Growth isn’t an option

If Europe's leaders think they can grow themselves out of a crisis, says Merryn Somerset Webb, they should think again.

At a lunch to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Scottish Investment Trust a few weeks ago, I sat next to a man who noted in passing that the core problem with those on the political left in Britain is that they have far too much faith in capitalism. They appear to be convinced that however much you tax it, regulate it, criticise it and generally interfere with it, it will continue to churn out the cash you think you need to finance big government.

It is a theme Janet Daley picked up in the Sunday Telegraph this week. The idea of European co-operation was not doomed from the start, she says. It is true that continent-wide unity was never going to be easy "the ancient hatreds and unforgivable sins of the past" were always bound to cause frictions along the way. However, "what has made the system unworkable is the insistence that the EU be a vehicle for democratic socialism". The impossible dream? Not unity, but "unfeasibly enormous social security and entitlement promises made on the basis that the free market would always provide".

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.