Every now and again there are rumblings about the need to reform the UK tax system: not just income tax and council tax, and more importantly vat, the tax on fuel, and the tax on greenhouse gas emissions. The Mirlees review, to be published on Wednesday, argues that “sweeping reforms” are necessary. To income tax, …
Category archives: Political/Economic
Increasing sentiment against wealthy?
Barack Obama was today expected to say that he would veto any deficit reduction plan that does not explicitly target millionaire taxpayers. And in the UK, rather more weakly perhaps, Vince Cable was expected to “ramp up rhetoric against the wealthy” at the LibDems conference, calling for a ‘consultation’ into executive pay. This follows his …
UK Government deficit “significantly worse”
The UK Government deficit is around £12bn or 25% worse than previously thought. This has implications for deeper austerity/government spending cuts, “well into the next parliament.” http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f5981c68-dee0-11e0-9130-00144feabdc0.html
“Greece should default and abandon the euro”
Here’s one solution to the eurozone crisis: Greece defaults and leaves the eurozone, returning to the drachma, enabling it to weaken its currency to compensate for any future lack of competitiveness (or strengthen in response to excess competitiveness). Existing creditors of the Greek government form an orderly queue and negotiate the existing debts. And holidays …
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Bank of America plans to axe 10,000 jobs
A brief post this one. Bank of America has said that it will cut 10,000 jobs (10.5% of its workforce) in the first phase of its restructuring plan. This will save the company $5bn per year. Why comment on this? It is surely a normal thing to do? Well, yes. And so it is interesting …
New paradigm needed, II
Following our post yesterday on how we need a new paradigm for business, it was interesting to read George Magnus (“the man who predicted the sub-prime crisis”) writing in the FT today saying almost the same thing” “Put simply, the economic model that drove the long boom from the 1980s to 2008, has broken down.” He …
August markets crash — new paradigm needed
In August this year, stock markets around the world crashed. Two big reasons for this were quoted by the Guardian’s Larry Elliott on 5 August. For Gavyn Davies writing in the FT, other factors were key.
Financial innovation: top to bottom
Companies in the US and UK, faced with a lack of willingness from the banks to lend, have been raising money by issuing ‘mini-bonds’ direct to customers. Similar to the debentures issued by the All England Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon, they can offer customers a mix of goods and services (tennis tickets, chocolates, shaving …
Bank of England may shift QE into riskier assets
As concerns mount over the state of the economy, George Osborne has said that he sees no barriers to a further round of quantitative easing, possibly moving into riskier asset classes than gilts. Adam Posen, an external member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee, is expected to call for the Bank to do exactly …
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