<p><p><p>This week's £50 billion bank recapitalisation plan - together with the nationalisation of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley - looks set to push the Government's debt to 50 per cent of national income. This would be the highest for 30 years and well above the 40 per cent ceiling that Gordon Brown set himself when he became Chancellor.</p></p></p>

Authors

Carl Emmerson
Carl Emmerson

Deputy Director

Carl, a Deputy Director, is an editor of the IFS Green Budget, is expert on the UK pension system and sits on the Social Security Advisory Committee.

Person graphic

Gemma Tetlow

Comment details

Publisher
Times Newspapers

Suggested citation

Emmerson, C and Tetlow, G. (2008). Costly dangers of the unclenched fiscal fist [Comment] Times Newspapers. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/articles/costly-dangers-unclenched-fiscal-fist (accessed: 4 July 2024).

More from IFS

Understand this issue

Policy analysis

Academic research

Book graphic

Rewriting the fiscal rules

book chapter
The Chancellor was right to suspend the current set of fiscal targets during the pandemic, and he is also right to take time to consider what a good set of post-pandemic targets will be.

12 October 2021