The first female Chancellor.

United Kingdom Chancellor Rachel Reeves "has set out details of her second Budget since becoming chancellor." "National Insurance (NI) and income tax thresholds frozen for extra three years beyond 2028, dragging more people into higher brackets over time." BBC. Higher taxes on rental income could increase rents and hit poorer people but higher minimum-wage rates, removal of cap on child benefits, higher state pension, 5p cut in fuel duty and frozen rail fares and prescription charges should help the poor. Markets cheered. "Investors piled into long-dated UK bonds, pushing yields down by the most since April, and boosted the pound after Reeves' Budget helped alleviate some concern about Britain's long-term finances." Thirty-year yields were down 11 basis points at 5.215% and sterling rose 0.5% to $1.32295. Reuters. In a bit of farce, "The Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) has apologized for mistakenly publishing its economic forecast ahead of the Budget." "The OBR quickly removed the forecast document from its website," but it still caused some volatility in the bond market. BBC. "A dozen members of the House of Lords argued that the easiest way for the UK to emerge from its 'economic and political morass' is to introduce a visa requiring a minimum investment of 2.5 million pounds, according to Bloomberg." BT. The logic of asking rich people to pay so much for a visa so as to pay enormous taxes on their wealth is hard to follow as, "Lakshmi  Mittal's decision to leave the UK for Switzerland and Dubai is an important signal for European economies and also for those outside Europe who plan to squeeze the super rich." Mittal is concerned about the UK's 40% inheritance tax on global assets. ET. One of the reasons for the Labour Party's overwhelming victory in the general election in 2024, gaining 211 seats for a total of 412 seats in the House of Commons (BBC) was the non-dom status, which was perfectly legal, of Akshata Murty, wife of former Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (BBC). " 'Non-dom' describes a UK resident whose permanent home - or domicile - for tax purposes is outside the UK." "A non-dom only pays UK tax on the money they earn in the UK," and not on earnings elsewhere in the world. BBC. Reeves delivered her first budget on 30 October 2024, apparently the first woman to do so. wikipedia. In that budget she raised taxes by the most in 30 years. Reuters. Since then, the economic growth slowed down to just 0.1% in the third quarter, "Britain ran up the highest government borrowing in the April-October period since the Covid-19 pandemic, before adjusting for inflation," "inflation rate rose to 3.8% in July, August and September from 2.3% in October 2024," and "The jobless rate rose to its highest since early 2021 at 5.0%." Reuters. Taxes are crucial for foreign investors. In September, during President Donald Trump's second state visit to the UK, "The UK government says it has secured 150bn pounds worth of US investment which it hopes will create 7,600 jobs." BBC. If those investments come through, Britain should do well. Reeves is the first female Chancellor in Britain. Will her old fashioned 'tax and spend' (wikipedia) work? The rich disagree.