On the SPERI blog, Andrew Gamble argues that conventional wisdom has been little affected by the impact of the financial crash five years ago. The reaction to Ed Miliband’s pledge to freeze energy prices “shows just how resistant to change or challenge the dominant political consensus on ‘economics’ has become”.

Writing on the NIESR blog, Jonathan Portes explores the recent OBR paper on the impact of austerity on the UK economy. “Both we and the OBR are saying very clearly that fiscal consolidation had a negative impact on growth up to 2013-14 and isn’t now; and indeed, we agree that the fact that consolidation damaged growth earlier may be having a positive impact on the strength of growth now.”

On The Guardian’s Comment is Free, David Madden argues for “abandoning a number of pervasive myths which have helped to legitimize inequality and contribute to gentrification’s colonization of the urbanist imagination”.

Chris Dillow of the Stumbling and Mumbling blog writes that all government policy is inherently distributive. The fundamental question we must ask is: “between whom should governments redistribute, and how?”

On Project Syndicate, Jospeh Stiglitz comments on the state of developed economies and the financial system five years on from the financial crisis. “The glass is, at most, only one-quarter full; for most people, it is three-quarters empty.”