Rachel Reeves Is Stuck in a Trap of Her Own Making: Editorial

The budget that UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves will announce today is politically fraught. If she presents a strategy governed more by political winds than economic logic, however, it will be a costly misjudgment.

The government can ill afford a repeat of last year’s budget. Then, Reeves announced £40 billion ($53 billion) in tax increases along with around £70 billion in additional spending to “fix the foundations” of Britain’s economy. Those foundations are no firmer today. Growth is expected to slow again next year, to around 1.2%. Inflation remains the highest in the Group of Seven. ...