The IMF Fiscal monitor reveals that George Osborne is borrowing money after all – but he’s not calling it stimulus spending, since it falls within his deficit reduction plan.
I’ve spent the day buried in spreadsheets and statistics looking at insights for our C4 Jobs Report. In the course of that I got a closer look at the GDP numbers released as part of the Quarterly National Accounts a fortnight ago, writes Faisal Islam.
Overqualified, no jobs, and the worst economic year since world war two. What now for Spain’s young?
In other words, taking into account, alternate upswings and downswings, the UK has not grown since October 2010, also the month of the Spending Review. That’s right, ZERO growth in 5 quarters, 15 months, for which the Coalition’s original deficit reduction plan had pencilled in three per cent.
Faisal Islam on how scrapping national pay bargaining might save lives, and why it will be rather difficult.
Lord Heseltine received the freedom of the City of Liverpool, on the day that the creation of thousands of jobs was announced. But all the main political parties seem to be fighting over the Heseltine inheritance of industrial activism.
As the Greek president hits back at criticisms of his country from the EU, it looks like the Greek deal could be unravelling.
The bigger picture here: why on earth are credit ratings elevated to this hallowed status? Moody’s pulled off the spectacular intellectual feat of rating the Bank of England as a lesser credit than the European Financial Stability Facility. The answer is that it has been an important piece of marketing for George Osborne, to communicate a tangible benefit from unpopular austerity.
Greece has voted in favour of the EU/IMF austerity package. But why is Germany pushing stability throughout Europe – and what is it hoping to achieve?
It’s not just savers who can no longer live off paltry savings income. The retirement annuity industry has been hit by a fall of 20-30% in the annual income that pensioners will be obliged to live off for the rest of their lives.
Are banks treating euros differently, depending on which country they come from? Faisal Islam blogs from Davos.
It was a far bolder speech than I expected from the PM to the capital of capitalism. He described himself as a “monetary radical”, which is a reference to the £275 billion of QE, and presumably the soon-to-be launched credit easing policy. It was a contrast with the European Central Bank and its lack of bazooka.
It is the Bank of England governor’s piercing assault on bankers that sticks in the mind from today’s important speech in Brighton. He doesnt quite join Occupy the City, but he does suggest that British capitalism’s very legitimacy is up for grabs if bankers go too far on pay.
The leaders’ speeches on “moral capitalism” are meaningless, writes Faisal Islam. Britain is no longer in control of its people’s living standards.
If rumours of a potential downgrade of France’s AAA credit rating are true, it is of huge significance to the eurozone’s fitful efforts at a long-lasting rescue, writes Economics Editor Faisal Islam.