Ike Maduka“In 2024 alone, they spent $921 billion on interest payments – a 10% increase compared to 2023.”
#Budget, #AutumnBudget, #UK, #Nigeria, #Debt, #InterestPayments, #RachelReeves, #UN.
@The debate about what Rachel Reeves knew & when, and whether she misrepresented the Office of Budget Responsibility's forecasts, is a classic bit of Westminster Village theatre.
But for political journalists this is much easier to report than what is actually going on in the country, or how the budget itself was assembled (via briefings & kites flown by the Treasury).
This is just the myopic & self-obsessed political class taking to itself... we need something better!
If you wanted an(other) example of mainstream media hypocrisy, how about their response to the Office of Budget Responsibility accidental posting of their forecasts a little ahead of the Autumn Budget announcement.
The righteous indignation & criticism, completely seems to forget for the last month the press/news media has been eager to comment on & speculate about a range of leaks, briefings & kites flown by the Treasury about what (and what might not) be in the Budget!
Interestingly in the budget (demonstrating yet again the contradictions that Rachel Reeves seems to favour), the tax rate on the interest earned on savings was raised for all by 2%, while reducing the cash ISA limit (for the under 65 year olds, we over 65s can still pay in £20k a year into our cash ISAs)... so, rather than discourage cash savers from using Cash ISAs, the tax on savings makes the Cash ISA even more advantageous... ah well.
#CashISA #economics #AutumnBudget
h/t FT
Martin#FiscalDrag is a dirty trick the #ChancellorOfTheExchequer is pulling to raise taxes while appearing not to.
#AutumnBudget #RachelReeves #Budget2025
https://thegreatcritique.wordpress.com/2025/11/26/reeves-the-fiscal-drag-queen/
As the FT points out, Rachel Reeves has a difficult problem to resolve (not that this problem has not also confronted other Chancellors):
There are four audiences her budget needs to satisfy:
The public/voters;
Market (specifically bond market) traders;
Business leaders;
(Labour) MPs.
To say these group haves (in some cases quite radical) differences of interest, is an understatement.
The problem for Reeves is it appears she has no real political commitment(s) to guide her.
Tomorrow afternoon Rachel Reeves will deliver her Autumn Budget... but as I will be aware from my laptop until later afternoon, you'lll be spared my immediate remarks.
But, given so much of it has been pre-announced or the subject of exploratory briefings that I'm pretty sure we unlikely to see any major surprises.
Enjoy (or avoid if that's your preference) the Budget speech.
What is about Rachel Reeves and the compulsion to pre-announce parts of her budget?
Given the flurry of briefing & hints flowing out of Downig St. over the last month, the latest set of briefings on what really will be in the budget, the latest 'commitments' read like just more desire to get press coverage.
Many of us would be happier if her & her team had kept quiet & delivered a coherent budget on Wednesday without teasers, trailers & kites.
They aren't the first to suggest that a key problem for the UK's long term economic success is an over-concentration of leading businesses in the SE of England, but Andrew Sissons & John Springford develop the point at some length....
While I might disagree that financial services needs *more* support, the rest of their argument around things the UK is good at (and the damage Brexit wrought) is worth considering, if you have the time.
When investors' groups warn Rachel Reeves against delaying what they se as necessary 'fiscal pain' what they are actually asking for is a democratic Govt. to foreground the interests & views of financial market traders and de-prioritise the interests of those who will actually suffer from the 'fiscal pain'.
Given, successive UK Govt.'s have prioritised the interests of financial services (whatever their periodic bleating may suggest) we've already seen where that gets us!
#AutumnBudget
h/t FT