Labour says it wants to grow the British economy but it doesn't have a clue how to do it.

 

Cut & Paste Man - Jonathan Reynolds

Labour have said they want to grow the economy but they don't seem to have much of a clue about how you go about doing that. Many Labour politicians like Labour's Business & Trade Minister, Jonathan Reynolds, have no business or work experience at all. That's why they're asking regulators for ideas on how you do that.

From an economics point of view, I wouldn't have thought that hitting firms with a Triple Monty of higher insurance, an increase in the NMW and the lowering the threshold for paying national insurance, would be likely to achieve that. Most school students who studied economics at GCSE level, would probably concur. Many firms were employing part-timers and people on zero-hours contracts.

The increase in the NMW is welcomed but it will to lead to higher price rises for all of us and higher inflation as firms pass on the costs to consumers. That will also lead to union demands for higher wages. There will be more displacement of labour because of increased automation and less recruitment as firms try to cut their costs. Some firms will go out of business. Labour is more interested in shafting pensioners and WASPI women and recoils from taxing the wealthy and closing tax loopholes for massive corporations like Amazon or Meta.  

If the predictions of the French Marxist economist Thomas Piketty are right, inequality is set to gather pace in the 21st century taking us back to Victorian levels by 2050. His prediction is based on simple maths. If growth is low and the bargaining power of labour is low and the returns on capital are high, then it's more logical to sit on assets and speculate rather than accumulate wealth by work, invention, and entrepreneurial risk. The capitalist becomes a rentier rather than an entrepreneur. Piketty believes in a global wealth tax.