A Gambler's Streak?: What drives Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng - BBC Newsnight
As Britain's new Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng delivers a historic mini-budget, what's behind the man whose decisions will affect us all?
From Eton to Trinity College, Cambridge and even appearing on University Challenge in 1995, clues can be found in how Kwasi Kwarteng thinks.
Drawing inspiration from prominent economist John Maynard Keynes, and his analogy of a Chancellor as a chess player preventing opponents from going a few moves ahead.
Newsnight's Political Editor Nick Watt investigates what makes him tick and speaks to Conservative MP George Freeman, Dame Margaret Hodge and friends from Kwarteng's university days.
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To everyone saying he has a PhD in economics, he has a PhD in economic history, specifically “Political thought of the recoinage crisis of 1695-7” is that going to be much use to him now?
I didn't know that, that's bloody hilarious 😂😂😂 I know a paper bag with better credentials.
Yes, I fell for that as well: He went to Trinity college Cambridge to read... classics and history. I'm afraid it also reflects the incompetence of Liz Truss IMO, possibly trying to get as many brown people on her cabinet as possible to show the Conservative party is there for the competent regardless of race, which is ironicially laughable.
True macro-economics is completely different to MICRO-economics and running the Exchequer - lol - recoinage is his speciality + pound now unsound..and we NOT in clear waters now - BoE warned this devaluation is peculiar to UK alone- not about Ukraine- and I fear for my pension and all state and local govt. coffers when markets destabilise again- the Pound could end up at 0:98 cents if Truss + co refuse to reverse budget..Shocking govt not recalled Parliament - all these developments are HISTORIC and leave us NAKED and AFRAID !! And TRUSS has achieved her wish to be UNPOPULAR and CONTROVERSIAL- in midst of a COL crisis this is truly dreadful news..
@@BarriosGroupie DItto !!
Economic history teaches an economist far more than mathematical charlatanism. Many of the top economists working as policymakers have a degree in economic history, most of them trained by the likes of Oxford University, LSE, Lund University, and so on, etc.
Kwasi Kwarteng has a Phd in economic history. In the last month, he has acquired one in crashing the economy. His tenure as Chancellor is now history.
He has a double first in classics and history. I didn't know about the PhD.
All these Oxbridge types have been told they are exceptional their entire lives and don't think basic math applies to them or their governments budgets.
Admit it, you just hate him because he's an intelligent black man and not your ideological slave. Racist!
The main problem is the Oxbridge to Westminster pipeline without being disciplined and moulded in a proper job. So they think being clever and getting good grades in school and university means they can do anything. Some like Mogg and John Redwood don't actually care about the average person too, they have small funds so want to line their pockets and those of their friends too.
He looks the perfect _antithesis_ of an Oxbridge grad. He'd be the last person most people would suspect was an Oxbridge grad.
You must be racist
@@marcusmacarthur7039 why do you say that? Watch an interview with him for five minutes and you can see is has the exact same academic-snob, entitled elitist stance as the rest of them.
Can I just get a GP appointment please.
Take ivermectin and shut up
Shshhhhh, stop asking for too much 💀🤫😅
It's soup and asprin for you my friend
Looks like he’s gonna Kami-Kwasi our economy 😅
See what you did there 😅
Very clever ! 😊
Oke that's a good one lol 😅
😂😂😂😂
So far ethnically-"diverse" cabinet ministers have been nothing to write home about - other than them writing to the cousins back home in the village "look at me"!
Confidence, boldness, intellectualism, assertion: it will melt away like snow in the sun when plain arithmetic hits. This piece almost wilfully ignores the facts.
Lol you mad?
Racist dog-whistle.
Indeed, Bill. And people still think the BBC is leftwing. It is basically at this point an offshoot of the Tory Central Office.
@Bill Dixon - get your politicians to sanction the World's #1 oil and gas exporter and see what happens. It is called inflation.
@@DarkBrandonForever more pertinente is ARE YOU MAD, Truss was 😂
Well that was terrifying.
5 days later and this has blown up in all our faces. Possibly the most ill-timed hagiography ever. Both of these clowns should be packing their bags immediately.
