Investors are mainly being spooked by global inflation fears, not UK politics. But the additional uncertainty created by the crisis in the Labour government is definitely not helping! Once again, UK government bonds (aka gilts) are making the news again, and not in a good way. The yields on these bonds can be read as … Continue reading How much should we worry about surging gilt yields?
Tag: mortgages
Rachel Reeves ‘£4,800’ mortgage claim is a house of cards
Labour’s Rachel Reeves has scored some political points this week by claiming that the Conservatives have made £71 billion of “unfunded policy pledges”, and that this will “mean £4,800 on your mortgage”. But these calculations are simply absurd and easy to knock down. Let us start with the ‘£71 billion’. This figure first appeared in … Continue reading Rachel Reeves ‘£4,800’ mortgage claim is a house of cards
Rate cuts are coming, but the markets may have to force the Bank’s hand
The Bank of England’s decision to leave interest rates on hold this week was no surprise. However, there is still little sign that policymakers are thinking of cutting rates any time soon, despite stagnant growth and falling inflation. Indeed, three of the nine members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted again for another quarter … Continue reading Rate cuts are coming, but the markets may have to force the Bank’s hand
Did the Truss/Kwarteng mini-Budget really cost the country £ [insert gigantic number here] billion?
Speculation that Liz Truss is about to make to return to frontline politics has prompted a flurry of dodgy claims and daft statistics about the economic cost of last September’s mini-Budget. Here's a quick debunking of the most common. I’ll start with the biggest number: £74 billion (sometimes cited as £73 billion). This appears to … Continue reading Did the Truss/Kwarteng mini-Budget really cost the country £ [insert gigantic number here] billion?
Plain-speaking Economics 