For what it’s worth, I’ve been comparing my UK economic forecasts with those of the OBR. There is a much more positive story than the Chancellor told in Wednesday’s Spending Review 2020. Let’s start with the near-term outlook… The OBR assumes that the economic impact of the second lockdown will be ‘three-fifths’ that seen during … Continue reading Our economic emergency is almost over
Category: coronavirus
‘Global Britain’ shouldn’t be taking an axe to foreign aid
According to The Times, the Treasury is pressing for foreign aid to be cut temporarily from 0.7% of GDP to 0.5% as part of next Wednesday’s Spending Review. This would be both poor economics and dreadful politics. By way of background, the International Development Act of 2015 commits the government to spend 0.7% of national … Continue reading ‘Global Britain’ shouldn’t be taking an axe to foreign aid
Why a tax on homeworking is a really bad idea…
Researchers at Deutsche Bank (DB) have proposed an additional tax on people working from home ‘to help those who cannot’. This would break just about every principle of good tax design and is one of the worst ideas I’ve ever heard. Let me explain... As I understand it, the proposal is for a 5% tax … Continue reading Why a tax on homeworking is a really bad idea…
The Economics of Covid
Here’s a presentation I gave on 4th November (to teachers of A-level economics) on the economics of Covid and the appropriate fiscal and monetary responses to a pandemic... economics-of-covid-4-november-2020Download
