The financial guru’s fingerprints are all over John Healey’s red book – but Lewis is not a politician. His everyday fixes can’t meet this turbulent moment Was this Andy Burnham’s budget – the bold vision of a new prime minister who burns with a passion to topple “40 years of neoliberalism”? Fat chance. Was it John Healey’s budget – the repair job of a cautious chancellor fretting about record-high taxes, £3tn of public debt and an economy stuck in first gear? Little sign of that. This budget was cast in the image of a man who isn’t in Burnham’s government or even a Labour politician – but who appears almost every day on TV, on podcasts and is probably better known than 649 of the MPs at Westminster. Today’s budget was the Martin Lewis budget. Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist and the Guardian’s senior economics commentator Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this art
Burnham promised big change – where was it? Instead we got the Martin Lewis budget | Aditya Chakrabortty
Original reporting
The Guardian: read the full reportFollow this story
Earlier reports and follow-ups on the same developing story.
Related stories
Oracle stock pops 12% as long-term revenue forecast and clarity on financing ease debt concerns
Oracle issued a revenue forecast for fiscal year 2030 of $225 billion, and said it will limit additional fundraising over that stretch to $20 billion.
Microsoft will post earnings after the bell as investors focus on job cuts and cash flow
Microsoft will report Azure revenue in dollars for the first time as it spends heavily to expand artificial intelligence infrastructure capacity.
Looking for yield? This could be one of the best times in recent market history to buy corporate bonds
This could be one of the best times to buy corporate bonds in recent history, investing experts say, with treasuries yielding 5% boosting fixed income market.
Bond investor Jeff Gundlach on Fed's rate pause: 'What are you waiting for?'
The DoubleLine founder spoke with CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Wednesday after the Fed announced its decision to hold interest rates steady.
Elon Musk is a 'real genius', Putin says after satellite talks with SpaceX boss
The Russian President praised Musk and said they are in "close" contact.
Labour is still searching for an energy fix for a new world
The chancellor is right to focus on pure affordability, but £100 handouts and delayed decisions won’t shield consumers from the next wave of price hikes Amid the myriad of small measures, virtually everything in John Healey’s budget came back to the cost of energy. The higher energy prices that have resulted from the Iran war have pushed up inflation, are eating into households’ incomes, are a drag on businesses – and are the main reason why the forecast for GDP growth next year was cut from 1.6% to just 1%. And energy was the focus of Healey’s sole surprise in his consumer-facing policies – the £100 payment to 20m households in A-D council tax bands to help with fuel bills this winter. It will be funded, in effect, by tapping the banks for a few quid for 15 months via the bank surcharge. Continue reading...