Rachel from accounts has crashed the economy

[Almn0etd]

So borrowing costs are now even higher than when Liz Truss was around.

The economy is well and truly cooked and in a far worse shape now that Rachel accounts is in charge.

Why isn’t this dominating the news cycle? Because it’s Labour.

The Tories were atrocious. Labour are an indescribable disaster for this country, surpassing the lowest of the low bars. Cue Labour apologists who don’t mind being made poorer and having the country destroyed, as long it’s Labour doing it to them.

That would entail them swinging hard to the right.

I think what’s more probable is that we become like Argentina, under the Peronists i.e. 55% are employed by the public sector, we have rampant inflation, and need an IMF bail out every ten years…

I exaggerate for effect, but you get the point I hope.

I am not sure most Argentinians would have voted willingly for Javier Milei, but they did eventually and it has been painful for much of the population. However, the rented housing market and rents have stabilised at affordable levels, so more property is available to rent, and the job market is improving too, very sharply.

@MyNameIsX I think we probably are already Argentina, but with the ECHR bolt on.

The pain is real, as is poverty amongst much of the country, but Milei is attracting FDI and is something of a darling with the markets (look at the performance of their sovereign debt). He was the first foreign leader to visit Trump post election win.

Large parts of the world are rejecting socialism, and the UK has just entered a socialist experiment. No wonder Musk (and soon Zuckerberg) are attacking Labour…

The UK is an anomaly.

Do you think she lied on purpose?

‘The US election has also accelerated a wider shift back to more conservative social and political stances and an embrace of unfettered capitalism.

Companies are scrapping diversity, equity and inclusion departments, cutting their support for racial diversity charities, and dropping out of climate change groups. They are also scrubbing anything that could be perceived as “woke” from public statements, corporate documents and advertising.

The election has empowered some top executives to start speaking out in favour of conservative policies, from tax cuts to traditional gender roles.’

FT.

Not at all; she pleaded guilty. I think that was the truth, and she didn’t lie at all. This sob story about being badly advised only came up when the fraud conviction became widely known. No one pleads guilty to a fraud charge by mistake, and no one innocent pleads guilty to a fraud charge just because they are (if indeed they were…) advised to.

Yes, @MyNameIsX . Also an FT reader. But alarming for a vast percentage of the population who have little idea what storms await them. All those nice ideas are about to be tossed overboard, so businesses can concentrate on making profits... from which salaries are paid.

*traditional gender roles "

Who wrote that! What are gender roles in the US where women who have just birthed are back at their desks on whoopy cushions expressing milk??

Alas, I don’t think she’s welcome. I can’t imagine why.

Just popping in to get up to speed on why today's drop in inflation is further proof that Reeves and Starmer are toast. Morning all!

I don't think it's made things worse, and the slight drop in long term gilt yields gives her a little more headroom against her fiscal rules. But it's not going to save the day is it...inflation is still way over target, and growth is still non existent. So it's somewhat clutching at straws relative to the big issues we face!

It was lowered by hotel prices dropping and the price of tobacco easing. Neither of which are going to be saviours of the economy!

It is good to see a reduction, however slight. We wait to see if our mortgage rate improves when we refinance later in the year. Similarly how expensive will our holiday $$s be. How will it affect the price of aviation fuel, all priced in $US.
Confidence in Starmer not helped by his agreeing to pay £2bn to mineworkers and to IRA supporters like Gerry Adams. Why do our taxpayers fund this Socialist extravagance?

Do you think it’s going well for them?

They aren't forced to use whoopee cushions in all fairness. An ordinary cushion is less funny but much more practical.

It will rise again next month or March due to increasing energy bills

I can't imagine why anyone's surprised! When did Labour not tank the economy?

It's an interest rate drop achieved with a fall in airfare inflation and in hotels, from what I've read, to produce a decline in inflation from 2.6% to 2.5%. it's an unexpected drop, not one achieved by policy.

The increase we are about to see when firms pass on the increase in staffing costs are incoming and energy costs will rise again in April. And the drop in the pound to the dollar will see an increase in fuel costs.

It's a welcome temporary reprieve though.

Businesses making profits also pay taxes - corporation tax on profits, PAYE/NIC on wages, VAT on sales, etc.

Those profits also fund most of the occupational pension schemes (except the gold plated public sector ones funded from taxation).

Businesses pay local business rates to help fund council spending requirements.

Where would the money come from if businesses didn't exist or were loss making so had to lay off huge numbers of people.

We NEED profitable businesses.

Wasn't 1997-2007 very stable with strong growth thanks to the Chancellorship of Gordon Brown.

Do you recall the bust after the boom?

It wasn’t that stable given it could only happen with a huge bust when the boom crashed

But what was that due to the fault of the Labour government directly? Or was it a global economic problem that shook us.

Had labour had done bank regulation differently pre GFC could we still have had that strong growth.

It was, but as I posted either on this thread or another that's becuase for their first term they just stuck to the fiscal policies of the previous government!! Which they were overt about because they needed to be to build confidence. Under Brown, public investment was cut and taxes rose, ultimately eliminating the deficit. It started to go wrong in the second term when the dot.com bubble burst, tax revenue fell and the impact of PFI started to bite...

Their first term in office was very good financially, but then they were committed to keeping the financial plans of the outgoing Tory government.

Things started to turn sour after their second win when they started making changes.

Don't you remember Gordon having to keep "extending" the length of the economic cycle as he could never get the books to balance - he had promised to even out the finances over the "economic cycle", but he couldn't do it!

We weren't in a good place to withstand the global financial crisis. Some other countries weren't affected as badly and bounced back quicker. Arguably, the UK has never bounced back at all.