You must be happy now
The quicker we’re rid of those 2 muppets, the better
It's bloody frightening. God help us .
If he wants to change things so radically, he should do it with a general election vote, not here where no one has told him to anything this crazy
You want GE to vote Labour who are just as bad as Tories! Like supporting lockdowns, face masks + jabs mandates, climate change and now support for Ukraine! Labour not different at all!!!
The most radical policy ever, lockdown, was supported by both parties, whilst there being no such thing in the election manifestos. This 'radical' change is peanuts compared to that.
A general election will do nothing. All polticians are incompetent
There doesn't have to be another election for another 2 years. We have a parliament not a president.
He studied the classics, say no more.
Don’t knock Classics, mate. After all, Latin is the one of the only languages about which you can say to the learner, “your skill is declining,” and mean it as a compliment! 🧐
@@titteryenot4524 I didn't realise 'classics' referred to greek / roman texts, I had assumed it related to 16th / 17th Century British literature
@@whitesun264 Nah, mate. Right back to the beginning of modern life as we know it, Jim.😉
So did I - great subject!
he used to do it with Amber Rudd, say no more
what drives him? probably money and killing off the lower class
These looneys are driving the car of the cliff! And the worst thing is, we are in the backseat.
Well said! 😥
6uilding 6ack 6etter, Ordo ab Chao
Just got to get through this next century of bloodshed and we'll be fine.
Isn't that the truth..
Yes, you're right. Kwasi is breaking new ground. Unfortunately he will leave a huge hole that will swallow up a large chunk of the English population that is already suffering immensely. Fortunately this current crop of Tories probably won't be around very long. My heart goes out to you, my British cousins. Love from the US💜
I agree - even Tory voters are beginning to see through it now. One big club for the rich
USA have Joe, I will take Liz over a walking corpse any time.
Tory voters deserve the pain , the rest of us don't.
@@davidoneill913 After Kwasi-modo's mini budget, I think they will be gone in 18 months. Lets hope the economy's not too crippled before they get voted out
I have a theory. The new finance minister has a deep, insatiable hatred for white folks because of what they did to his ancestors and he now wants revenge but wants to do it in a way that hides his true intent. He has, in just two short weeks, made the £££ sink to its lowest level against the $$$ since 1984. That is quite an achievement given he's been in power for just 14 days or so. I suspect more is to come. He just wants payback for centuries of oppression of his people.
Not surprising he read classics, he is trying to take us back to Dickensian times
Actually, 'classics' is referring to studying latin and ancient greek, so taking us back a weeny bit more...
I’m not sure than having all these former Classicists and Historians in government has worked out well over the years, and I say that as someone with a History degree!
Judgeing by that analogy he thinks brexit will just turn out in about 100 years and our great grandkids will be thankful we suffered for them. God help us
love the intro. they do it for all these types: 'exceptional', 'intellectual', 'cerebral'. ok, then, gimme both barrels, kwasi, you're chancellor now - what you got for us? him: ummm, some more tax cuts and then we'll just borrow to cover the gaping hole in our accounts. an ordinary person - a milkman, a nurse, ANYONE - would be better at this than any of these oxbridge vipers.
To gamble with a nation like that is criminal. Especially a country that is already on its knees.
We’re not on our knees ffs. No one I know has yet been affected in the slightest - except psychologically by the relentless crisis headlines telling them they’re affected.
@@mogznwaz Yes the multidecade high inflation, record personal, corporate and sovereign debt plus giant housing bubble and all-time weak pound is just a figure of our imaginations…
A chaffeur-driven Bentley, I should imagine.
3:09 Oops - the markets didn't show much confidence in his mini budget last Friday - did they?!!!
Good thing the weekend arrived when it did. A couple of days to calm things down might be all that stands in the way of the pound dropping right through parity
Good fur exports
Great timing
I'm looking forward to see the result of this personally. It'll be interesting.
What do you think of the result so far?
Well it was definitely interesting
Running deficits of this magnitude will not work with the Money Printer set to OFF due to inflation constraints, rates will rise accordingly to clear market demand/supply, and the pound will depreciate. I guess at least Europe is also staring down similar demands on it's own bond markets heading into Winter so UK won't be alone in it's experiment, combined with a stubborn Bank of Japan, and a China with increasing pressure on the Yuan to devalue, the USD is a runaway safety train rn.
