George Osborne’s former adviser Rupert Harrison: Extra spending in Budget is ‘welcome’ March 10, 2020 Rupert Harrison has spent the last few weeks monitoring obscure economic indicators – everything from pollution in Chinese cities to traffic in Milan – in an effort to guide his clients at investment giant Blackrock through the worst market crisis since 2008. He’s no stranger to financial turbulence, however, having been chained at the hip [...]
Can the chancellor protect the UK economy from coronavirus? March 10, 2020 You have to feel sympathy for Rishi Sunak. Suddenly appointed as chancellor after the unexpected resignation of Sajid Javid, he found himself with just weeks to put together the first Budget of the Boris Johnson era. Any chance he could simply copy Javid’s homework was then dashed when the former chancellor gave the Times chapter [...]
A history lesson on the Black Death teaches us to resist the urge to panic about Covid-19 March 10, 2020 When Pope Francis announced the cancellation of major public engagements, his tired face half-obscured by a handkerchief filled front pages across the world — before he headed into self-imposed isolation. Nearly 700 years ago, Pope Clement VI was trying very hard not to catch a different infectious disease that was then sweeping Europe. Known to [...]
Lebanon should learn the lessons of the past to protect the future when it comes to its debt problem March 10, 2020 In a solemn press conference over the weekend, the relatively new Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab delivered a speech that will go down in history. Conceding that the country was paying for mistakes made in the past, Diab announced to the world that Lebanon would not be rendering whole the bond payment due on Monday, [...]
DEBATE: Should the chancellor bend the fiscal rules to increase spending in his first Budget? March 10, 2020 Should the chancellor bend the fiscal rules to increase spending in his first Budget? Will Tanner, director of Onward, says YES. It is the prerogative of a twenty-first century chancellor to set the rules of your own tenure. Gordon Brown, George Osborne, Philip Hammond and Sajid Javid (who never delivered a Budget) all established the [...]
Small Budget tweaks could give startups big improvements in access to cash March 10, 2020 Britain’s small business funding picture is mixed. The good news is that, while access to traditional bank loans has been limited since the financial crisis, founders have undoubtedly benefited from the rise of alternative finance. Over £2bn is now lent through peer-to-peer lenders and close to 400 equity crowdfunding deals take place in the UK [...]
NY Fed increases short-term funding as US stocks brace for open March 9, 2020 The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has ramped up the amount of money it provides in very short-term loans to the financial system in a bid to keep Wall Street steady amid a coronavirus-driven market rout. The NY Fed today said daily overnight repurchase agreement (repo) operations will increase to $150bn (£115bn) from $100bn. [...]
Eurozone investor morale collapses amid coronavirus outbreak March 9, 2020 Morale among Eurozone investors plunged in March to its lowest level in seven years as the coronavirus outbreak brought fears of a European recession. The sentiment gauge from data firm Sentix slumped to minus 17.1 in March from 5.2 in February. The fall was well below economists’ forecast of minus 11.1. “Never before has such [...]
London economy’s post-election bounce continues March 9, 2020 London’s private sector grew strongly in February, survey data has shown, even as the coronavirus outbreak took its toll on tourism. The Natwest/IHS Markit London purchasing managers’ index posted 56 in February, down slightly from 56.5 in January but stronger than the long-run average. A score of above 50 indicates that the private sector expanded. [...]
UK small businesses gloomy about coronavirus and Brexit March 9, 2020 Worries over the impact of Brexit and coronavirus mean more than 70 per cent of the UK’s small and medium-sized businesses do not expect the country’s economy to grow during the rest of 2020, according to new survey data. The pessimism about growth means firms 57 per cent of firms are unlikely to invest in [...]
