Frances Coppola+

My FT Alphaville piece posted today. No, the UK should not issue euro-denominate

My FT Alphaville piece posted today. No, the UK should not issue euro-denominated debt to try to reduce its borrowing costs. It won't work, and it could end very badly. https://www.ft.com/content/272e5630-e868-4cec-a361-0aa28223d3ba#comments-anchor

My new Coppola Comment post is about an ancient experiment with inflation contro

My new Coppola Comment post is about an ancient experiment with inflation control. A surprisingly socialist Roman Emperor tried a prices and incomes policy. Did it work? Read my post to find out! https://coppolacomment.substack.com/p/an-ancient-experiment-with-a-modern

New Coppola Comment post. We expect our cities to last forever. Yet the land on

New Coppola Comment post. We expect our cities to last forever. Yet the land on which we build them is constantly changing. Our folly, perhaps, is to think that only we have the right to reshape land. My reflections on recent visits to Holy Island (Lindisfarne) and Turkey. https://coppolacomment.substack.com/p/land-is-not-permanent-but-we-think

My long read on Fed interest rate policy around the time of the 2008 Great Finan

My long read on Fed interest rate policy around the time of the 2008 Great Financial Crisis. Why did the Fed start cutting rates a year before the fall of Lehman Brothers, only to stop cutting them in the run-up to the disaster? Would a different policy have made any difference? Free to read: https://coppolacomment.substack.com/p/inflation-interest-rates-and-the (image does not link)

I'm in the i paper explaining why state pension age must rise. It's not about go

I'm in the i paper explaining why state pension age must rise. It's not about government finances, it's about the productive capacity of the nation and the prosperity of future generations. We should all care about this. (Btw did you know that state pension age was originally 70 for both men and women?) https://inews.co.uk/opinion/no-one-retire-70-not-fair-workers-3977886

Economic lessons from a Biblical fable: my latest piece at @themintmag . Pharoah

Economic lessons from a Biblical fable: my latest piece at @themintmag . Pharoah, advised by the talented Joseph, stored up enough grain to survive a famine. This enabled him to engineer a fundamental shift in the organisation of Egyptian society and the power balance of the entire region. https://www.themintmagazine.com/from-reserves-to-repression/

My new Coppola Comment post traces the events that reshaped Syria after World Wa

My new Coppola Comment post traces the events that reshaped Syria after World War 1, and debunks some pervasive myths. Lies, Deceit and Betrayal: Britain's role in the making of Palestine and the dismemberment of Syria. https://open.substack.com/pub/coppolacomment/p/lies-deceit-and-betrayal?r=nlw4&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

New article at The Mint magazine. Gaza's inflation rate topped 75% per month in

New article at The Mint magazine. Gaza's inflation rate topped 75% per month in April. But Gaza doesn't have its own currency, and its money supply has been fixed since October 2023. Money printing can't be causing Gaza's runaway inflation. So what is? https://www.themintmagazine.com/bread-line-not-the-cashline/

Political discourse about the Government's welfare reforms tends to focus on you

Political discourse about the Government's welfare reforms tends to focus on young people. But those worst affected by the reforms will be older people, especially women. Over half of new claimants aged 50-65 will not qualify for PIP. Over three-quarters of people with arthritis, back pain, musculoskeletal conditons and chronic pain syndromes will not qualify for PIP,. What purpose will be served

New Coppola Comment post. The Government's Green Paper on benefit reforms aims t

New Coppola Comment post. The Government's Green Paper on benefit reforms aims to eliminate the divide between "deserving" and "undeserving" that has dominated policy for 600 years. But all it does is change the definitions - and create misery for a lot of people. https://coppolacomment.substack.com/p/the-deserving-poor-are-the-latest

I am looking for paid freelance writing opportunities. Banking, finance, economi

I am looking for paid freelance writing opportunities. Banking, finance, economics and the like. Suggestions welcome.

My new Coppola Comment post traces Gaza's holocaust from the Tel Al-Sultan tent

My new Coppola Comment post traces Gaza's holocaust from the Tel Al-Sultan tent fire in May 2024 to the fires now burning people alive all over Gaza. "We must not become so fixated on horrors of the past that we fail to see today's holocaust" https://open.substack.com/pub/coppolacomment/p/holocaust?r=nlw4&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Coppola Comment is back! First post of this year looks at the Government's decis

Coppola Comment is back! First post of this year looks at the Government's decision not to compensate Waspi women. Why did Labour ministers who had previously supported their claim for "fair and fast" compensation throw them under the bus? https://open.substack.com/pub/coppolacomment/p/the-waspi-campaign-is-dead?r=2bre7b&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

Coppola Comment. Requiem: a reflection on recent death and continuing devastatio

Coppola Comment. Requiem: a reflection on recent death and continuing devastation. Featuring Benjamin Britten and Wilfred Owen, and my late partner Alan Whittaker. https://open.substack.com/pub/coppolacomment/p/requiem?r=2bre7b&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

New Coppola Comment post, on Southern Water's mind-bogglingly complex but oddly

New Coppola Comment post, on Southern Water's mind-bogglingly complex but oddly familiar corporate structure. A ghost from the past is back, and it's threatening to blow up one of the UK's public utilities. https://open.substack.com/pub/coppolacomment/p/southern-waters-ghost-from-the-past?r=2bre7b&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Israel told us what it intended to do in Gaza. It has done it. Israel told us wh

Israel told us what it intended to do in Gaza. It has done it. Israel told us what it intended to do in the West Bank. It is doing it. Israel has told us what it intends to do in Lebanon. There is no reason to doubt that it will do what it says. Israel is menacing its neighbours and threatening to blow up the entire region. Believe what it says - and stop it. Before it is too late. https://coppola

I held my nose and dived deeply into Thames Water's murky accounts. Here's what

I held my nose and dived deeply into Thames Water's murky accounts. Here's what I found. Thames Water and its Dividends: where has all the money gone? https://coppolacomment.substack.com/p/thames-water-and-its-dividends

Me, at The Mint Magazine, on malnutrition in Gaza. Even before the present war,

Me, at The Mint Magazine, on malnutrition in Gaza. Even before the present war, it was widespread, endemic and multi-generational - and largely caused by Israel. https://www.themintmagazine.com/malnutrition-is-a-weapon-of-war/

The UK goes to the polls tomorrow. Labour is set to win an historic landslide vi

The UK goes to the polls tomorrow. Labour is set to win an historic landslide victory, ending 14 years of disastrous Tory rule. But what exactly are people voting for? https://open.substack.com/pub/coppolacomment/p/the-end-of-an-era?r=2bre7b&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

New Coppola Comment post, on three labour force myths that refuse to die: the my

New Coppola Comment post, on three labour force myths that refuse to die: the myth of unskilled immigration, the myth of falling participation, and the myth of workless yoof. With an update from my charity walk for Alzheimer's Society. We did really well! https://coppolacomment.substack.com/p/the-myths-that-refuse-to-die

Why the Tories' "put-ever-more-people-to-work" strategy fails to deliver growth.

Why the Tories' "put-ever-more-people-to-work" strategy fails to deliver growth. Clue: it's all about the failure of capital investment and productivity... https://coppolacomment.substack.com/p/qe-of-the-people