UK Wealth, Editor at large, Bloomberg. Ex Ed in C @Moneyweek. Ex Columnist/Contrib Editor @FT Opinions personal. NED: THRG and Schroder https://nitter.cf/t.co/ojIBNzZwBO #SharePower
Joined August 2010
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Maybe the AI boom will work out exactly as the optimists forecast. That's nice. But what about the high income people who lose their jobs? And stop contributing to pensions. Markets are all about flows. pensions contributions are flows.. bloomberg.com/news/newslette…
The budget pod. Too many taxes. Too much fiddling. Lots of utterly pointless policies. Not enough action. Some small silver linings. Final verdict: surely there's a better way... podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcas…
Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
The "do no harm budget." UK has gov spending near 45% of GDP, debt near 100%. Tax revenue at levels never sustained in the UK before. Crazy fiscal drag. Concerning high income emigration. That's harm enough. Fiddling with cash ISAs and marmalade prices doesn't cut it.
Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
Maybe the AI boom will work out exactly as the optimists forecast. That's nice. But what about the high income people who lose their jobs? And stop contributing to pensions. Markets are all about flows. pensions contributions are flows.. bloomberg.com/news/newslette…
Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
What the King should really tell Commonwealth leaders thetimes.com/comment/columni…
Thought welfare cuts would pay for defence. Now what?
NEW: John Healey tells @krishgm the government will NOT bring the welfare bill down during this Parliament
Chancellor says: “it's not correct to say that we're going to bring this welfare bill down in this Parliament”
But in the same interview he says the system is “broken”
Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
This utterly bleak line from the Resolution Foundation on living standards in their overnight Budget analysis.
"Between now (2026-27) and the end of the Parliament (2028-29), typical incomes are forecast to fall in total by £1,050 (3 per cent)."
In other words: On average we'll be getting poorer in the run-up to the next election.
The Young Entrepreneurs Allowance announced in budget. It already exists. You can get full universal credit in first year of starting business. Pointless feel good announcements are irritating.
Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
Mindblowing chart from OBR. In 2029 real household disposable income per person expected to be just 1% higher than in 2019. What an unbelievably awful decade. It used to grow by 2%+ every year, not 1% in 10 years.
Hello, financial repression.
Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
The extraordinary rise in welfare spending continues
It is going to rise by £19billon this year (5.7 per cent) to £353billion, equivalent to ***11.1%*** of GDP, reaching 12.3% in 2031
It is being driven by a rise in health and mentions benefit spending
I'm v pro more spending on expense. Mad not to. But I never really grasp why it's about a number relative to GDP not the absolute amount we need to pay for what we need.
I’ve said since my first day as Defence Secretary that I trust this Chancellor to give us what we need to keep our country safe. Today demonstrates why.
We’re delivering the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War. Today the Chancellor not only restated our NATO commitment to spend 3.5% of GDP by 2035, but also to spend 3% by 2030.
The gravest dangers of the 20th century are returning, armed with the technologies of the 21st.
The Conservatives left our armed forces underfunded and hollowed out.
This Labour Chancellor is investing in our defence - a Britain ready to fight and a country worth fighting for. 🇬🇧🌹
Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
European Commission sounds the alarm (now !!!) about the number of oil refineries closing in the region over the last 20 years. "We need to counter this trend," says EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen. "This crisis is a wake-up call." Quite.
Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
Re. the minimum wage hike: I wrote this piece about wage compression about 18 months ago, and it's only got worse since then. Will update the charts in a forthcoming newsletter. bloomberg.com/news/newslette…
Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
This picture should be shared far & wide to explain wage compression
You have people with years experience earning a tiny amount more than minimum wage
It’ll push decline further as people will continue not to care about the country
There is no reward for improving ones self
The "do no harm budget." UK has gov spending near 45% of GDP, debt near 100%. Tax revenue at levels never sustained in the UK before. Crazy fiscal drag. Concerning high income emigration. That's harm enough. Fiddling with cash ISAs and marmalade prices doesn't cut it.
Reversing the plan to slash cash ISA allowance from 20k to 12K (apparently coming today). A happy day for the many banks who make fortunes from paying rubbish rates of interest on cash ISAs.. hence removing much of the tax benefit for savers anyway. Quite irritating.
