Economics newsletter

Michael Simmons guides you through the week’s biggest stories across news, business, money, property, stocks and shares, and, of course, the economy.

Rachel Reeves should focus on cutting welfare

Rachel Reeves is reportedly considering a 2p increase in income tax, taking the basic rate from 20 to 22 per cent. That might seem modest by historic standards, yet it would be a clear breach of Labour’s manifesto promise, made just over a year ago, not to raise any of the big three taxes. More

Ross Clark

It won’t be long before pensioners are out-earning workers

Oh, the horrid injustice of it all! By the skin of their teeth, pensioners on the state pension and with no other income, are going to avoid paying income tax next year. With September’s inflation figures now in, it can be confirmed that, thanks to the Triple Lock, the state pension will be rising to

Michael Simmons

Who’s to blame for Britain’s slowing economy?

The economy is slowing down. GDP grew 0.3 per cent in the three months to August. As ever, services propped up Britain, growing by 0.4 per cent, while the production sector shrank by 0.3 per cent, according to Office for National Statistics data. We could have news of a stagnating economy confirmed just in time

Polanski is talking nonsense about wealth taxes

On Question Time last week, Zack Polanski, the Green Party leader and erstwhile boob-whisperer, declared that there is no evidence that the wealthy leave Britain because of wealth taxes. A bold claim, and a wrong one. It’s also revealing, symptomatic of a growing belief on the populist left that Britain’s problems could be solved if

Ross Clark

Workers are paying the price for Labour’s National Insurance hike

Wasn’t Labour supposed to be tackling the scourge of insecure employment, doing away with exploitative zero hours contracts and giving employees protection against unfair dismissal from the first day they start their jobs? How odd then that so far it seems to have achieved the exact opposite. The latest labour market figures released by the

Who killed the London Stock Exchange?

Stock exchanges around the world compete with each other to entice the most exciting companies to sell their shares on their markets, via Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). London was once the financial capital of the world, and a leader in IPOs. Now it has fallen to number 23 in the global IPO rankings, having been surpassed

Britain’s steel industry must die

It already faced tariffs in the United States, and it has been struggling to cope with some of the highest industrial energy prices in the world. Now what remains of the British steel industry faces what could well be a terminal blow. The European Union is about to impose tariffs of 50 per cent on