‘What has the government done for us?’

Just as all politics is, in the end, economics (what can we afford to do), it is reasonable to suggest that all economic policy is political (what can we afford to do), writes Brian Lucey.

The name of this game is political economy after all, and we forget that at our peril. As we look forward to the last full year of the coalition, it is worth reflecting how things got to the state they are, languishing in the polls and by no means certain that they or any feasible coalition will be in power in 2016.

Modern economics has begun to internalise the idea that people, the ultimate agents or economic actors, are psychologically complex.