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Could a BIB promote growth?

December 8, 2011 11:46

By

Alex Brummer,

Alex Brummer

2 min read

The search continues for a big idea to help rebalance the British economy and restore growth. In his autumn statement, George Osborne proposed some £40bn of "credit easing" to get cheaper credit flowing to small and medium-sized enterprises along with a boost for infrastructure spending to create jobs and investment in new capital projects. But, if such projects are going to work, they need ownership, leadership and drive.

The arch proponent of building a new framework - in the shape of a "British Investment Bank" (BIB) - is Robert Skidelsky, biographer of the economist John Maynard Keynes and a former professor of political economy.

Skidelsky, the product of a Russian-Jewish family exiled to Harbin, has been an outspoken critic of the Government's budgetary policy. He advocates the Keynesian solution of greater public spending.

His ideas have been embraced by Felix Martin of the hedge fund, Thames River Capital (part of the publicly quoted F&C group), and are outlined in a new pamphlet* released by the Centre for Global Studies.