Economics newsletter
MAGA-nomics is working
Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, the longest in history, served as a reminder of the relentless will and unstoppable energy he brings to the office of the presidency. In a coup de grace he humiliated Congressional Democrats, securing footage of them remaining seated en masse as they refused to accept that the role
Inflation is down – but for how long?
Britain seems to be turning a corner. Figures just released by the Office for National Statistics show the rate of inflation fell to 3 per cent in January, having risen to 3.4 per cent at the end of last year. This downward trend is in line with forecasts from the Bank of England which expect
Why unemployment is at a five-year high
Britain’s jobs market continues to struggle. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this morning show that the unemployment rate increased to 5.2 per cent, the highest rate in almost five years. Today’s release contains other worrying signals. The number of payrolled employees fell by 134,000 in the year up to January. Some
Trump is right about greenhouse gases
Irresponsible Trump, responsible China: that is the message the BBC’s climate editor seemed to be sending us by juxtaposing the news that the President had repealed Barack Obama’s “endangerment finding” and that China’s carbon emissions fell slightly last year. Trump’s critics like to portray him as a rogue figure in a world which is otherwise committed
Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham’s Britain doesn’t exist
With Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership in perpetual peril, it seems instructive to pay closer attention to his potential successors. On that, there have been two noteworthy interventions this week. The first from Ed Miliband who told the Today programme: ‘I tell you what angers Keir most about this country, it’s class. It’s the class divide.’ Not to
Trump is right about greenhouse gases
Irresponsible Trump, responsible China; that is the message BBC climate editor Justin Rowlatt seemed to be sending us by juxtaposing the news that the US president had repealed Barack Obama’s ‘endangerment finding’ and that China’s carbon emissions fell slightly last year. Trump’s critics like to portray him as a rogue figure in a world which is
Britain’s managed decline can’t continue
Britain is on course for its weakest decade of growth in a century, according to the latest GDP figures. The headlines will duly register alarm, and politicians will promise fresh strategies, convening panels and relaunching initiatives under reassuring new names. Yet for all the activity very little will change. In a more forgiving era, this
Jim Ratcliffe has a point about Britain
Jim Ratcliffe is not a polished media performer, and neither does he have an accurate set of UK demographic statistics in his head. But how typical that the Prime Minister and his Labour colleagues, as well as the Guardian and many others, have chosen to latch onto a loose remark the billionaire Manchester United co-owner made
Is there a silver lining in Britain’s dismal growth figures?
Wes Streeting was bang on when he told Peter Mandelson the government had ‘no growth strategy at all’. The Health Secretary’s claim seems to have been confirmed by figures, just released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which show Britain’s economy grew by just 0.1 per cent in the last three months of 2025.
What Farage fails to understand about working from home
Of all the ways in which Reform is upending the rules of British politics, the most fascinating is its reliance on the support of a single demographic. Nigel Farage seems to address himself exclusively to pensioners. The audience for his speech in Birmingham on Monday told its own story: row upon row of retirees. And