If their Lordships so wildly misunderstand the true nature of what they call the national debt, which in reality is nothing more than an optional savings facility made available by the government,
Jeebus.
So, err, why does the govt pay interest on it?
The UK does not have a national debt but does instead offer a range of very popular national savings products and also has national equity that is not yet recognised in the nation’s accounts.
a/ All of these are sustainable in their current forms and the holders of national savings products from gilts to premium bonds and NS&I accounts most definitely do not wish for the return of their funds to them.
b/ The cost of servicing these savings accounts and the national equity is under the control of the government and if it is currently considered excessive then that is as a result of its choice to make it so as a result of the imposition of artificially high interest rates in an unnecessary attempt to control inflation.
c/ The so-called national debt as stated by the Office for National Statistics is overstated in value by approximately £1 trillion.
d/ National equity capital exceeds £700 billion.
e/ The ratio of so-called national debt to GDP is not useful as a tool for economic management, not least because the figure for national debt now used is seriously overstated as a result of mismeasurement by the Office for National Statistics.
f/ As a result, what is required is that we properly understand the nature of the nation’s finances, its income and expenditure and balance sheet and to then use that understanding to attract the additional funding required to fund the investment in the UK that is now required which can only be delivered by action on the part of the government
I don’t think the Lords Committee liked his submission….
” The UK does not have a national debt but does instead offer a range of very popular national savings products and also has national equity”,…
Depending on which source you use, the National Debt (on which we are paying £100 billion in interest per year) is around £2.6 trillion (or 4 trillion if you include all the unfunded liabilities), so someone, somewhere is misguided, peddling misinformation or telling porkies……….
“someone, somewhere is misguided, peddling misinformation or telling porkies.” One should not rule out the possiibility of all three being true.
Easily one of the strangest statements ever put forth by Richard Murphy. Which is saying something.
Addolff, £100bn is about 14 days national income. Does that mean that if there was no national debt, we could all have two weeks holiday a year, a proper holiday where we didn’t pay taxes during the vacance. Obvs, we’d have to do without all the extra stuff and staff the government bought for us while racking up the debt
OT
“Labour MPs voted for geronticide
Posted on September 10 2024
I posted this Tweet this afternoon:
Geronticide is the killing or euthanasia of the elderly. Since it is reasonably anticipatable that the number of elderly people dying from hypothermia will increase this winter as a result of this decision by the government that Labour MPs alone in the House of Commons have supported, I think the accusation I have made is fair.”
I think that’s vermine from Labour totally off the menu
I’m reminded of the Status Quo song
Burning bridges never made me cry
I could walk away with no goodbye
Bongo @ 5.00, perhaps we could put Tax Freedom Day back two weeks: https://www.adamsmith.org/taxfreedomday/
Bravefart @ 5.08, well if taking sick old people out of hospital and putting them in nursing homes full of vulnerable old people at the onset of covid was phase one, and making energy unaffordable was phase two, perhaps this could be considered phase three.
I wonder what comes next?
If the interest rate is not set by the market then it is artificial. Whether it is too high or too low is indeterminable but it’s a pretty safe bet that if it was allowed to reach it’s natural level then either the government would default or we would have hyperinflation.