Windfall tax

Inflation continues to be the economic story of the day. While Democrats try to divert attention to the job market, and many Republicans seem more interested in appealing to “gut feelings” on issues like crime, the latest polling shows that rising prices remain top of mind for most voters. To the extent that the Biden administration is talking about inflation, it’s generally been to downplay the latest numbers (at least when not accidentally highlighting it with ill-fated tweets that take credit for historically high Social Security cost-of-living adjustments). But there is another talking point that some Democrats are taking as an alternative: big corporations are to blame, and windfall taxes are the solution.

They can't build a ferry, organise a census or keep the railways operating, but when it comes to organising a grievance campaign, nobody does it better than the SNP. This week saw perhaps the most impressive effort yet from team grievance as the SNP tried to turn the Chancellor's announcement of a windfall tax on big oil companies into a Scotland-versus-the-rest-of-the-UK bun fight. Speaking on Sunday, SNP MP Kirsty Blackman complained:  It feels very unfair that Scotland is having to pay for the entirety of the UK. If Scotland was an independent country, the windfall tax would generate £1,800 for every household in Scotland.