Money

There’s no pleasing some people. Back when the government still believed windfall taxes were a terrible idea, the Scottish National Party was insisting one be imposed to help tackle the cost of living. In March, the SNP’s Stephen Flynn asked in the Commons: ‘Is it right that those who have benefitted from the pandemic… are able to benefit while our constituents are struggling? Absolutely not.’ The previous month, Nicola Sturgeon tentatively voiced support, arguing oil and gas firms should ‘absolutely’ be asked to pay more to alleviate the crisis. How unexpected, then, to see the SNP’s work and pensions spokesperson Kirsty Blackman launch repeated attacks on the levy in the days

It seems no-one has a good word to say about capitalism these days. For now, even the Financial Times – that bible of our captains of industry – seems to have gone off the filthy rich. Once, the newspaper’s ‘How To Spend It’ supplement was an unashamed paean to conspicuous consumption; a veritable smorgasbord of plutocratic excess. The FT itself still describes it in near-orgastic terms, writing that the 28 year-old pull-out is ‘the benchmark for luxury lifestyle magazines’ with an ‘affluent readership’ of whom one in five ‘has or would consider using the service of a private jet’. But it seems such tributes to the tastes of the rich

There are two ways to see Rishi Sunak’s rescue package. One is an obviously needed and politically unavoidable boost to the economy and a relief for the cost-of-living crisis. The other is worrying jump towards the tax and spend policies that he once promised to avoid – and a sobering note for those who expected anything different from him. James Forsyth is inclined to the former, Kate Andrews and I are inclined to the latter. We all discuss in today’s Coffee House Shots podcast. There are many ways a Tory government could have helped households this week. Fuel costs are soaring but about 25 per cent of all electricity bills are

A £400 rebate on electricity bills. A cash handout to the poorest households. And a windfall tax on the energy companies that generate the power to keep the lights switched on to try and pay for it all. Chancellor Rishi Sunak was back to doing what he likes to do best today: handing out vast quantities of free money, while making the UK a less and less attractive place for businesses to operate. It was billed as a fix for the ‘cost of living’ crisis. Yet very soon it will become clear it was nothing of the sort. After all, you can’t tax your way out of inflation; taking the approach

Prices are rising at the fastest pace for 40 years. Real wages are falling rapidly. The cost of servicing the government’s vast debts is escalating, and companies are struggling to keep up with the rising price of raw materials. Still, not to worry. Fortunately, a quarter of a century ago Gordon Brown wisely decided to hand over management of inflation to a supremely competent group of expert technocrats, so that we could have stable prices and steady growth forever – or indeed an ‘end to boom’n’bust’ as Brown would have inevitably put it. Oh, but hold on. It turns out it is not quite going to plan. In fact, while

Some £500 billion was printed by the Bank of England during the pandemic – a staggering sum that caused very little public debate. Those sceptical about so-called ‘quantitative easing’ argue that it causes inflation – and with today’s news that inflation rose 9 per cent on the year in April, is anyone linking the two? Step forward Mervyn King, former governor of the Bank of England, who was surprisingly critical when speaking to Andrew Marr on LBC last night. One of the major problems, Lord King said, was that the Bank went too hard and too fast with its money printing. ‘Governments stepped in and put in a lot of

With every sausage war or fish fight over the past 18 months, the chances of survival for the Northern Ireland protocol have narrowed. But the fallout from the NI Assembly elections, which saw Sinn Féin become the largest single party, has made it increasingly likely that the UK will take unilateral action to override parts of the Brexit deal. The protocol has few supporters. Arguably its only redeeming feature was that it allowed Boris Johnson to break the deadlock and conclude the withdrawal agreement. Because a porous land border between the UK and the Republic would have threatened the single market – and a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic

This afternoon the Bank of England’s governor Andrew Bailey appeared, as he has done many times before, in front of the Treasury Select Committee to answer questions about its recent decision-making. Yet the tone of the Committee was radically different to other sessions. Its chair Mel Stride opened by asking Bailey if he and the Monetary Policy Committee – made up of nine members who vote to set interest rates – had been ‘asleep at the wheel’ as prices soared throughout the country. It was arguably one of the easier questions put to him during today’s session: from then on, Bailey and the MPC members who joined him were pit

Sanctions are the West’s key weapon in the fight against Putin, but there are signs that Russia’s economy and financial system is weathering the storm better than expected. The rouble has already bounced back and Russia has been able to continue to service its debts, with only minor hiccups. A closer look however reveals that sanctions are biting hard – and that Russia is losing the economic as well as military war. Take the rouble’s resurgence, which is not what it seems. The ability of Russia’s currency to bounce back reflects the fact that Russian imports have fallen by more than the country’s exports, as local consumers and businesses have cut spending. This means there

It’s been a terrible few weeks for that guy you know. Bitcoin dropped to a ten-month low (apparently thanks to something called ‘stablecoins’), while $1 trillion has been wiped off the largest tech companies on the stock markets. ‘Retail investors’ – non-professionals with little more than an internet connection – are struggling. You might expect many of them to put their heads in their hands and log off. But that would be to misunderstand the nihilism of online culture. Losing is the same as winning, only better. The thing to do is to post evidence of your catastrophic losses. It’s called ‘loss porn’ and if you look at the ‘WallStreetBets’ page on