2024-25 has been a financial year of tribulations in terms of the Scottish Government’s ability to adhere to its legally binding requirement to balance its resource budget. When we presented our 2023 Budget Report, we highlighted the challenges that were likely to come in the year ahead. As a result of these challenges, the 2024-25 Budget included some increases in tax, as … [Read more...] about How the Scottish Government’s net fiscal position has evolved
fiscal policy
The SNP must get serious on tax
Last weekend the SNP Conference overwhelmingly passed a strong motion on progressive and redistributive tax measures proposed by its largest affiliate body, the Trade Union Group. This set out the direction Scottish Government needs to take in order to mitigate cuts and to address austerity, under-resourced public services, the continuing cost-of-living crisis, impending pay … [Read more...] about The SNP must get serious on tax
Let’s make interest rates zero – permanently
In 1937 the English economist Joan Robinson proposed that “when capitalism is rightly understood, the rate of interest will be set at zero and the major evils of capitalism will disappear”. John Maynard Keynes, who had taught Robinson, suggested something similar a year earlier in slightly more qualified and technical terms, arguing that this would be … [Read more...] about Let’s make interest rates zero – permanently