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BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

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21–30 of 146 posts

Re: BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

#21

> Pill was more direct. He said there’s a “reluctance to accept that yes, we’re all worse off and we all have to take our share.” They should look into taxing the various British Overseas Territories which usually top lists of tax havens across the world [1]. I am not sure if the regular British public is just ignorant of the existence of these, or prefers to run with the limited set of facts that their Conservative…

There's no tax shortfall. Taxing tax havens is fine but you shouldn't expect it to limit inflation very much.

The British government levying spurious taxes on its remaining colonies. I am absolutely sure that's going to go well.

Re: BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

#22

> Pill was more direct. He said there’s a “reluctance to accept that yes, we’re all worse off and we all have to take our share.” They should look into taxing the various British Overseas Territories which usually top lists of tax havens across the world [1]. I am not sure if the regular British public is just ignorant of the existence of these, or prefers to run with the limited set of facts that their Conservative…

>"we’re all worse off and we all have to take our share" Who is this 'we'? Only the poor and the middle class are worse off and being squeezed by the CoL. The big industry players, ruling, upper and asset owning class are all making bank. Do they think people like Tony Blair or Lord McMansion are affected that food, electricity and gas are all up? There is no 'we' here.

[deleted]

Re: BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

#23

Good karma for a former colonialist empire…anyways, their ceremonial king is a billionaire while the average citizens bear the grunt of the decline.

Ironically enough, one of the strengths of a monarchy is a good king could absolutely prevent this and set the empire on a path to enriching the British populace. And if not they run a high risk of losing their head.

Nowadays we’ve all embraced democracy (oligarchy run by demagogues) and it’s a lot harder to hold anyone accountable. Everyone knows the British monarch is “powerless”, so they quibble amongst one another over whos political party is to blame.

Re: BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

#24
post #13

John Authers, a Bloomberg columnist, discusses this a bit in https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-04-26/uk-inf... and thinks his friend got a bit of a raw deal here in the public reaction. If you like Matt Levine's columns, you might find Authers's newsletter worth a look.

I now really surprised how people are biting into the bait without looking at the context. This does not at all indicate the "blame the poor" meaning that people are putting on it.

Re: BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

#25
post #15

Funny, central bankers advocating for wage price restraints are in effect calling for price controls (on labour). Except when anyone calls for price controls in any other context (goods, commodities, services) they are generally shot down by mainstream economists because they create market distortions which eventually leads to unwanted side effects. Odd little disparity there.

No where is he quoted advocating for wage controls. If anything his actual conversation is explaining why changes in wages do not impact inflation.

Re: BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

#26
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that the current prime minister is a non-dom himself… seems rather unlikely to be in his or any of his friends interests.

For those that don't have any idea what a non-dom is (like myself), BBC says: "Non-dom" is short for "non-domiciled individual". It's a term used for a UK resident whose permanent home, or domicile, is outside the UK. "Non-dom" is a description of tax status.

[deleted]

Re: BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

#27
How about they start the "acceptance" at the BOE. Cut their salaries.

Then, cut all MP salaries.

Then, cut government employee salaries.

Then, tax the wealth of the rich (and not just income).

When these noble people "accept" poverty themselves, that ought to bring inflation down.

Re: BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

#28

>A tight jobs market and strong corporate pricing power means that firms can pass on costs in higher prices and workers can demand wage increases, fueling inflation further Maybe it's better to curb the strong corporate pricing power instead?

When demand is higher than supply there will always be strong pricing power from the supply side, you can't fix that with price controls, you'll end up with shortages.

Re: BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

#29
post #13

John Authers, a Bloomberg columnist, discusses this a bit in https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-04-26/uk-inf... and thinks his friend got a bit of a raw deal here in the public reaction. If you like Matt Levine's columns, you might find Authers's newsletter worth a look.

Thank you, that does set some nice context.

Re: BOE Chief Economist Says Britons ‘Need to Accept’ They’re Worse Off

#30

A lot of commenters are obsessed with just finding money. You can't eat money. You can't build a house out of it (advisably). Money is only as valuable as the amount of stuff in an economy. More money with the same amount of stuff is just inflation. The Pound does not need more inflation. Money and trade are only valuable in so much as they aid exchange and efficiency. On a real, practical-level Brexit made England m…

> There are a lot of export commodities they no longer have a market for

Exports to the EU hit a record high in the summer of 2022, which ironically, was mainly because of commodities. Who'd have thought?

https://www.ft.com/content/47fe0d2a-6e87-4f30-8212-3b37f7f09...

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