Across a whole range of news stories, the impact of the government's chosen economic path has been confirmed this morning.
This policy will, as I have predicted for what seems like forever now, lead to severe social and economic chaos as recession hits.
The stories are widespread. As the Guardian notes, more than 3 million households had their power cut off last year because they were unable to keep up with the demands of the prepayment meters.
The FT has a prediction from financial services regulators that up to 750,000 households may default on their mortgages before this crisis is over, which is 9% of all mortgages in the UK.
The FT also notes that UK student loans are to only increase by 2.8% to allow for the cost of living increase next year, meaning hardship for many, or the denial of access to those who cannot ask parents for a top-up, as many will be unable to do.
And meanwhile in the US inflation has fallen for the sixth month in a row (wholesale fuel prices are falling there faster than in Europe) proving, yet again, that the Fed never did need to raise interest rates there, although as is the case with together central bankers, it is still set on pursuing a policy that can only be described as economic civil war against the population of the country it is meant to serve because the devastation this is causing is wholly unnecessary.
Rarely has the wanton spread of misery for absolutely no purpose but to fuel the greed, prejudice and preconceived ignorance of a few taken place on such a scale in the UK and around the world before now.
There will have to be a reaction to this: I simply cannot see this being accepted forever.
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Meanwhile Bet365 CEO’s pay “slumped” to £272m. There is the pernicious link between the betting industry and poverty. And so it goes on……..
I agree with what you say, Richard. And yet, the markets rise (for now) even though it seems to me that the world economy, in its currently highly leveraged state, cannot withstand both higher interest rates and Quantitative Tightening. There should be a strong move away from the ‘landfill economy’, too.
The stresses and strains on UK households is becoming evident as each day passes; I can’t see a good ending to this, certainly in the short-term.
Clara Mattei’s book is even more compelling than ever – I can tell you that!
At its base is a simple story – the reluctance of certain group of people to share.
This too might be worth a look. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ps-political-science-and-politics/article/teaching-about-oppression-and-rebellion-the-peasants-are-revolting-game/510A0E9956E68A9ECD64A2DF6D4CF882
Why do most people not rebel? ‘One major reason is that collective action is difficult and the costs of failure are high. This dilemma—an application of the famous collective-action problem to revolution—argues that structural factors militate against revolution and rebellion. The state generally possesses a decisive advantage in terms of military and policing power. This means that the costs of action for an individual dissident are very high, including imprisonment or even death. Thus, most citizens will choose to freeride, hoping that there are more risk-acceptant individuals sufficiently motivated to overthrow an oppressive government on their own. Moreover, citizens in harshly repressive societies are atomized and isolated from one another, unable to share information to plan collective action against the object of their common grievances. Despite the worldwide ubiquity of grievances, most citizens in most societies choose not to revolt. Grievance is a necessary but insufficient condition for revolt.’ Teachers didn’t meet the threshold for legal strike action this time. It’s not over.
As someone who has just been on the receiving end of a large rent increase, I can only agree. I will be spending a lot less on the wider “discretionary” side of the economy now. The more I have to spend on the things I “need”, the less I will spend on the “non need” items. Right now it’s close to zero. Real inflation in the things we need is eye watering. The Tories have no understanding of this and I’m not sure that Labour are much better. I call it real world economics.
So do I
I used to teach a course called Economics of the Real World