Prepare for currency wars

Britain's public spending is out of control and it's only getting worse, says Merryn Somerset Webb. Here's what investors can do about it.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies released its Green Budget this week. This is an annual survey of the state of public spending in Britain. It usually makes for miserable reading. This year, I'm sorry to say, it is even more depressing than usual.

It tells us that public spending in 2014-2015 will be £64bn higher than originally hoped; that despite the endless talk of benefits cutting, social-security spending will rise from 28.5% to 32.5% of all public spending by 2017-2018; and that the overall effect of the tax and benefit changes being introduced in the next tax year will not be a fall in spending, but a "small net giveaway".

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up
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.