Government surpluses don’t create cash piles waiting to be spent
Funding the Future
Government surpluses don’t create cash piles waiting to be spent
The idea that government surpluses are good because they create piles of cash waiting to be spent in the event of a national emergency is absurd. A...
 The idea that government surpluses are good because they create piles of cash waiting to be spent in the event of a national emergency is absurd. All money paid in tax is cancelled on receipt by the government. So, all government surpluses actually do is reduce the amount of cash in the private sector economy.
Should the nations and regions send envoys to Starmer?
Funding the Future
Should the nations and regions send envoys to Starmer?
I noted Sue Gray
 Starmer has created a deeply patronising role for Sue Gray as ‘envoy to the nations and regions’ that makes a mockery of her and all those living outside the south-east. Is he really so detached that he thinks envoys are required?
Starmer’s new climate policy is unforgivable
Funding the Future
Starmer’s new climate policy is unforgivable
The Sun reports this morning that: The PM is announcing a £22billion cash injection over 25 years for “game-changing” carbon capture technol...
 Starmer's denying the science on managing climate change. He's pursuing lousy economics, with the likelihood that most, if not all, of his new investment money will be wasted. And he's gambling with our security in a way that we cannot afford. That is unforgivable.
UK company law is a joke: it exists, but no one enforces it
Funding the Future
UK company law is a joke: it exists, but no one enforces it
UK company law exists to protect society and honest traders from fraudsters, but since no one has the job of properly enforcing that law, it might ...
 UK company law exists to protect society and honest traders from fraudsters, but since no one has the job of properly enforcing that law, it might as well not exist. This failure represents a massive failure on the part of successive governments that needs to be addressed now.
The economic consequences of the war
Funding the Future
The economic consequences of the war
Listening to political speakers over the last day or so, from Starmer to Biden and beyond, it is apparent that they share a common view. It would s...
 Expect inflation, increased interest rates, recession and deep austerity, and all to support Netanyahu's desperate attempts to avoid justice.
Can Starmer stop the stench from rising?
Funding the Future
Can Starmer stop the stench from rising?
Will Keir Starmer ever get anything right? Having made a complete mess of Labour’s reputation for both honesty and integrity within weeks of g...
 Will Keir Starmer ever get anything right? Or are his days inevitably numbered now?
Reeves: the slave of defunct economists
Funding the Future
Reeves: the slave of defunct economists
As the Guardian noted yesterday evening: Ministers are being asked to draw up billions of pounds in cuts to infrastructure projects over the nex...
 Reeves is demanding cuts from ministers despite all the very obvious evidence that it would be madness to do so. Keynes' suggestion that she might be the slave of defunct economic thinking looks to be apposite.
Is £90,000 a year a middle-class income?
Funding the Future
Is £90,000 a year a middle-class income?
When being interviewed on the radio, I was told by the broadcaster that £90,000 was only ‘middle-class income’ and not enough for MPs. She was...
 When being interviewed on the radio, I was told by the broadcaster that £90,000 was only ‘middle-class income’ and not enough for MPs. She was, very clearly, out of touch with reality.
Quantitative tightening denies us the investment we need The Bank of England is selling about £100 billion a year of government bonds it bought during the Covid crisis back into City financial markets. There’s no need to. It’s making massive losses doing so. But worst of all, that £100 billion is preventing the government from spending on the investment in the real economy we really need. QT has to stop, now.
Labour: the resignations begin
Funding the Future
Labour: the resignations begin
Rosie Duffield MP has, I know, had a difficult relationship with Labour ever since being elected MP for Canterbury in 2015. She has now been electe...
 Labour has already sacked seven of its MPs and now one has had enough and has resigned in disgust. How many more must feel as Rosie Duffield MP does about Keir Starmer? Many people will agree with her resignation letter, whatever policy differences they have with her.