MI2 Partners Thoughts From The Divide: Deciding on “Someone”

A little less than two years ago, we noted, with some surprise, that Huw Pill had bucked the usual central bank modus operandi of avoiding unfortunate truths and had instead gone the direct route, telling the UK “we’re all worse off, and we all have to take our share”. Speaking about inflation, the BoE’s Chief Economist clarified that, “If the cost of what you’re buying has gone up compared to what you’re selling, you’re going to be worse off…
BY JON WEBB

MI2 Partners

Mar 27, 2025

“Forced to make extensive changes after… plans were blown off course”

A little less than two years ago, we noted, with some surprise, that Huw Pill had bucked the usual central bank modus operandi of avoiding unfortunate truths and had instead gone the direct route, telling the UK “we’re all worse off, and we all have to take our share”. Speaking about inflation, the BoE’s Chief Economist clarified that, “If the cost of what you’re buying has gone up compared to what you’re selling, you’re going to be worse off… So somehow in the U.K., someone needs to accept that they’re worse off and stop trying to maintain their real spending power by bidding up prices”. No good deed (if blunt honesty about painful truths counts) goes unpunished, as Mr. Pill made abundantly clear with profuse apologies for his tasteless candor. However, putting aside aberrations of protocol, it’s the subject of the sentence above, “someone”, that has caught our attention this week. In the official sector this is often referred to as “burden sharing”: establishing exactly who it is who will bear the brunt. With both public and private sectors experiencing tougher times, it’s natural that there’s significant jockeying to decide just who exactly is going to bear the brunt.

Substack Link:  https://open.substack.com/pub/mi2partners/p/thoughts-from-the-divide-deciding?r=1tabqm&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

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