I'm actually pleased with the mini-budget

[yubgummy]

(Cue hysterical shrieking ;) )

Macroeconomics is complex. It surprises me that within a week, there's such a strong consensus that everything about the mini-budget is literally the work of the devil. Echo chamber...

The UK basically has never recovered from the GFC and has just been stagnant and struggling for a decade. The clear theme in this budget is encouraging people to actually get out and DO something ("supply-side reform"). Tax incentives for businesses to invest in plant & machinery, reducing red tape for infrastructure investment (more North Sea licences, more onshore wind), tax cuts to base rate & NI to encourage people into work...

I would like to see more action on interest rates from the BoE, and I would like to see more detail on the Planning & Infrastructure Bill, but I want to give them a chance instead of calling for yet another change in government. Supply-side reform is a perfectly sane strategy and the UK economy does need to get moving, by which I mean, producing new and useful goods and services not just keeping the whole country on life support.

More years nic before full pensions?

Pay to see doctors

Pay accommodation fees in hospitals?

I’ve been thinking more about this and the real aim of their mini budget is to create the conditions where tories can decimate public services. It’s a small state ideology, like a cult.

This is why Truss didn’t place a windfall tax on the energy companies to help pay for the tax cuts. It was a no brainier to do it, and the CEOs of the companies were ok with it, but no. They WANT to create a massive financial black hole in order to justify a fire sale of the things we care about like the NHS. See this informative graphic:

Mini budget explained

Tax incentives for businesses to invest in plant & machinery

I’m in the middle of investing in plant and machinery and was in the process of increasing borrowing in order to get going again but thanks to Liz my borrowing which I was expecting to be in place early next week has been pulled. I’m absolutely fucked. The biggest tax incentive that would have made a real difference to my business is a VAT reduction and complete VAT reform. The government takes about 3x out of my business in VAT than we get out for ourselves. VAT was not mentioned at all despite the government practically promising that a cut was coming in meetings with industry leaders the week before the budget.

Yes @Zwicky - the cost of borrowing is the elephant in the room. Agree about VAT, and longer term I’d add the cost of energy. Our energy is fixed for another 2 years yet but where’s the plan to increase energy security and stabilise prices? Fracking won’t deliver for the UK, even the CEO of Cudrilla agrees.

This ideology is outlined in a book called Brittania Unchained written by Kwasi Kwarteng, Liz Truss, Priti Patel, Dominic Raab when they were junior ministers.

I haven’t read it but it’s clear from a skim of the summary and a few reviews that they see the driving down of the British standard of living as a price well worth paying for the furtherance of their political ambitions.

Having watched £22k drop from my pension portfolio from Friday to Monday - the pension that I use to live on - forgive me for feeling first hand that the mini-budget should be something I can take legal action against. I'm all for the market going up and down but when it's directly torpedoed to the point where my 40+ years of savings have a crater blown into them by someone playing at economic chess, it should be possible to seek recompense with damages against the government for being so bloody arrogant and cavalier. The man's a fool and couldn't care less. As for Truss... she needs trussing up.

People already drawing on their pensions won't be happy. Might even be a few who voted to have her as the new leader being affected , you never know. Although they probably don't care much.

The Tories normally appeal to homeowners with their policies. Even more so than high earners, because there are more of them.

Fucking over homeowners will be a disastrous policy direction for them, as the polling shows.

Homeowners without a mortgage outnumber the mortgagors. However, mortgagors are a very important swing voter and apparently more than half of them vote tory on a usual basis!

But they won't have more money in their pockets after paying their (still extremely high) energy bills and their massively increased mortgage payments. They will be worse off. So no they won't be out there spending money and boosting the economy. Quite the opposite. In fact, someone supporting the budget on another thread said they specifically don't want poor people to be out spending their money. So which is it? They do or they don't?

You should be happy, you can invest that extra or spend it, which I suppose will eventually benefit someone like me at the bottom of the chain.

Absolutely spot on, it’s as plain as day.

Or the extra would cause more inflation, thereby forcing Bank of England to raise interest rates. This would mean your landlord has higher costs or you have higher costs if you own a property. This could mean a doubling of your rent or mortgage. You need probably a income increase of at least £15k to even begin to cover that.

The markets took panic at Liz Truss' mini budget and now even after a 66 billion bailout, the pension funds are still in rush for cash and selling assets. If they collapse, that means many people will lose their pension. No pension- hmm what does that mean for older people. Would we now find out?

Thanks for this.
Have just read and shared.
Have listened to my colleagues today talking about not being able to see the dentist as treatments are too expensive and working out how long they can put off putting on their heating. (Public services).

Reading that link was grim

I don't agree with black-n-white views that the Tories are out to shaft the WC. They need skilled labour to keep their cronies rich. It doesn't actually benefit them to have an unhealthy unhappy population. So they aren't trying to destroy public services per se, although a benefit could be more individuals taking personal responsibility for things like their own health care.

nope, the truth is far worse: Truss & KK truly believe they are doing a good thing for the masses. It's a kind of nanny-state-on-steroids strategy, that a little bit of tough medicine (shock therapy) will make us all healthier.

Please will people stop calling Truss working class? Her dad is a maths professor, FFS. Going to local comp doesn't make you WC.