Two months as director at IFS already feels like years. Not because the time is dragging, far from it, but because of the sheer variety and quantity of issues we have been involved in over that time. And what a time to come in as director. We have just had announcements of the biggest spending cuts in a generation to tackle the biggest deficit since the war. The government is embarking on a major reform to public services. And with the introduction of the universal credit - which we looked at in detail in a briefing note at the start of January - we are to see a genuinely radical overhaul of the social security system.

We looked at many of these issues in our annual Green Budget which was once again hugely successful and provided a comprehensive analysis not only of the public finances but of some of the other pressing issues - spending cuts, public sector pay, corporate tax reform and the distributional effects of announced tax and benefits reforms, to name but a few of them.

At the same time as we launched the Green Budget we also launched ourselves into a new bit of cyberspace as IFS joined Twitter where we already have over 1400 followers.

Beyond that, getting to grips with the sheer scope of IFS work, and the range of expertise of our staff has been a revelation. I would urge you all to browse our website to see how our work ranges from pensions and public finance, through HE funding and school performance, to evaluation of policies in Colombia and across the developing world.

And now the Budget is nearly upon us. It promises to be a fascinating test of the government's commitment to its public finance and policy agenda. And of course we will be holding our usual post-Budget event to brief the press, the public (and large parts of government) on what it all meant the following day. I hope to see you there.

Paul Johnson
Director, IFS.