As experts forecast a £100bn budget black hole, should the chancellor prioritise deficit reduction in his Autumn Statement? November 17, 2016 Sam Bowman, executive director at the Adam Smith Institute, says Yes. Whatever we borrow today we’ll eventually have to pay for tomorrow. So government borrowing just defers taxation – there really is no free lunch. It’s worse than that, though. Government borrowing crowds out private borrowing, so the more the state borrows for itself, the [...]
Why the Autumn Statement won’t help the City solve the enigma of Philip Hammond November 17, 2016 We know he is not one for Osborne-style soundbites, and if his October speech at Tory conference is anything to go by, he should keep the Ed Balls gags to himself! He is, admittedly going on very little so far, a man with an “eye for the detail” and a “safe pair of hands” that [...]
Will Snapchat’s IPO go the Twitter way or the Facebook way? November 17, 2016 Reports of a potential (but secret) IPO by Snapchat yesterday brought out the usual round of dot com bubble comparisons. It’s hardly surprising: if the rumours are true, the social messaging app could be valued at as much as $25bn, making it the third-largest IPO ever, after Alibaba and Facebook. This, from a company built [...]
As “post-truth” is named word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries, have we really entered the era of post-truth politics? November 16, 2016 Rachel Cunliffe, deputy editor of Reaction, says Yes. Donald Trump was always against the Iraq War. The US has an $800bn trade deficit. Clinton started the birther movement. Three lies told by Trump during the second debate, with a dozen more examples from that 90 minutes alone. The moderators didn’t fact-check him, and even if [...]
The British Overseas Territories can help make Brexit a success November 16, 2016 The UK is a family. It includes Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories, like the British Virgin Islands (BVI), are part of the wider family too. Like with all families, there is a shared history and a strong partnership – and I’m pleased to say that, following constructive discussions [...]
The government must get serious about simplifying Britain’s complex tax laws November 16, 2016 With British business awash with Brexit uncertainty, it has never been more important for the government to simplify our complicated tax system. The UK tax code is now more than 20,000 pages long. It’s made up of over 1,000 tax reliefs and exemptions. At around 10m words, it is 12 times the length of the [...]
Elites would be foolish to dismiss Brexit and Trump as the triumph of crude populism November 16, 2016 For the second time this year, a Western electorate rejected the overwhelming advice of the elites, the politicians, the entertainers, the intellectuals, the financiers. Instead, the American people chose brutal, chaotic, isolationist, misogynist, prejudiced change. This is consistent with evidence that our Insight Team has consistently uncovered about the mood of the global public. To take Britain [...]
The government’s decision to cancel a retail offering of Lloyds shares is an outrage November 16, 2016 Lloyds Banking Group will bring up mixed emotions for the British public. On the one hand, it still represents a symbol of the financial crisis, and the subsequent pain and aftershocks that brought for Britain. On the other, it is a household name, present on our high streets and safely nestled on the FTSE 100. [...]
Protecting the crowd: Platforms must lead the due diligence charge November 16, 2016 The issue of due diligence could become a talking point again once the FCA completes its scheduled review of the crowdfunding rules it introduced in 2014. While we’ve not seen evidence that further regulation of investment-based crowdfunding will be recommended, as the industry matures, it’s time for crowdfunding platforms to step up and work together [...]
An open letter to the chancellor: What the accountancy profession want from the Autumn Statement November 16, 2016 Dear chancellor, I am writing to outline ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants)’s priorities for the Autumn Statement and Spending Review. ACCA has recently concluded a wide-ranging consultation with our members operating at senior levels across all parts of the public sector. Our consultation focused on the priorities of public sector decision-makers ahead of [...]