Well said Dame Margaret !!
Liz and Kwasi - the best comedy act since laurel and hardy!!! It is madness, reckless and thoughtlessly stupid
Ur typical ignoramus!
@@gyaegyimienay3adwuma515 And you're a right wing racist moron? These incompetents have destroyed the UK.
@@gyaegyimienay3adwuma515 nope you have been proven to be ignorant 😊
So the team captain for Trinity is my old maths teacher! Ha!
Ask him what he thinks of Kwarteng!
Ah The Classics. What better knowledge to have to run as chancellor.
with history
It always works out in the end.
The pound has fallen 1.5% against the dollar and euro following Kwartengs mini budget. The markets know something Kwartengs doesn’t. EDIT: On Friday evening the pound had dropped, ( and stayed there ) , 4.94% against the dollar. 2.21% against the euro.
The markets want certainty, they don't want wild cats. If you understand the laffer curve and Reaganomics then the government's policy makes sense. It would be a bigger risk to carry on the way we are. Having said that it could all go very badly. I guess we'll all find out in about 5 years unless the Conservatives lose the next general election.
@California Dreamin...The pound was already falling its not like as if KK came on the scene and all of sudden the pound fell by 1.5%
Not releasing the OBR forcast was a huge alarrm bell.
@@dibblerd986 The Treasury has seen a draft of the OBR report according to The Guardian and it does not look good. They do not want it to be released officially which is why it was not commissioned because it will undermine their case- the numbers simply do not add up. The OBR has done a report anyway and no doubt it will leak in the next few days as the pound falls further. A run on the pound is very possible and there is talk of letters of no confidence going in about Truss as Prime Minister.
@@onlineonlineaccount2368 At what rate was it falling before today ? You need to wake up. Channel 4 news shows in detail the effect on our economy and the adverse reaction of the markets. It is the taxpayer, that includes you, who will suffer.
This guy is now a documentary.
Brexiteers "We knew what we were voting for."
The gammons are probably happy with this.
I’m not, he’s just trying save the status quo from collapse, if he can do that, I’d give him credit because it’s impossible
Not me I never ever got that DESPERATE!!!!
They may have known what they were voting for Julian but alas they never got it with the deal that Boris signed with the EU . He kept bragging that he got Brexit done but in reality it was the people of the UK that were done by him .
Bullshit your way until the last sucker has no moves left. The empire's final nails being hammered in.
How does somebody with a degree in classics become a chancellor?
He's been on University Challenge....🤣🤣🤣
@@trishtraynor so? What's that got to do with maths or economic modelling? Do you not think someone like an actuary or with a PhD in economic modelling would have more of an idea of what they were doing?
As it so happens, he has got a PhD in Economics...
@@Isewein No. He has a PhD in economic HISTORY.
He has Dunning-Kurger syndrome, he studied Greeks and Romans at Cambridge so he knows better than everyone else.
Any Ghanaian here? 😊
Austerity 2 coming soon.
This isn't Keynesian economics it's simply madness an abuse of Keynesian principles in reality a mad gamble at the roulette table at the worst possible time.
It's actually precisely what Keynes advocated for.
@@Sbudre No it’s not....it’s the complete opposite. Are you sure you actually understand Keynes? 🙄
@@markmoran916 why don't you educate me?
its not Keynesian at all, and that's a good thing.
@Steve Aaron that's a good summary of Keynes. But interest rates will go up incentivising saving over spending, which is not very Keynesian, and Kwarteng is smart and most likely knew/wanter higher interest rates. Keynesian moneyary stimulus tends to lessen the short-term impact of recession, but heighten the long-term chance of a greater recession, because increased spending and artificially low interest rates curb the purging of Mal-investments built up in a business-cycle which occurs during a recession.
One can tell some of these women friends had a good time with him back in the old days.
BBC
Timing of these announcements clumsy , should have waited until this Friday after the Labour party conference. Just gave the Maxists a political weapon to use
An oddball, just like Mogg and Johnson.
