Economist, Visiting Professor, Lecturer, Writer, Public Speaker.
Nothing announced in the Budget on Wednesday was a surprise because it was all leaked in advance. But that did not make it any less surprising in one regard: the lack of any bold action to deal with the economic challenges facing the UK of an aging population, poor productivity, the need to reform the …
Continue reading “A political budget – one for the short term economically not the long”
Today’s UK budget is called ‘the budget for growth’ with the four E’s of enterprise, education, employment, and everywhere. Jeremy Hunt heavily trailed the latter in a speech he made at Bloomberg’s offices in January. Many of the proposals in the Budget were as expected and were known by the media. In other words, there …
Framed as a budget to shrink debt and control inflation, Jeremy Hunt’s statement in the fifth fiscal event of this year essentially left most of the heavy lifting to 2025 and beyond. Of the measures announced, some three quarters were spending cuts, and just one quarter were tax increases. Of the £61.7 billion fiscal tightening …
Continue reading “Has the Chancellor tightened policy too much?”