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It sounded impressive at the time. On the last day of May, a whole ten days ago, president Biden laid out a three-part plan for bringing inflation back under control. It consisted of making sure the Federal Reserve was allowed to do whatever it took to control prices, releasing oil and gas reserves to try to bring down the soaring costs of energy, and fixing supply chains to try to make industry and retailing more competitive. ‘I have made tackling inflation my top economic priority,’ he announced grandly. To listen to the rhetoric from the White House, you might think that this was an issue that could be fixed with a

As part of his revival (and survival) strategy, Boris Johnson is trying his hardest to convince the public and fellow MPs that he can get the cost of living crisis under control. But did today’s speech help him make that case? His wide-ranging speech in Lancashire covered a vast array of economic, policy and trade topics, which he struggled to pull into a cohesive theme. ‘We do not grow many olives in the UK,’ he pointed out. ‘Why do we have tariffs on bananas?’ Both excellent points when it comes to liberalising trade, but not obviously at the top of people’s priority lists when it comes to tackling energy bills

After an uncomfortably close confidence vote for the Prime Minister on Monday, Boris Johnson’s premiership still hobbles along. But for how much longer? It seems the PM’s latest strategy is to find favour with his party again by promising bread-and-butter Tory policies: mainly tax cuts. Speaking to Tory MPs just hours before this week’s confidence vote, Johnson was making all the right noises: to boost the economy post-pandemic, he said, it was time to ‘drive supply side reform on Conservative principles and to cut taxes and to drive investment in the UK.’ Since the vote, Johnson has continued to harp on about cutting taxes, reportedly telling the Cabinet that cuts

Who could argue with the words of the EU’s internal market commissioner Thierry Breton when he says: ‘a common charger is common sense for the many electronic devices in our daily lives’? No longer, it seems, will we have to fiddle around with several different cables, and curse when we have brought the along the wrong one on holiday. M. Breton has just succeeded in introducing a directive which, from 2024, will oblige the manufacturers of all electronic devices on sale in the EU to use the same model of charger. The directive – yet to be rubber-stamped by the European parliament – will ‘increase convenience and cut waste’, as well

Occasionally I despair of my own profession. Even economists should be able to enjoy a long weekend. Yet some of us are stuck debunking commentary on the economic impact of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations – much of which justifies the old tag of the ‘dismal science’. The long Jubilee weekend will indeed mean that economic activity, as usually assessed, is lower than it would otherwise have been. The output and income lost due to the temporary shutdown of most businesses will only partially be offset by increased spending in other areas, or recouped later. We have, of course, been here before. The monthly measure of UK gross domestic product

Last week, I came across a figure so staggering that I was convinced it was wrong: 5.3 million Brits (almost the population of Scotland) are on out-of-work benefits. How could this be, with ministers so regularly boasting that unemployment stands at a 40-year low? How could it be, when a national shortage of workers has been declared – and the aviation industry has been begging the government to relax immigration rules, saying that we’re out of workers? I’ve spent this week looking into it, with the help of my brilliant colleagues in The Spectator data team, and look at this in my Daily Telegraph column today. What is an “out-of-work”

I sincerely hope you’re not reading this on a holiday flight that’s sitting on the tarmac with no indication as to when it might take off – or a sad train home after your flight was suddenly cancelled. Brace for three-hour delays at security, we’re told; don’t even try checking bags in, and at worst, as happened to Tui passengers at Manchester who thought they were going to Kos, watch out for a text after you’ve boarded telling you you’re going nowhere at all. How and why? When the pandemic set in, airlines and airports – thinking, not unreasonably, that their industry was doomed – made mass redundancies rather than

When Putin’s tanks rolled into Ukraine on 24 February there was a conceit that this might be the first war which the West could fight – and win – by sanctions alone. The EU’s latest efforts to stop importing Russian oil show just what a folly this was. Donations of military equipment to Ukraine are certainly helping to keep Russian forces at bay, but economic sanctions? That is another story. Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and gas is the product of years of ill-conceived energy policy Sanctions may be helping to lower living standards among Russian citizens, but they are still a long, long way from cutting off the lifeblood

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