"Keep those bank interest repayments going Kwasi, or you know what will happen. No one is irreplaceable."
Making bold decisions. Easy when it's not your money you are gambling with.
and ... he's already gone. that was fast lmao
All you politicians live in a bloody bubble
The country is buggered, smart money are fleeing the capital.
Transfering of citizens wealth. Which they've been syphoning off for years by changing addresses. UK Judicial.....crickets.
Probably the best time to be here is right now mate
@@swampy1234 yup preferably walking along the sewage infested beaches
Let them flee, much of it is dirty money anyway.
That’s weird because apparently this budget was all for them
What the hell was that? Looks like an ad paid for by the Kwasi for Chancellor campaign. BBC fail.
The worst part is the EU WILL tax the power companies who in turn will pay that wind fall from our borrowing... Truss is off her rocker.
Good luck Britain, see you soaring in another 100 years or so.
The beginninng of this video has Chopin's 19th prelude as background music. It does not get chiquer than that.
When did gambling in government become an official government department?
From the LSE you know those people that know a thing or two about economics Keeping tax low for the rich does not boost economy Major reforms reducing taxes on the rich lead to higher income inequality but do not have any significant effect on economic growth or unemployment, according to new research by LSE and King’s College London. Researchers say governments seeking to restore public finances following the COVID-19 crisis should therefore not be concerned about the economic consequences of higher taxes on the rich. The paper, published by LSE’s International Inequalities Institute, uses data from 18 OECD countries
Income inequality ? Since when have we been a communist country so interested in equality? We need to be a meritocracy, where the capable float and the useless sink. Life isn't fair.
The country can't physically pay back the money that Brown, Darling, Osborne, Hammond, Javid, Sunak, and Zahawi borrowed, so Kwarteng will just borrow more. So glad the adults are in charge
Having regrets about who you voted for, Frosty?
@@lyndamccaffrey4957 he didn't mention who he voted for
@@lyndamccaffrey4957 Why should I think that Labour would borrow less money when they have always advocated for more government borrowing and been right behind all of the disastrous Leftist policies like mass immigration, net zero, and nationwide Lockdowns of the tories?
Sadly this is the Achilles Heel of democracy. No democratic government can win an election promising to increase taxes. At some point we will need an authoritarian government to restore the country to balance and common sense. Not particularly looking forward to that, but it's inevitable. We have been experimenting with full democracy only since the 1832 Reform Act and more exactly the Equal Franchise Act of 1928 that gave women the same voting rights as men. We are still in an experimental model. So how's it going so far? 🤔🤔
If you think this is a new policy experiment the US has tried this multiple times since Reagan became the first to do it in 1981. The Reagan administration did it and lowered the top tax rate from 70% to 50% in 1981. Then they went down from 50% to 28% in 1986. All it did was punch a big hole in the budget and government debt was tripled from 1981 to 1989. Then George W Bush did similar tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 with similar results. The Trump administration did the same in 2017 under the pretext that it would cause massive economic growth and that the tax cut would pay for itself and of course none of these predictions came true.
Correct analysis. Even Thatcher waited until 1988 to reduce the top rate of tax for high earners from 60 to 40 pence in the pound.
@@eightiesmusic1984 I was unaware and didn't know about any examples of massive tax cuts for the wealthy in the UK. I talked about examples in the US because I was more familiar with them. I'm not surprised that Thatcher also did large scale tax cuts. Didn't the Tory governments since 2010 try to repeat them?
Chopin, Prelude in E-flat major, Op. 28 No. 19
@John Chessant , Thank you ! well Nocturne is E flat major I am learning piano with that one : my preferred piece ever ! not sure if Chopin can help in this economic crisis !!
Watching this from the USA.... Either this guy will come out as a genius of the ages or send back England to the dark ages...
Dark ages it is…it’s not the guy, world took a wrong turn in 2020😢
Massive gamble which like Brexit I'll be shocked if it's works for Britain. A gamble the British public will pay for.
His name sounds like the sound the falling pound makes on reaching the groundKWASI-KWERTANG!
