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Cymraeg

Good management – or good luck?

12 October 2007

The Economics Editor of The Sunday Times, a Cardiff Business School graduate, returned to give a personal view of Britain’s economic recovery.

The Business School welcomed back David Smith, some 30 years after he obtained a first in Economics, to deliver the first of the Cardiff Business School Alumni Lecture Series.

The author of a number of books, David Smith has also worked for The Times, Lloyds Bank and the Henley Centre for Forecasting. He has held his present post since 1989 and has just been appointed to a visiting professorship by Cardiff Business School.

Mr Smith was introduced to more than 100 guests from business and the University in the Julian Hodge Lecture by the Dean of the Business School, Professor Bob McNabb. He then spoke on the history of the British economy since he left Cardiff, tracing the story from the economic crisis of the late 1970’s through Mrs Thatcher’s early years – an era he dubbed "sado-monetarism" – to the greater stability of recent years.

Mr Smith said Britain had enjoyed a longer run of "sensible economic policies" than other countries. He told his audience: "The first task of economic policy is to deliver economic stability, the end of ‘boom and bust’ and the end of high inflation - and somehow we have delivered that over the last 15 years."

Professor McNabb said: "This was an excellent and entertaining talk. David has set a high standard for an exciting line-up of lectures from other distinguished Business School alumni."