Monthly Archives: June 2010

President Obama is in political trouble. He is not having a good war, nor has his handling of the Gulf oil spill done him any favours. His healthcare plans have proved very divisive as well as expensive. Sacking a General worked because he replaced him with a better General, but the underlying chatter revealed problems [...]

This week we learned that one member of the Bank’s Monetary Committee wanted to put up interest rates last month. Mr Sentance was rightly concerned that inflation remains well above target, and dares to question the Bank’s orthodoxy that because there is such a large amount of spare capacity around that there should be no [...]

We hear today of the upcoming row between those puritan Europeans – slash the deficits – and those cavalier Americans – stoke the recovery. Mr Spend and Borrow himself, Mr Obama, has warned Europe not to overdo the cuts. So who is right? They are both right. As we have seen in the Euro zone, [...]

Some have been suggesting I have been giving post budget advice about family budgets. Far from it. I have offered no such advice. Well before the Budget I was talking here about the state cutting down its middle class lifestyle – too many foreign trips and consultants. I drew an analogy with what middle income [...]

We are told that there has not been enough rain recently. There will be a hosepipe ban in the North West. We face the massacre of the innocent bedding plants, the death of billions of blades of grass. There were floods last autumn. A couple of wet years in 2008 and 2009. Now the North [...]

It is typical of the spin era that the first serious “crisis” in relations between General McChrystal and President Obama occurs over a few disobliging words the General and his team spoke about the President and his team. The endless rounds of deaths and dangerous patrols, the delays in finding political settlements on the ground [...]

I wish the England football team every success today. It would be great if they can win the game, go top of the Group and enter the next round in style. Meanwhile, many contratulations to the England cricket team – they have been on fire in 20/20 and one day games recently. We can enjoy [...]

The surprises in the budget were the big increase in VAT for next year, and the decision to continue with large cash increases in total public spending over the five year period. The Chancellor, who had said that 80/20 was the right balance for spending cuts and tax increases, settled instead for a 57/43 balance [...]

Public spending to rise 10% in cash terms over 5 years: 2009-10 (Last Labour year) £669bn 2010-11 £697bn 2011-12 £700bn 2012-13 £711bn 2013-14 £722bn 2014-15 £737bn (£68bn or 10% above Labour level) See tomorrow morning’s comment here.