CASH POINTS
IF INVESTMENT announcements were real business, Britain’s productivity problems would be behind it.
A couple of weeks ago, Rachel Reeves’ Treasury boasted of “record-breaking £150bn investment unveiled during US state visit”. Two-thirds of this, or £100bn, was in the shape of promised investment from US private equity group Blackstone over the next decade. (Much of this will be in the form of acquiring UK businesses, which will then pay the eye-watering financing costs that lead Blackstone’s funds to generate around 16 percent returns.)