richardjmurphy.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Politicians are obsessed with economic growth, but what if that's actually harmful? youtu.be/t4PjCncZDrU?... The assumption that all economic growth is good is clearly misplaced. But how do we convince politicians and economists who are obsessed with growth that this is the case?

submitted 3 hours ago • 6 comments

Reeves is delivering austerity for the UK youtu.be/TwQxdCLjL9s?... Rachel Reeves' Spending Review is a sham. She is claiming to deliver a lot, and she isn't, whilst failing to provide for children in poverty and simultaneously keeping the wealthy in the style to which they are accustomed.

submitted 17 hours ago • 8 comments

Will Rachel Reeves make big mistakes with her spending review? youtu.be/WJZvj_kNUC0?... Rachel Reeves' record as Chancellor has not been good. Today provides her with another opportunity to get everything wrong.

submitted 1 day ago • 9 comments

Why can’t Labour get things right? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06... Labour's tax plans for recovering the Winter Fuel Allowance from 3.9 million pensioners are utterly incompetent when much better alternatives are available.

submitted 2 days ago • 11 comments

The wealthy say they are terrified of the national debt, but they aren't really. It only exists because they don't pay enough tax, and they'd hate doing that even more. youtu.be/gXksR3q5Lco?...

submitted 2 days ago • 8 comments

Does Reeves care about real people who are suffering? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06... No. I don't think she cares about Labour. Nor do I think she cares about people who're suffering in the UK. She gets her kicks from managing funds. The reality of life is not for her.

submitted 3 days ago • 17 comments

Many people on the UK's left promote wealth taxes. The trouble is that they would take years to deliver. Taxing income and gains from wealth more makes a lot more sense. youtu.be/vJRdnaJpWl8?...

submitted 3 days ago • 12 comments

The basis for a proper defence strategy www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06... The new UK defence strategy makes no sense because it represents old ideologies that are being imposed on people who do not share them and who do not even want to be part of the UK. We have to do a lot better than this.

submitted 4 days ago • 7 comments

What would the world be like if we set out to eliminate the causes of war? We've tried it before. Why can't we try again? youtu.be/v0CWfJrXJS0?...

submitted 4 days ago • 8 comments

It is democracy that lost in Hamilton www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06...

submitted 5 days ago • 10 comments

Education that pretends the world isn't going to change serves no one. It's time we taught people how to change with the times. youtu.be/KKH26HuIwVo?...

submitted 5 days ago • 7 comments

No one talks about extreme centrists. They should, because they're the people who want to maintain the status quo when it's glaringly obvious that we need change. youtu.be/Dx6HxfAQYEA?...

submitted 6 days ago • 16 comments

What if Trump fails? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06... Might Trump fail to get his Big Beautiful Bill Act passed? What happens then? Would his presidency even survive? The question needs to be asked.

submitted 7 days ago • 3 comments

Can bond vigilantes really hold governments to account? youtu.be/jUUGNyhuf0I?... The idea that bond vigilantes can set government policy suits the City and neoliberal politicians, who'd like it to be true. But is it?

submitted 7 days ago • 2 comments

President’s Policy Bill Could Add $2.4 Trillion to US debt www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06... Is that the biggest bung to the rich in history?

submitted 7 days ago • 2 comments

It’s complicated, and that’s the problem no one wants to face www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06... Government decision-making is hard. And no one wants to admit it, hence the mess we are in.

submitted 8 days ago • 5 comments

Who's going to defend us from fascists? youtu.be/oZx5Ykx1nTM?... The obsession with Russia in the defence review is wrong. The real risk is from fascists wherever they come from, and Russia is a long way from being the only threat in that case.

submitted 8 days ago • 4 comments

Trump wants to use tax as a weapon in international trade wars. That could backfire horribly for him. youtu.be/8sL9hJwJ7Ho?...

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

If Keir Starmer understood this one blog post, he could transform the UK www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06... If only Keir Starmer understood tax, he could transform the fortunes of the UK. But he doesn't, and he shows no sign of wanting to do so.

submitted 9 days ago • 6 comments

Panorama: an exercise in economic misinformation www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06... Last night's Panorama on 'Is Britain broke?' on BBC1 got nowhere near finding any useful answers to the question it posed, and that was the result of our journalism.

submitted 9 days ago • 12 comments

Me, in The National, this morning. www.thenational.scot/politics/252...

submitted 10 days ago • 3 comments

Chat GPT – a word of warning www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06... It has admitted to me that it just makes stuff up.

submitted 10 days ago • 16 comments

Should big tech issue crypto? youtu.be/r_AtgPWRpd0?... If big tech can issue their own currencies for use around the world, what chance is there that macroeconomic control of the national economies of the world can be maintained? The threat of global meltdown is very real.

submitted 10 days ago • 5 comments

God bless America, because they need all the help they can get right now www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06...

submitted 10 days ago • 2 comments

The money Rachel Reeves needs is readily available. All that is lacking is the understanding on how to use it www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06...

