Will bond market vigilantes see off Starmer’s rivals?
5/6/202653 min
Could the government’s creditors protect Starmer and Reeves, even if Labour is humiliated in the elections? How high are UK interest rates going to rise because of Trump’s Iran war? Has monetary policy stopped working? Could AI actually lead to the creation of millions of new jobs? And is coal consumption in the 19th Century a good way to predict this?
Steph and Robert dissect the Bank of England’s latest assessment of the UK economy. Plus Robert takes us back in time to explain why Jevons Paradox on coal consumption could be rel...
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsRobert Peston· Host0:02
Impact of Trump's war is on every central bank's mind. I think the likelihood is that interest rates will go up a bit at some point. The Bank of England is split.
Steph McGovern· Host0:13
The Greens obviously are expected to do well in, in, in these elections. The view is, because the Green Party wanna increase taxes and public spending, the bond markets will be like, "Well, hang on a minute. How are they gonna pay for all this? How are they gonna do all this?"
Robert Peston· Host0:25
A way will be found to get Starmer out. If they lose significant numbers of seats to the Greens, the logic to fight back will be to move the government to the left.
Steph McGovern· Host0:35
We're delighted to say that this year The Rest Is Money is being powered by Octopus Energy, so Greg is back with us. Greg, I've got another question for you. So in terms of energy companies, are we just back to the big six?
Greg Jackson· Guest0:49
You know what? We've only got, like, six or so major supermarket chains. No one worries about that because they invest ferociously in competition. You've got differentiation. You know, we thought the market was stable, then Aldi and Lidl turned up. Competition is not about reinventing the souk with dozens of identikit, uh, companies. It's about companies having different approaches to looking after customers and competing ferociously on that. Energy could well be going that direction.
Steph McGovern· Host1:17
Well, cheers, Greg, and thank you for powering this episode of The Rest Is Money.
Speaker 41:21
I sold my car on Carvana last night.
Speaker 51:23
Well, that's cool.
Speaker 41:24
No, you, you don't understand. It went perfectly. Real offer, down to the penny. They're picking it up tomorrow. Nothing