine a number of possible explanations ranging from the role of finance to the employment of physical and human capital.