8. Record high interest rates mean the government is paying tens of billions a year to UK banks on money that the government effectively gifted to them using QE. How are you going to stop those unfair payments?
We’re doing QT. That means selling the QE gilts back into the market. Then we destroy the money collected. This reduces the central bank reserves held by the banks, one for one, £ for £, and so reduces the amount of central bank reserves gifted to the banks and upon which interest is paid.
Problem solved.
All the other questions have equally obvious solutions.
“Record high interest rates”
If recorded history started in about 2007.
Here they are – a starter for 1- 7
1. Why won’t you increase taxes on the wealthy when you know the government needs more money?
Because the tax burden is at a 50 year high already. Also – haven’t you rejected the idea of a wealth tax? albeit I’m aware that was on Tuesday.
2. Why would you rather we had child poverty than tax the best off in society?
I wouldn’t and that’s a ‘straw man’ fallacy for starters
3. This country spends £14.5 billion a year on subsidising the pensions of the wealthiest people at rates higher than those available to basic rate taxpayers. Aren’t there better uses for that money, which is welfare for the wealthy?
Well no it isn’t – Your characterisation is absurd and if you know a thing about pensions – which you don’t as your qualifications are made up – you’d know affordability of them is one of the greatest single challenges facing every Western economy given demographics
4. Wouldn’t it be fair to charge capital gains at income tax rates? That could raise £12 billion a year in tax. Wouldn’t that make life better for millions?
No – because if you did that you’d find yourself losing capital to countries with more competitive tax regimes. Not sure why given your public dislike of smoking you have chosen to wheel out arguments with statistics that are made up on the back of a fag packet. However, the notion that that would raise £12 billion even as a one -off let alone as an annual income is absurd, and haven’t you hypothecated this money to be spent 78 times in your blog?
5. Why not charge national insurance on investment incomes? That could raise vastly more than cancelling the non-dom rule. Couldn’t the NHS benefit from that?
Or could we not simply look to reduce expenditure and stop spending money we don’t actually have rather than treating people’s income as your own personal piggy bank to raid for things that in your self-appointed capacity as an expert you feel would be useful, having attained no elected office beyond that of chairman of your local bird watching chapter?
6. You say there is no magic money tree when the creation of new money during the Covid era proved otherwise. Why not admit the truth, which is that this option is available to any government?
There is no magic money tree and it is extremely dangerous and contrary to all accepted economic wisdom to suggest there is. False claims of authority need to be treated with the contempt they richly deserve and I’d argue any university accepting someone to an academic position maintaining the dangerous fiction of Modern Monetary Theory ought to have its license to award degrees (at least in economics or associated disciplines) removed
7. The Bank of England is now imposing record high interest rates in real terms on this country, at least in recent times. How is that going to help deliver growth or help struggling families?
The interest rates are on any longer term analysis reverting to longer terms norms. As with the answer regarding adolescent fantasies around a ‘Magic money Tree’ which would be embarrassing in a GCSE student of the discipline, interest rates are reverting to norms that were in place prior to the dangerous experiment of Quantitative easing. Following an innumerate scribbler from the Fens absurd and utterly ignorant economic prescriptions would lead to total economic collapse and hyperinflation which would be worse by an order of magnitude and impact struggling families to a lethal extent.
May do 9 to 15 if I’m at a loose end later on….
I thought Spud might be accidentally right if talking about real interest rates of 5.25%, and core inflation of 3.9%, giving a real +ve rate of around 1.3 not been known for 15 years. It wasn’t what he meant though.
So I checked the summer of 2000:
-BoE interest rate was 6.0%
-Core inflation was 0.1%
So wrong again and by a large margin.
Talking of questions, here’s a n unrelated but topical one:
What do you get if you cross Rishi Sunak and the Glenn Miller Orchestra?
What do you get if you cross Rishi Sunak and the Glenn Miller Orchestra?
Career terminated by drowning?
BF – nice try! 🙂
“Why would you rather we had child poverty than tax the best off in society?”
He never gets that he is among the wealthy he rails against. He lives in a big house and has no productive employment. He’d be against the wall by day two of any sort of revolution.
“This country spends £14.5 billion a year on subsidising the pensions of the wealthiest people”
Is an accountant supposed to know the difference between wealth and income? Or that pensions are taxable?
Is an accountant supposed to know the difference between wealth and income? Or that pensions are taxable?
No, not if the accountant in question is Richard Murphy.
“Record high interest rates”
If recorded history started in about 2007.
You have to remember we are dealing with a man (technically speaking) who has long-term loss of short-term memory. He has no idea what he wrote yesterday, let alone last week, month or year. For him, recorded history starts at whatever point he can remember at that particular moment. And you can’t really expect him to interrupt the stream of consciousness flow of his prose to with pesky fact checks, now can you?
Dennis/ Martin
I think it’s now widely acknowledged that his ‘qualifications’ such as they are, were obtained by underhand means. Given in addition he’s left the ICAEW voluntarily – so to describe him as an accountant is both technically and factually incorrect….
VP
Worth noting that the bio on Funding the Future still records him as a member of ICAEW. If I could be @rsed, I’d report him to ICAEW for fraudulently holding himself out as a member.
Q: What do you get if you cross Rishi Sunak and the Glenn Miller Orchestra?
Q: Little Brown Jug Ears
Given in addition he’s left the ICAEW voluntarily…
The reality of this is probably more mundane than nefarious… I’m guessing he couldn’t afford the dues or the cost of the continuing education requirements.
VP @ 1108pm: Excellent!
@ Dennis
I’d noted last year that around the same time that the ICAEW announced tougher CPD requirements, he’d suddenly kicked off about something in their accounts he didn’t like and I predicted he would resign using that as an excuse, rather than have to go on actual courses. Previously all that was required was basically self-certification.
Andrew C –
When you’re talking either maintaining your professional certification or maintaining your toy choo-choos, the choice is obvious.
He still doesn’t understand real interest rates “The Bank of England is now imposing record high interest rates in real terms” Just goes to show the total arselickers who comment on his site that no one has pointed this basic mistake to him. If they had he’s probably deleted the comment after giving a snarky reply. Fuck knows what he’s teaching on his courses if he can’t get the basics right. I doubt that he’s adding any value to their education.
“What do you get if you cross Rishi Sunak and the Glenn Miller Orchestra?”
In the Mud.
PiP – nice.
Honorary mention goes also to Dennis for subliminal reference to the Chattanooga Choo-Choo.
What about “I Swung The Election”?
Or “I’m Headin’ To California”?
What about “I Swung The Election”?
Or “I’m Headin’ To California”?
Well the first is an example of cognitive dissonance worthy of Capt Potato but the second may be wierdly prescient. He still has his Green Card…