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’
It was, at least, far better than the City feared. Shares in banks and finance houses such as Lloyds and Close Brothers were soaring on the London market this morning after the Supreme Court rejected claims that they potentially owed tens of billions in mis-sold car finance. Instead, they are likely to get away with
It doesn’t look like the Chancellor will hit her target for turning the UK into the fastest-growing economy in the G7. Nor has ‘stability’ unlocked a wave of foreign investment. Instead, it has plunged. As for Rachel Reeves’s fiscal rules, they have been missed almost every month since they were announced. Now there is more
They face higher National Insurance charges, increased business rates, crippling energy costs, and if they hire anyone: crushing employment rights. Still, never mind about any of that. The Prime Minister has today come up with a plan to finally show that he is on the side of small businesses and entrepreneurs. He will crack down
The government is briefing that Rachel Reeves is ruling out a wealth tax, and won’t surrender to pressure from the left on the Labour backbenches to raid the assets of the rich. It will only accelerate the exodus of the wealthy from the UK, they say. It won’t raise any serious money. And just about
Banning the baguette, perhaps? Or making it compulsory to eat a sandwich at your desk at lunchtime? If you think hard enough, it is possible to imagine reform that would create more anger in France. Even so, prime minister Francois Bayrou’s plan to scrap two public holidays is right up there. Bayrou wants to reduce
We probably won’t see the return of shoulder pads, big hair, or yuppies swilling champagne in the bars around Liverpool Street. Even so, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves will promise a return to the go-go spirit of the 1980s in her Mansion House speech this evening, with a pledge of ‘Big Bang’ style deregulation to boost
Japan will take it in its stride, even if its automakers might be hit. China will absorb the extra costs, and the UK has already managed to secure its own trade deal. President Trump’s tariffs have largely been shrugged off by the US’s major trading partners. We may, however, soon see one exception. His imposition
As President Trump unveiled his latest round of tariffs last night, investors barely paid any attention. The stock markets barely moved. The currency markets remained sleepy. And most of the traders in the global financial markets went back to planning their summer holidays. Compared to ‘Liberation Day’ back in April, it was a damp squib.
We will no doubt hear lots of familiar excuses if later this week, as seems increasingly likely, the British steel industry faces 50 per cent tariffs on its exports to the United States. There hasn’t been enough time. The White House has been too busy, and so has the Prime Minister. The trouble is, none
The Chancellor Rachel Reeves was in far better form when she appeared again in public alongside the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer yesterday. The tears have been wiped away and she has a smile, even if a slightly forced one, back on her face. The reason is not hard to work out. She has started
When the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer gave his full backing to his Chancellor Rachel Reeves, the brief panic in the markets following her tearful performance in the House of Commons subsided. Gilt yields stopped rising, the pound clawed back some lost ground, and the markets recovered their nerve. It was easy to spin that
The headlines wrote themselves. ‘Go woke, go broke!’ said the Daily Mail, and ‘Sales Plummet’, said the Sun. Only a few months after its controversial rebrand, with the launch of a bright pink ‘Barbie-mobile’, we learned today that Jaguar’s sales are down by 97.5 per cent across Europe. In reality, the story is a little
It was already a bad enough week for the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and the Chancellor Rachel Reeves, what with the collapse of their welfare reforms. But now news has leaked that AstraZeneca’s CEO Sir Pascal Soriot has reportedly discussed moving its listing from London to New York. There is nothing official yet, and
The economy has stagnated, foreign investment has collapsed, the non-doms have fled and the entrepreneurs are following them. Meanwhile, Labour backbenchers are clamouring for more spending. Not much has been going right for the Chancellor Rachel Reeves. But she has a grand new plan: increase taxes on saving. Reeves has been reduced to scrabbling around
The machines are already smarter and better organised than humans. They never ask for a pay rise, and they don’t ask any awkward questions about the company’s environmental record. An artificial employee is, in many ways, the model employee. But is artificial intelligence really responsible for a recent fall in entry-level jobs, as new figures
Britain’s 12.9 million pensioners are better off financially than they have ever been, and certainly compared with the rest of the country. Their winter fuel allowance has been restored. The triple lock looks completely secure. And with the stock market close to record highs, any savings they have will be in a healthy state as
Rachel Reeves does not have many supporters left. The bond markets don’t think much of the Chancellor. Business groups have rubbished her policies, and so have many of the UK’s largest companies. Meanwhile, Labour backbenchers are furious about both the chaos over the winter fuel allowance and the cuts to the welfare budget. Now, it
We are not the fastest growing economy in the G7, even though the Labour party promised that we would be. We are not topping any tables for inward investment, and we have fallen to the bottom of the league for new companies listed on the stock market. Still, it is good to know that there
We will hear plenty of familiar criticisms of the plan unveiled by Reform yesterday to bring non-doms, as wealthy foreigners who enjoy a special tax regime in the UK are known, back. It will make Britain a magnate for tax dodgers and money launderers. It will increase inequality. And the only jobs it creates will
One of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s few big ideas for boosting growth was to persuade pension funds to invest more of their assets in Britain. But hold on. Today, we learned that Scottish Widows, one of the biggest funds, is dramatically reducing its exposure to this country – and it is quite right to do so.
