The right language aimed at the wrong level. This was a Budget focused on micro-management. The Chancellor used the right language about the need to help workers and business, but it was predicated on ‘the state knows best’, with significant interference through targeted spending and tax hikes. The Red Book contained no fewer than 98 […]
Imagine borrowing £10,000 from the bank, lending it to a friend, then telling everyone the debt’s gone – because your friend owes you the money. That’s obviously nonsensical – you still owe the same £10,000 to the bank, regardless of what you did with the money. But that’s Labour’s approach to our public finances. Let […]
When John Healey sits down next Wednesday, the press gallery will focus hard on his headroom against the fiscal rules. In March the OBR put this at £23.6 billion against the main rule, which requires day-to-day spending to be covered by revenue by 2029/30. A recent Reuters poll of economists suggests it has since shrunk […]
Should banks be taxed more? That seems to be one of the routes that the Chancellor will go down in the Budget, according to news reports from Bangkok, where he is attending the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Thousands of bankers will be in attendance and he is likely to […]
On September 29, 1976, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Denis Healey, announced his intention to apply to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $3.9 billion loan, the largest ever requested. Britain, The Economist announced, was ‘bust’. This was a national humiliation, the crux of a decade of economic turmoil. Britain before 1979 was not […]
So, this week financial markets started pricing four or even five Bank of England rate rises over the next year. On the evidence in front of me today, that is lunacy. In fact, I called it rubbish on GB News yesterday lunchtime. Against that backdrop, the Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate by 25 […]
Rachel Reeves probably did not expect regulatory reform of ring-fencing rules to become one of her more significant achievements as Chancellor. But credit where it’s due, the Government is right to pursue serious, common-sense reform of ring-fenced banks (RFBs) in order to free up capital for investment in British businesses. Since the 2008 Global Financial […]
Over the centuries, the concept of ‘money’ has continued to evolve – from bartering, to bank notes to bitcoin. During this time, London has emerged as a powerhouse in the foreign exchange market, accounting for almost 40% of all global trading. Today, the UK is well placed to become a global leader in the future […]
London is the undisputed capital of global currency markets, with around 38% of global foreign-exchange trading taking place in the UK. But the infrastructure of money is evolving. Stablecoins, digital forms of traditional currencies, are rapidly becoming an important part of global finance. One of the largest issuers, Circle’s USDC, processed $8.4 trillion in transactions in January […]
The average graduate in their 20s goes £1,600 deeper into student debt every year, or just about over £30 per week. This isn’t what they were promised. They were told that university was the surest route to better pay and lifelong security. Many working-class children were sold a powerful dream: that they could build a […]
Britain’s economic debate rests on a dangerous assumption. Debt crises are things that happen elsewhere. Greece, perhaps. Argentina, certainly. But not the United Kingdom – a mature economy with its own currency, deep capital markets and centuries of institutional credibility. History offers little comfort to countries that think this way. Countries rarely enter fiscal crisis […]
Rachel Reeves pulled out of an event at the London Stock Exchange yesterday at the last minute to join Keir Starmer in an emergency press conference, responding to Donald Trump’s latest gambit over Greenland. Reeves planned, in her abandoned address, to unveil newly revamped frameworks, which came into effect on Monday, designed to lead the […]
Britain has a long and proud history of innovation – stretching from the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions right through to modern successes in the fintech and life sciences sectors. Unfortunately, in recent years another trend has emerged, of start-ups incubating ideas in the UK before listing their businesses overseas, primarily in the US. Of the […]
The British economy is not in a happy state. Many fear that stagnant economic growth and enormous long-term liabilities, especially in the context of an ageing population, not to mention our yawning deficit, make our public finances unsustainable. Bond markets are getting nervous: perhaps a debt crisis and painful correction await. Few believe that Rachel […]
With all the fuss about Labour’s ‘heat or eat’ decision to means-test pensioners for their winter fuel allowance, and the ‘did-she-or-didn’t-she’ media hyperventilation about Kemi Badenoch questioning the future of the pension triple lock, it’s easy to forget that Britain’s state pension is basically broke. It was set up when most people only lived a […]
When the Financial Action Task Force was established by the G7 group of nations back in 1989, the national leaders at the time probably did not imagine that their rules for combatting money laundering would one day cost their citizens double the amount of money spent on the policing of all other crimes put together. […]
A shift is underway in investing. The cautious share buyer who slowly builds a portfolio and adheres to it for years may be a fair characterisation of a mature investor, but the younger generation is taking a different approach. This generation of younger traders – Gen T – is exhibiting professional trader-like behaviours at a […]
The unofficial battle cry of Bitcoiners and other crypto enthusiast is to HODL – a mis-spelled, all-caps version of “hold!”. Through good times and bad, the upright bitcoiner “stacks sats” and dreams of utopian citadels. Much like in other ideological echo chambers, the ideals of the typically nerdy and vaguely libertarian crypto-enthusiasts are well-cemented and impervious […]
What? In 2011, the Swiss Central Bank placed a cap of 1.20 Swiss francs per euro in order to prevent the appreciation of the currency and protect Swiss exports. Today, the bank abandoned its peg to the euro in a shock move, despite SNB president Thomas Jordan promising ” to defend [the peg] with utmost […]
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