The old saying that a ‘week is a long time in politics’ can rarely have been more apt. The changes in Westminster have been overshadowed by the transition in the Monarchy. But the new Prime Minister has also begun to tackle the challenges facing the UK economy. The first big policy announcement was a freeze … Continue reading What have we learned from the first week of ‘Trussonomics’?
Category: Fiscal Policy
The pros (and cons) of cutting VAT
Liz Truss is apparently mulling the ‘nuclear’ option of cutting the standard rate of VAT by five percentage points to support the economy. This has triggered a predictable backlash from my fellow policy wonks, led by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). However, in these extraordinary times, every lever may have to be pulled. The … Continue reading The pros (and cons) of cutting VAT
Nationalisation of energy suppliers would solve nothing – and could make the crisis even worse
Kudos to Gordon Brown. The former Labour Prime Minister and Chancellor is at least coming up with bold ideas to tackle soaring energy bills. Unfortunately, his ideas are not new, and they are not good ones either. Brown’s starting point is that the energy price cap should be ‘suspended’ before the results of the latest … Continue reading Nationalisation of energy suppliers would solve nothing – and could make the crisis even worse
Would more tax cuts be inflationary?
One of the central arguments of Rishi Sunak’s campaign to become the next Prime Minister is that it would be irresponsible to cut taxes further until inflation is under control. Of course, there are risks here, but my view is that they are worth taking. For a start, it is not clear that tax cuts … Continue reading Would more tax cuts be inflationary?
Plain-speaking Economics 