Mani Basharzad

Mani Basharzad is Junior Research Associate at the Institute of Economic Affairs

An independent Bank of England isn't working

Andrew Bailey recently claimed that the Bank of England has saved the government £125 billion. The Bank’s governor was responding to criticism from Reform deputy leader Richard Tice that the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street has cost taxpayers a fortune. Just weeks earlier, Reform leader Nigel Farage questioned the very idea of central bank independence, suggesting he

Why do boring economists always win the Nobel?

When Friedrich Hayek won the Nobel Prize, his entire lecture – titled ‘The Pretence of Knowledge’ – was an attack on economics itself. He believed economists were more worried about looking scientific than actually being scientific. The lecture was so controversial that Economica, the LSE journal that had published Hayek’s work since he was a young professor, refused