Post

Ian Smith
@iankmsmith.ft.com

Our Big Read today is on the $2tn monster — a debt-servicing burden that gobbles up tax revenues and has the power to overwhelm elected leaders. “These massive sovereign debts are having to get refinanced at ever-increasing rates ... Global investors are already starting to get scared.”

17 reposts40 likes

Ian Smith
@iankmsmith.ft.com

Interest costs exceed defence spending in a string of countries and, for some, will rival for the top spot in the coming years and decades. That is increasingly influencing politics and creating painful trade-offs. “Your interest bill is directly constraining fiscal policy"

Ian Smith
@iankmsmith.ft.com

A helpful hook today: the UK has paid its highest interest rate on a debt sale since (at least) 1998, in a syndication of 30-year debt that went swimmingly as investors grabbed the high yields on offer. “What is pain for some is pleasure for others,” one CIO told me www.ft.com/content/b231...

ft.comUK pays highest borrowing cost since 1998 at gilt saleThirty-year gilts priced at a yield of roughly 5.83%, underscoring pressure on public finances from global bond sell-off
Ian Smith
@iankmsmith.ft.com

sums it up really bsky.app/profile/youg...

YouGov@yougov.co.uk

What should be the priority when it comes to the government balancing its budget? Avoiding cuts, even if that means more taxes/borrowing: 29% (-4 from Sep 25) Avoiding tax rises, even if that means cuts/more borrowing: 29% (=) Avoiding more borrowing, even if that means cuts/more taxes: 20% (+2)