EVERYTHING in the UK economy is going wrong at the same time | Economics | New Statesman

Low interest rates were the only thing keeping the Conservative coalition together – Duncan Weldon

Will Dunn interviews economist Duncan Weldon on his recent New Statesman cover piece, Britain’s big squeeze, A new era of higher interest rates and lower wages threatens another lost decade for living standards.

Together they discuss why “everything in the UK economy is going wrong at the same time,” including issues such as rising inflation, increased interest rates and lower wages combining to create a cost of living crisis and a UK economy where its hard to see who the “winners are.”
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[hilaryporter]

I'm not an economist, but I wanted Duncan Weldon to talk about the obvious need to tax those who had increased their wealth hugely since the Covid crisis (both the super rich and the corporations) and used that wealth to purchase more assets, thereby BY DEFAULT making everyone else poorer.. Is this a taboo subject or do economists fear for their jobs if they give obvious answers? Something has gone badly wrong with realism but this time the suffering is going to be so immense that the people will surely take to the streets. It's time for honest, clear conversations with discussion about the causes. The people have suffered too much. Many of those assets are in this country, we need to tax them.

[ianfraser]

Golly, when we find out who has been running the country since 2010 we’re going to be hopping mad.

[unknown-nwdp]

this video is exactly what journalism needs to look like. TV journalism is guilty of confusing the masses by failingly trying to condense complex information into a so-called "digestible" format for viewers but in fact what they actually do is confuse, conceal and contradict themselves which then leads viewers to have either a simplistic understanding of how economic events happen or a completely wrong one. And this is prevalent on the left just as much as it is on the right. More videos with Duncan pls

[amorosogombe]

The UK is basically experiencing stagflation. Brexit pushed up the cost of imports too. I think the answer is making taxation more progressive - tax the richest more and give tax relief to the poorest including removing VAT on basics. That's how you generate economic stimulus at the bottom, without increasing inflation or increasing the deficit. But taxing the rich is never considered an option is it? That's the real problem.

[DailyDamage]

One of the biggest fallacy’s was presuming Britain would stand taller as a single country rather then being one of the leading powers within a united europe.
The world is interconnected and there’s no such thing as true independence as we all work within given rules.
A large proportion of the EU laws were actually devised by the UK; the Irish issue was “resolved” by the concept of an EU and the open border making it a separation acceptable to the powers that be; a united EU, with the UK at the helm with former foes France and Germany, is a great counterpoint to the Other large powers: USA, China and a blossoming India… let’s not even begin to talk about the economic strength a united EU brings.

I’m a dual national English/German and love both countries and as a financial futures broker, who was involved in the markets since the early 90’s, have seen how the closer economic and social connection benefitted all and sundry. Such a tragedy that brexit occurred which harmed the UK and the peoples all over Europe.
Ignorance pays a hefty price.

[adamy]

Young people need to be part of the conversation on this channel. Yes the coming recession will be hard for everyone, but under 30s have only ever experienced an economy which saddled them with debt, took away their housing options (unless they got their head down from age 16 and saved religiously/had parents who could support a house or flat purchase), and which advertised high wages correlated with an education, only to pull the rug out from underneath them. Not to mention that we are the generation who will pay for covid and climate change. Oh and final nail, having a child with an upbringing comparable to your own seems completely unrealistic no matter your background. This asks the question, what will motivate young workers over the next four years except the fear of more debt?

[mdbmichele]

Ah, but those blue passports. Priceless ...

[blipboop]

I clicked this from my homepage thinking it was a new video. Didn't see it was a year old. Looking at this in hindsight, hasn't this guy been proved utterly wrong?

[tomthumb]

My whole salary LITERALLY - after tax - went on my mortgage for some time after an interest rate hike in the late eighties or early nineties. £1400 in and £1400 out on a mortgage of £70k or so. We lived off £200 a month, with four kids, after paying all bills and huge child-care costs. But pay rises were also enormous, so it didn't take long to escape the trap.

[tamascs]

Brexit is a tragic mistake. And yes, raise taxes on capital gains and higher incomes.

[stephengrice]

The big problem has to be the Tory Government. It always fails to help investment anywhere north of Birmingham. It hates to spend any money where Labour voters lives. Tories say they invest. Yet time after time investment is promised. Yet delivery fails every time. In private they think the North is a money pit. But people make ideas work. Yet if transport is difficult, it slows or stops ideas happening. Bad schools. No money to pay for care. No housing. Rents high.

[tomwaller]

Brexit is England's greatest mistake. It has cost you Northern Ireland and Scotland.

