Richard Murphy
Tackling the nonsense talked about the national debt, and its cost https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2023/12/31/tackling-the-nonsense-talked-about-the-national-debt-and-its-cost/. Politicians are ending the year talking total nonsense about the national debt and its implications. Let me shatter a few myths about both its size and cost, both of which are being dramatically overstated right now.
If Keir Starmer understood this one blog post he could transform the UK

As the Financial Times noted yesterday: Sir Keir Starmer has rejected calls from senior Labour figures to fill a growing fiscal hole with big tax rises, warning: “I don’t think you can tax your way to growth.” They added: Starmer is under pressure from the likes of deputy leader Angela Rayner and former...

Funding the Future
Dec 31, 2023 at 3:09pmWeb
Show threadcitcDec 31, 2023
The article states that government is wrong to claim money is paid now on debt; if a bond matures now, it must be paid now. Otherwise the government would be considered to have defaulted on debt. Unless mistaken UK government has never defaulted on debt.
It is stated that debt obligations should be paid in instalments, but gilts are paid in full by convention.
If UK government were to stop from paying interest, gilts would have lower (perhaps nil?) value and no commercial bank would be prepared to buy gilts. This would render UK government unable to borrow
If government expenditure was less than income, there would be no debt. Schools, health, etc. require income.
Show threadb steJan 1, 2024
@RichardJMurphy truth!