Well done!!

2

All very sensible but the admission that is will cost £10bn a year initially means that this is impossible for Reeves. Any proposal that costs big money upfront is a practically pointless proposal I’m afraid

Question as a non-US citizen: these would require some kind of super majority in the Senate? They all seem sensible to me

Agreed that ultimately you can just print more money. But that way lies inflation, higher interest rates etc. I’m not suggesting the US needs to be running a surplus. Just that it is a reasonable consideration that can’t be waved away

Well, yes and no: in the short term the US can run this deficit with seeming impunity. Until it can’t - at some stage it will have to tighten up. We may not know when that moment is until it happens (and that’s not a great way to budget)

Your colleague Lucy Kellaway’s house is ideal in London themodernhouse.com/journal/jour...

Huh. Why is that? Because retaliatory tariffs are somehow different?

@danneidle.bsky.social has written well in this: taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/10/18/h...

Granted, it probably wouldn’t be electorally viable!

But if taxes and borrowing are at or close to maximum then you need to look at spending. How do you massively cut spending without doing a DOGE (I.e. affecting necessary services, causing economic damage, cutting more benefits etc)?

Or you do something drastic on spending. Means testing the state pension for example?…

All the usual sleep hygiene stuff is good. Having a standard bedtime is the most useful.

I wake up and struggle to get back to sleep. I used to give up and just get up for the day. A watch with a sleep tracker helped - it forced me to stay in bed and doze as long as poss to get a higher score

What was the podcast?

Phew. The sequels are pretty good too

This is such a great thread - I’ll add some of these to my reading list. How come you have so many Adrian Tchaikovsky but no Children of Time?

Awesome. Thanks guys. All things Nintendo is definitely on the list

We’ve literally just arrived. Recommendations (other than the obvious)? We’re in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka with kids

Origin Story with Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey. I’ve not come across another podcast where so much work clearly goes into each episode. I really liked this one as I didn’t know much about him beforehand

open.spotify.com/episode/2leI...

Why was it demolished? It’s such an interesting building (and can’t have been cheap to build)