Very impressive
Why is this reporter at 02:30 talking to us like we are children? And why this really weird slow mo of this guys face at 03:03? Is anyone even reviewing this stuff before airing?
This country has a class issue.
Would you expect someone with a PhD in Art _History_ to be able to paint? As for his BA in classics, I'm sure knowing all about the olden days when men wore dresses is directly applicable to the job.
Personality n quality
What you are seeing ladies and gentlemen, is the bell curve in action.
Pseudoscience.
@James Smith you think you are slick with your subliminal psuedo racial gibbirish. He someone who are you just a typical d***head behind your screen using typical alt-right/yte nationalionist rubbish propaganda. 🤣🤣 Did your girlfriend leave you for another man James ?
completely agree with Dame Margaret Hodge
Sort and swallow? That's what we were thinking in 2010 in Greece too.
I don't think the prime minister is worse as the bar was so low but I think the new cabinet is absolutely awful 😕
Liz Truss forms most diverse Cabinet in history with no white males in top jobs For the first time, none of the Great Offices of State is held by a white man.
Outside of his humility of the mistakes from the market crash, he does seem like an honest, well meaning guy. It's easy to blame him for the economic issues faced considering his position, but his power was not limitless. It was a huge burden to undertake and he has been frank and direct in his reflections.
Paul Donovan, the chief economist of UBS Global Wealth Management. “Advanced economy bond yields are not supposed to soar the way UK gilt yields rose,” he told clients. “This also reminds investors that modern politics produces parties that are more extreme than either the voter or the investor consensus. Investors seem inclined to regard the UK Conservative Party as a doomsday cult.”
The last good Tory was Maggie Thatcher, and look how that turned out.
Where do they find these people?
Wild analogy on the Reformation! A century of misery, anyone?
Dame Margaret Hodge said precisely correct about K. Kawteng. UK is not for him to play his ideal
He reminds me of a certain character from The Wind in the Willows
Totally agree with Dame Margaret. Bible says: Romans 13:8 "Owe no man anything . . . but love."
Greed - Arrogance - poor education - ignorance - and the ability to follow orders from his masters.
Ordo ab Chao
glass cliff- used with reference to a situation in which a woman or member of a minority group ascends to a leadership position in challenging circumstances where the risk of failure is high.
Dame Margeret Hodge called him for what he is
I am inspired❤️
Great to see some pompous guy, who studied classics, now wrecking the futures of our kids. I mean why have anyone with financial credentials? The analogy to the English reformation is one of the most embarrassing things I’ve ever heard.
God help us
I will never ever forgive this “intellectual” man
It’s like directly want to destroy us
What a spectacular fiasco ! Sad for the British people.
He went from kings and queens college to the house of con men , he became upwardly mobile , it’s a tradition in some circle’s .
There maybe trouble ahead . . . .
The bbc needs to talk about Ecosia they are a search engine that plants trees
Bank of England printing money again, GENIUS POLITICIAN. 🤜💩
borrowing
@@julianshepherd2038 same difference. Interest up. Debt up.
This hasn't aged well. And his degree was in hospitality management.
Is this an ad?
Greed.
History always on his mind and he goes for Trickle-Down economics, I genuinely ask as I'm ignorant to this myself, has that ever worked well?
Ordo ab Chao
Oh dear, dear , dear.
Two people grossly over-promoted beyond their true abilities. I think this government will be a disaster.
It already is.
on the bright side lets celebrate that "Liz Truss forms most diverse Cabinet in history with no white males in top jobs. For the first time, none of the Great Offices of State is held by a white man"
I'm sick of Eton Mess.
Just to recap...Winston Churchill..just went to Sandhurst. Period.
"Full stop", this is a thread about British politics, not American.
Kwasi kwarteng has the guile of a Mississippi gambler who devalued the pound. Was the party after or before the economic car crash in which many mortgages increased.
£45B would be better spent on something tangible like NHS improvement or infrastructure rather than chucking it down a black hole never to be seen again.
What drives him? Utter incompetence? Staggering ignorance? Mindless greed?
Too bad I mean as in unforgivable how Truss treats her best. The wrong one was dismissed.
how did your old boss Crispin Odey do out of the deal kamikwasi ?