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It was Open Europe that carried out the analysis and came up with £27bn costs (link). They also admit that the same method gives a benefit to these regulations of £57.1bn (although they question whether that's an accurate figure).

So it boils down to "I'm happy to accept expert opinion, but only when it agrees with me"? It's not a single expert, or a single piece of analysis that I find convincing, but it is the weight of the whole. As I mentioned in an earlier post, where is the Brexit campaigners quantitative analysis...

You seem to be saying that what we've learnt is to ignore all expert advice and just do what we want - is that your view? Sod the expert opinion, sod the evidence (such that there is), I'll just go with what I feel? I can't subscribe to that, sorry. I take on board that a lot of this is opinion...

I'm no Osbourne fan, and I have some issues with the way that the Treasury has gone about this analysis, but this is a great line from the Chancellor. Your point b), and I've seen it made by others as well, slightly mis-interprets the analysis. Analysing the difference between scenarios...

We've rather shifted from my original point, which was that to state that it's a debate with no professional consensus is not true. You can disparage the worth of those views, but it's undeniable that there is at least a broad agreement amongst the profession. On the Euro question; I have no...

I understand and respect your reasons for voting out. However I have to pull you up on this, because it's not correct. As a professional economist I don't know a single colleague who thinks we wouldn't be worse off if we left the EU. In the FT survey of 100 top economists in December 2015, 76...

Apologies, I'm not up on my American politics so I'd never heard of them. The point is that all of the numbers are hypothetical, to such an extent as to be pointless IMHO. That's without even considering the value in doing distributional analysis with no government spending modelled. There's a...

Sorry to burst your bubble, but under 'Modelling notes'; The upshot of this is that their model says 'less tax = good, more tax = bad'. They assume that any money accrued by the government is not spent - i.e. there's no economic benefit from it. A Republican candidate will therefore almost...

This is going to be controversial, but you state this as if it's an obvious falsehood - and I'm not sure it is. Our government (and others) make these kinds of decisions all the time. As an example, 1,700 people died on the roads in 2014 - the government could take stringent measures to reduce...

Isn't it the algorithms that are providing that liquidity though, rather than (per se) HFT? I've read Tim Harford (amongst others) bemoan the wasted resources poured into HFT, and propose that trades be regulated to a fixed frequency - i.e. once a second, so the market clears once every second...

That's why I asked the question - because the idea that HFT provides liquidity is rubbish, so I can't see how an advocate would pursue that line of reasoning. The only justification for HFT that I can see is naked profiteering.

Is that genuinely the position of advocates, that HFT really provides liquidity? Because that seems to me (as someone with only very tangential knowledge) as patently nonsense. HFT has created an arms-race that involves substantial wasted resources (e.g. the infrastructure races to shave...

I agree with the reference that you cite, and parts of your argument. Where I'd disagree is in the diagnosis of the problem; the dislike of the EU (due to poorer perceived outcomes for the working class) is IMHO part of the wider issue of globalisation (which has led to worse outcomes for the...

I think that you are right that a non-EU member UK could get a decent trade deal (including membership of the single market), but the question is at what trade off? I've yet to see any evidence whatsoever that the EU would not demand freedom of movement (and of course it's very difficult to be...

My aim wasn't to sound snooty (although with hindsight I accept that it does!) but that there's some commonality of background which is just as valid as the (IMHO rather arbitrary) notion that I should feel some shared bond or world-view with people just because I was born on the same island as...

What makes you think that the EU is any more prone to regulatory capture than the UK government? There's plenty of evidence of both being strongly lobbied and influenced by big business. You probably won't be surprised by this, but I don't find the Mody article very convincing. The Bruegel...

Thanks for these, as someone firmly in the 'In' camp it's great to hear genuine reasons from supporters in the opposite camp. The issue of democracy, sovereignty and accountability are undoubtedly complex. I know a lot of people have major problems with technocrats (which is broadly what the...

His speech was almost all referendum-focussed - it was (unsurprisingly) the main topic of discussion at the conference, and the afternoon was more or less devoted to the topic. His overall narrative was broadly pro-leaving (which is no surprise as he's always been a Eurosceptic) but there were a...

Sorry to go back to an old post, just catching up. I was at the BCC Conference on Thursday, and a few points; - there were a lot of people there (from Chambers and business) that were very unhappy that he'd used a BCC platform to put forward his own views in such a way. He made his own position...

I don't trust Hannan as far as I can throw him (and that's not very far). He is the worst on either side of the debate in terms of misusing statistics and data to suit his argument. The quote didn't ring true to me, and sure enough it appears that it's rubbish. You can see the IMF data here.