Economics newsletter
What will Ed Miliband do when the lights go out?
How many times has Ed Miliband told us that his renewable energy policies were helping to free us from ‘fossil fuel dictators’? Wind and solar energy, he assures us, are saving us money and making us more energy-secure. Then we wake up to find that actually, Britain has only two days’ worth of gas left in storage.
What to expect from Rachel Reeves’s spring statement
Before the first missiles landed in Tehran, Rachel Reeves was looking forward to today. Her spring ‘forecast’ statement was going to be a doddle. The plan – to have the smallest intervention by a Chancellor since Philip Hammond in the spring of 2018 – was a sensible one. Britain’s fragile economy could not have handled
The bond markets aren’t done with Rachel Reeves
Never has Rachel Reeves been so glad to be so boring. The Chancellor will deliver today her spring update on the public finances at a time of unusual calm in the often overdramatic story of UK economic policy. One of the biggest actors in the story, the bond market, is currently happy and sleepy. In
MAGA-nomics is working
Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, the longest in history, served as a reminder of the relentless will and unstoppable energy he brings to the office of the presidency. In a coup de grace he humiliated Congressional Democrats, securing footage of them remaining seated en masse as they refused to accept that the role
Inflation is down – but for how long?
Britain seems to be turning a corner. Figures just released by the Office for National Statistics show the rate of inflation fell to 3 per cent in January, having risen to 3.4 per cent at the end of last year. This downward trend is in line with forecasts from the Bank of England which expect
Why unemployment is at a five-year high
Britain’s jobs market continues to struggle. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this morning show that the unemployment rate increased to 5.2 per cent, the highest rate in almost five years. Today’s release contains other worrying signals. The number of payrolled employees fell by 134,000 in the year up to January. Some
Trump is right about greenhouse gases
Irresponsible Trump, responsible China: that is the message the BBC’s climate editor seemed to be sending us by juxtaposing the news that the President had repealed Barack Obama’s “endangerment finding” and that China’s carbon emissions fell slightly last year. Trump’s critics like to portray him as a rogue figure in a world which is otherwise committed
Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham’s Britain doesn’t exist
With Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership in perpetual peril, it seems instructive to pay closer attention to his potential successors. On that, there have been two noteworthy interventions this week. The first from Ed Miliband who told the Today programme: ‘I tell you what angers Keir most about this country, it’s class. It’s the class divide.’ Not to
Trump is right about greenhouse gases
Irresponsible Trump, responsible China; that is the message BBC climate editor Justin Rowlatt seemed to be sending us by juxtaposing the news that the US president had repealed Barack Obama’s ‘endangerment finding’ and that China’s carbon emissions fell slightly last year. Trump’s critics like to portray him as a rogue figure in a world which is
Britain’s managed decline can’t continue
Britain is on course for its weakest decade of growth in a century, according to the latest GDP figures. The headlines will duly register alarm, and politicians will promise fresh strategies, convening panels and relaunching initiatives under reassuring new names. Yet for all the activity very little will change. In a more forgiving era, this