Monthly Archives: February 2009

I asked the Treasury to tell me if they were going to start underfundign the deficit, to aid a policy of printing more money. Yvette Cooper assures me not. She says: “The Government intends to continue to finance the Central Government net cash requirement using the framework that was established in the 1995 debt Management [...]

The Office of National Statistics tells us today that we can add £1 to £1.5 trillion to the £700 billion national debt to allow for the banks coming into the pubic sector. That makes our national debt up to a collosal 150% of National Income on the official figures. We could add some more for [...]

Bloggers have asked me what do I think of printing money (quantitative easing). It can be necessary when an economy is in slump and there is no danger of a collapse of the currency or inflationary tendencies from doing it. It is dangerous if there are inflationary tendencies, and if the currency is vulnerable. The [...]

The BBC highlighting very high rail fares in the UK today is inclined to suggest the cause is the government’s policy of requiring more of the costs to be paid by passengers and less by taxpayers. It is one of Labour’s policies that I support. The true cause of high rail fares in the UK [...]

Yesterday was a defining day for the Obama Presidency. He fulfilled the two obvious predictions made on this site – just like George Bush he would spend and borrow more in response to the crisis, and just like George Bush he would send more troops to the Middle East to intensify America’s war there. Obama’s [...]

State bail outs are usually bad news. They are clearly bad news for taxpayers. We get lumbered with having to pay for businesses which have lost money and become too expensive for their shareholders and bankers to keep going. The British experience demonstrates that they are often bad news for the very people a bail [...]

Ignore the RPI – it is just reflecting the huge cuts in interest rates. Although it is the rate that matters from the point of view of many contracts, for once we should examine Mr Brown’s chosen rate of the CPI. It is obstinately still at 3%. The authorities should not be surprised. That is [...]

Council taxes are too high, and in many places are rising too quickly. I welcome today’s news that a Conservative government would give local electors the right to demand a referendum where they thought the Council Tax was too high and should be brought down. We need such a countervailing power. We need some way [...]

Dame Stella is right today to complain that the government is using fear of terrorism as an excuse to take away liberties and create a police state. The only thing I take issue with in her statement is that the government is not using the fear of terrorism of the people so much as its [...]