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”
It’s hard to find anything to like in the Autumn Statement delivered by Jeremy Hunt. While on the surface, the 2% cut in National Insurance contributions seems like a good idea, it looks worse the more you examine what it means and its implications. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) references to the ‘headroom’ to …
Continue reading “An election Budget that does not address UK challenges”
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 …