[AllanTheBanjo]

Raising interest rates might help curb inflation if the inflation was being caused by people taking loans for discretionary purchases - but that's not what's happening. The vast majority of people are just keeping up with the bare essentials.

[tomshackell]

All I can say to Will Dunn, and Duncan Weldon .. is .. well done :-)

[rodneyhenchliffe]

Unfortunately, many people are only beginning to realize what the conservatives wanting 'different economies for different people' actually means.
The 'pain' of increasing interest rates is NOT painful for the wealthy. Higher mortgage rates are not painful for the wealthy. INFLATED housing prices are NOT painful for the wealthy; 'houses' are merely affordable 'assets' preserved for the wealthy (they are no longer called 'houses' that ordinary working people NEED). Therefore, there isn't a problem for the wealthy.
'Unretirement' isn't an issue for the wealthy.
Ordinary working people are being impoverished by the Government who act instrumentally.

Rishi Sunak understands economics ... sure. But Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt are also greedy globalists who believe that the Super-rich and ultra-wealthy should be entitled to move wealth around the world - i.e., to literally avoid or minimize paying fairly towards society. Sorry, but Richard Branson and Cliff Richard don't NEED the state pension; why don't we means test the wealthy? The globalists will simply blame global events for economic downturn, but 'inflation' isn't anything new (can you buy a house? Can your children buy a house? Can they even afford to rent a house?); inflation is caused additionally by the inequality gap that has been grown on

Therefore, Hunt and Sunak's economics are MAD, progressively dangerous, and obviously unsustainable ('Populism' could easily emerge as fascism if these people continue being instrumental in growing inequality and manufacturing poverty for some, rather than their 'mates').

They will talk about "levelling up" - they have Because they know what they are instrumental doing. "Levelling up" is more 'future faking' nonsense; in reality, endless austerity and massive taxation is what you will be subjected to.

Where is our energy security? Why haven't we got greater food security? Why can't we access housing? Who is 'We', and who are 'They'?

Here's the deal: there isn't a problem. The wealthy can afford a different economy to ordinary working people.

Is there anymore 'fat' to trim? According to the globalists, there is always more 'fat' to trim whenever ordinary working people have anything.

They are coming for you! But the wealthy have nothing to fear on this front.

Discuss

[louiserossiter]

So on the one hand he is accurately identifying that British people are experiencing a horrendous squeeze which obviously means most do not have spare money to throw around in the economy yet he has also identified that domestic spending is going up so spending is coming from somewhere which he attributes to a tight job market presumably meaning that employment is high therefore everyone is spending happily but if that were the case his first point is null and void! Surely the more obvious answer is that the huge spending within the economy is coming from the tiny percent who have snaffled it all over the past 40 years of neoliberalism in which case the answer to bringing down domestically driven inflation is wealth tax, corporation tax and progressive tax rates. I've only watched the first 4 minutes I don't think I can put myself through anymore

[kattydover]

Nice to be able to understand about the economy, or rather, when we had an economy. This guy explains things really explicitly, even İ can understand it!!

[luisbustamante]

This is sobering stuff from those who work with in it. In the end it makes us look like hamsters in a wheel. Chasing the rest of the crumbles in a cycle that doesn't add up. They didn't mention where the serious money is religiously protected. Tax to wealth could rebalance the economy. There's plenty enough, those who own it finance expensive economic and shooting wars. The ongoing crises have overfilled their pockets. Economists can only throw up their arms.We face a bad dream worse than the one they've given us so far.

[nickbuckle]

From what I have read inflation has never been tamed with interest rates below the inflation rate.
Also because the US Dollar is so strong the US is exporting it's inflation around the world, so if the Fed is raising rates the Bank of England has no choice but to follow, or the pound will weaken further and inflation higher as we have a very large trade deficit.

[robtyman]

We need to have a general election. In all honesty we should have had one when Truss resigned.

It's too late to have one before Christmas, but we must have one next Spring. The UK literally cannot afford to have the Tories in power for another 18 months. The damage they've done already is incalculable.

Sometimes I think they (the Tories) are trying to grind the economy into the ground on purpose, so as to force the break up of the Union. Because as far as I see it, they only seem interested in their own party. Nothing else matters to them.

The UK is clearly not a priority for them, and their policies seem to be made with the objective of keeping the Tory party together. That these policies may be detrimental to the UK is considered by them to be something of an afterthought.

A party that thinks along these lines is one that should not be in power. There's a 'reckless abandon' nature with the Tories, and real inability to think with clarity and make the right choices and decisions.

The current government have no mandate at all. And they are as unstable and callous as the last three governments have been. This is why a general election next spring is essential.