Macroeconomics: UK economy, IB Economics

A quick update on HS2 and its scandalous mismanagement. It gives me no pleasure to echo the article but the Public Accounts Committee has it right when it wonders if the government doesn't "know what it's trying to achieve".

History will not judge the management of this project kindly: ineptitude upon ineptitude, and far too much pandering to the NIMBYs of the Home Counties has inflated the costs and eaten up any net gain to be had from the project. 

Lord Willetts (OE) makes the case for a massive campaign of state-funded housing with the creation of a new wave of so-called new towns to help create affordable homes and reduce intergenerational equity. It's a bold move, but would require financing, and I wonder whether it's quite the vote winner that Lord Willetts surmises; there are a lot of NIMBYs out there.