submitted 11 days ago • 2 comments

It was a lack of understanding about the difference between risk and uncertainty that helped create the 2008 financial crisis, and that is being seen now in pension fund management, and probably elsewhere in the City of London. That is profoundly worrying. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/06...

submitted 11 days ago • 3 comments

Do you know where your pension fund is invested? Most people don't. So, are you being ripped off? youtu.be/yGkbZTdLwKQ?...

submitted 11 days ago • 5 comments

Trump is not delivering greatness to America: he's delivering chaos and decline, and people are beginning to notice. youtu.be/0a-F9cfku7U?...

submitted 12 days ago • 4 comments

The failure of Musk is not by chance www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05... Musk came, he saw, and he left, having wrecked the place, and that was not by chance. It was always the inevitable outcome, because he had not the slightest comprehension of the role of government.

submitted 12 days ago • 4 comments

Who will quit the USA? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05... Trump is intent on Making America Very Small Again. Many will leave it as a result. It's not a happy prospect for the country.

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

Interest rates in the UK and the USA are way too high, as a comparison with the Eurozone proves. That's because of their incompetent economic leaders. youtu.be/8xnNbA1DOI8?...

submitted 13 days ago • 6 comments

Neoliberal education is failing around the world www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05... A new study on education outcomes in 80 countries shows that education is not preparing young people for the world of work, not least because it prioritises an economic status quo that is fast disappearing.

submitted 14 days ago • 5 comments

Starmer and Reeves were going to be green: now they’re just trashing the planet www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05...

submitted 14 days ago • 7 comments

Rachel Reeves vs reality: The economics of the two-child cap youtu.be/b3GFjLR0Wjs?... The government claims it cannot afford to pay benefits for the elderly, children in poverty, and people with disabilities. That is nonsense. Simple economic analysis shows that these benefits pay for themselves.

submitted 14 days ago • 6 comments

Millions in the UK are one pay day from disaster youtu.be/6qm7lVRhgZg?... The UK is a country of massive wealth inequality, with all the stress landing on those the wealthy think to be the undeserving poor, which is most of us.

submitted 15 days ago • 3 comments

Labour has, in effect, cancelled most level 7 apprenticeships in England, saying we can't afford them as it has to spend on training to beat migration. That is complete nonsense. The money is available. Why are they so stupid? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05...

submitted 15 days ago • 6 comments

Labour is claiming that taking children and pensioners out of deep poverty will create economic collapse in the UK. That is total and utter drivel of the highest order. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05...

submitted 16 days ago • 16 comments

Uninsurable houses as a result of climate change will be a disaster for homeowners, banks, governments and the whole of society. Are we ready for the challenge? youtu.be/_x0x_SoGyec?...

submitted 16 days ago • 9 comments

The UK has GPs desperate to work, and Labour won’t employ them www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05...

submitted 17 days ago • 5 comments

NatWest’s return to the private sector is a story of opportunity lost www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05...

submitted 17 days ago • 1 comment

The world's financial system depends on the dollar, and the man in charge of it is mad, bad, or both. Where are we with the management of the world's reserve currency need in that case? youtu.be/V4Skn_0INaM?...

submitted 17 days ago • 4 comments

When Nigel says jump, Labour does www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05...

submitted 18 days ago • 11 comments

It is as if Labour hate children and most especially children with needs or those in poverty, and is intent on doing everything they can to make life as hard as possible for them and all those who care for them. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05...

submitted 18 days ago • 16 comments

How many poets does it take to change a lightbulb? It's more complicated than you thought, by some way, and worth thinking about. youtu.be/vjD7BLJ3MvM?...

submitted 18 days ago • 8 comments

The world has a glut of savings, and you might not think it, but that's not good news youtu.be/gii959E8f4o?... A savings glut creates global economic instability, and that's precisely the problem the world's got right now. The question is, what are we going to do about it?

submitted 19 days ago • 10 comments

The number of people from the USA applying for UK citizenship is growing rapidly. So, how are we going to treat those fleeing Trump's fascism? In the way we did the Jews in the 30s, which was abysmally? Or are we going to welcome them, as we should? www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05...

submitted 20 days ago • 15 comments

Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' ends US democracy. What happens next? youtu.be/JrpgSR0Y8Ms?...

submitted 20 days ago • 8 comments

Starmer’s J-turn www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05... Starmer's trying to get out of the deep hole he dug for himself on the Winter Fuel Allowance. It is not going to work, and he only has himself to blame.

submitted 21 days ago • 6 comments

Donald Rumsfeld got his famous quote on knowns wrong: he ignored the unknown knowns, and they are a huge issue in modern politics. youtu.be/FZGyluRmbIM?...

submitted 21 days ago • 2 comments

Inflation is up. That's down to government incompetence in permitting excessive price increases in regulated industries, and we'll all pay a price for that as the Bank of England keeps interest rates high. Incompetence on a grand scale is there for all to see. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/05...

submitted 22 days ago • 6 comments