Matthew Lynn is a financial columnist and author of ‘Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis’ and ‘The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031’
We are not leading the world in deregulation, or in creating new ‘green industries’. We certainly don’t lead in tax-cutting, or innovation, or technology. Still, there is one respect in which the British economy can claim to be ahead of everyone else. Rising prices. When the world is caught up in an inflationary spiral, the
It would raise the money needed to fix the health service. It would make sure the burden of paying for Covid fell on the broadest shoulders. And because it would do little more than bring the UK back into line with its major industrial rivals, it wouldn’t even have any impact on our competitiveness. When
It was self-indulgent, whinging. Dull in places while completely batty in others. All the usual insults will be hurled at former prime minister Liz Truss for her essay defending her short time in Downing Street, published today. Perhaps it would be better for her to retire gracefully from public life and let some ambitious young
It is ‘obscene’ and ‘an insult to working families’, according to the TUC. If there was one thing more predictable than the doubling of profits of the energy giant Shell – given that the stuff it sells has soared in price over the last year – it was the storm of protest that it ran
It will be a charter for fraudsters. It will usher in an open-season mindset for money launderers and criminals. And it will drag down the reputation of the City. There will be plenty of critics of today’s government decision to push forward with a regulated cryptocurrency market in London. In the wake of the FTX
Davos was back with a bang this week for the first full-scale winter conference since the pandemic. And yet, the occasion marked something more significant than just a week of power breakfasts and champagne receptions. ‘Davos Man’ is back in charge of the global economy – and for better or worse everyone better get used
It will cover a generous pay rise for the nurses. It will bail out the NHS. It will put the public finances back on track, and, even better, it will make the country more equal. The Labour party has a simple solution to most of the problems the UK faces. It will abolish ‘non-dom’ status,
We haven’t lowered tariffs on food. We haven’t done many new trade deals, and certainly not one with the United States. Hardly any rules and regulations have been repealed, and if anyone thought it was going to help fix the NHS then the winter crisis will have disappointed them. Six years since we voted to
Remember Rishi-mania? It came around the time of the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme, which was designed to help the restaurant trade recover from the Covid lockdowns. As chancellor, Sunak won over stomachs – and hearts – with his generous financial scheme to help everybody through the crisis. Cometh the hour, cometh the Treasury.
A few vague promises about upgrading skills. And something or other about promoting innovation and raising productivity. Sir Keir Starmer did not exactly set the world alight in his speech to the CBI today. Given that he is twenty points ahead in the opinion polls, and sometimes more depending on the latest Tory implosion, perhaps
We might get a new nuclear power station one day, unless the protestors or the Supreme Court find a way to block it. We will plough on with High Speed Rail 2 regardless of its mounting cost. And there will be some re-heated waffle about supporting technology and innovation, complete with misty-eyed homilies to Alexander
There is plenty for anyone in Paris to feel smug about if they happen to look across to the other side of the English Channel right now. France has been able to watch British prime ministers come and go with almost comical regularity. It can supply everyone else with electricity from its nuclear power stations
Anyone with a mortgage will be in serious trouble. Small businesses will go to the wall. Demand will be hammered. And the cost of government debt will soar. After the Bank of England upped interest rates yesterday to 3 per cent, the highest level in more than a decade, there was one point on which
It could be National Insurance. It could be income tax. Perhaps it could even be a rise in VAT. We don’t yet know what taxes Rishi Sunak and his Chancellor Jeremy Hunt have planned for their fiscal statement later this month. One point is surely clear, however. There will be no point in pretending that
He will control spending, reverse the few remaining tax cuts that are still in the works, and bring in every kind of official body imaginable to check over all the figures. Jeremy Hunt made the best of a very difficult hand of cards in his first outing as Chancellor on Saturday morning. He was calm,
Production will be cut. Supplies to the rest of the world will be curbed. And inflation will rise just a little bit higher. No one ever expected the oil-cartel Opec(+), led by Saudi Arabia, to be friendly to the West, or to help out when it was needed. Even so, its decision this week to
Well, that went well. Kwasi Kwarteng’s decision to axe the 45 per cent top rate of income tax triggered a crash on the financial markets. It then ran into so much opposition from the public and from Conservative MPs fearful for their seats that it had to be scrapped completely. Right now, it seems unlikely that
Massive tax cuts. A huge budget deficit. And a wild dash for growth, stoking a short-lived boom, before it all ends in a spectacular crash. As the new government unveiled the widest ranging tax cuts since the 1980s, along with a huge increase in the budget deficit, City commentators and the wiser sort of newspaper
In the end, it could have been worse. The Federal Reserve might have followed Sweden’s lead, with a whole one point rise in interest rates, or it could have even decided to short-circuit the whole process and go straight for a 1.5 per cent increase. Instead, it opted for the safer course, imposing a 0.75
Critics say that scrapping the cap on bankers’ bonus will encourage a return to excessive risk taking. It will provoke retaliation from the European Union, they warn. And perhaps, worst of all, it could prove fatal politically, rewarding a few rich Tory friends while the rest of the country struggles with the cost-of-living crisis. Chancellor Kwasi
