Funding the Future

The title of this video is a quote from William Beveridge writing in 1944 in the report that became the foundation of the UK welfare state. He realised then, as we should do now, that too many savings in too few hands could be deeply destructive within an economy.

Government bonds do not fund government spending, any more than tax does. So why do governments keep issuing bonds when there is no obvious need for them to do so? #uk #money #economic #politics #bank #government #tax #investment #share

Rachel Reeves says she wants growth. If so, she should tax wealth, because the wealthy save much of what they earn, meaning that they don’t spend it, and so reduce growth. If that same income was redistributed to those on low incomes who will spend it then growth would follow. It really is almost that easy to increase growth.

Cryptocurrencies are nothing of that sort because almost none are ever used to facilitate trade – for which they are wholly unsuited because of their uncertain values. They might just be highly volatile assets. But they might best be seen as mechanisms to undermine the state.

It’s claimed that the Bank of England is independent of the government. Almost certainly that’s a complete sham. But it’s one that’s been used to impose policy against the best interests of people in this country. This pretence has to end, and the government has to be accountable for all our economic policy.

It’s often claimed that business is efficient in a way government never can be. If that was true many fewer would fail. The reality is that both are only as good as the people who work for them – and their skill sets are likely to be remarkably similar.

Economics says high interest rates should deflate share prices. But that’s not been true since 2021, because the real world does not work the way economics says it does. Instead, high interest rates have led to high share valuations. And now all that could change.

Far-right politicians hate government, or so they say. For decades they tried to deny it revenue by operating from offshore. Now they’re trying to deny funding to onshore tax authorities. In both cases the aim is the same: they want to undermine the state by denying it the funding it needs. #uk #money #economic #politics #bank #government #tax

The trouble with monopolies has been known for well over a century. They can abuse their power to extract excess profits. Google has now been ruled to be a monopoly doing just that. Suppose that this ruling was extended to all monopolies and the power of the big corporation was shattered? What could happen then? #uk #money #economic #politics #bank #government #google #monopoly

Politicians keep claiming that the government must run its affairs just like a household. Absolutely nothing could be further from the truth, or more harmful for our economy.