Gary's Economics Knows Fuck

Just abject nonsense being spouted here

There is that fun FT piece about Gary’s Economics to consider. Having considered it not something I care about. The lad did something I didn’t because I couldn’t, get onto a trading desk. I went through the early stages during that same university milk round - very different year - and it very quickly became clear that as I’m a truly lousy poker player a trading desk just wasn’t the place for me. I also tried equity sales and that wasn’t either. Ho Hum. But that he’s then bigged up his skill, stellar nature and global importance, well, that’s the sort of thing you expect a good poker player and trader to do.

No Worries.

However, something I can do and which Our Gazza apparently can’t. Use a search engine to look up an economic number. Or, even, have some vague knowledge about how the economy, the tax system, works. Now, this is useful for me as this is how I make my living; writing about matters economic. The inability to do this is a bit of a handicap for Gary as he is trying to teach the country economics through his YouTube channel.

The specific example today:

The particular point is better seen in this shorter clip.

(When I earned my couple of million the top tax rate was 50% etc….) The Duke of Westminster inherited £9 billion pounds, which is, you know, about 3000 times what I earned - and he paid nothing.

Therefore, you know, tax system, burning brands, pitchforks at midnight and all the rest. Revolution Now!

Except. The Duke did not, in fact, inherit £9 billion. He became the beneficiary of a trust. And that means:

We believe in the moral duty to pay our fair share of tax and abide by the rule of law that determines it

We are a privately owned organisation but transparently report on our commercial and public interest activities in a way that is comparable to listed businesses

Our commercial business assets are owned by a series of UK resident trusts which pay all applicable taxes including income tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax

We pay inheritance tax through a recurring 6% payment on the value of our assets every 10 years, instead of a single payment of 40% upon death

Grosvenor family members are all UK resident (as their predecessors have been for nearly 1,000 years). They pay UK taxes in the same way as the rest of the UK population, while being entitled to the same exemptions.

Now this isn’t difficult to find, this information. Actually, it’s the first result for a Google search “grosvenor trust tax”.

That 6%. Now I would assume - and I’m not going to bother to check - that he became the beneficiary of the trust on his father’s death. I’ve been told that he did at birth - not sure I believe that but still. If he did then he’d paid - or the trust had paid if you prefer - £1 billion in tax before his 21st birthday. If not, well, he’s going to pay £500 million and up every 10 years for the entirety of his life. Given he inherited so young we’d expect 6 or 7 such decades ahead of him. A 36 to 42% tax on wealth - note the 6% is on the total value, the wealth, not the income from and is due again every 10 years - is, you know, pretty high acshully.

A 40% tax on wealth also isn’t “nothing”.

Plus he pays tax on the income and so on.

This is what irates me about Gazza and his economics. There’s near no knowledge of actual economics in there. Or of tax. Plenty of shots of a beanie surmounting a shaven head, little knowledge of the subject under discussion.

So, anyway, I think that Gazza’s Economics might be the next subject for a little investigatory book. The first one, about George Monbiot’s dirge on neoliberalism will be here - for subscribers, chapter by chapter, also at Amazon by the book - v shortly. The second will be either Grace and her “truly democratic economy” or Gazza. To do Gazza I need to find out how to gain transcript - not subtitles on the video, but transcript of - of each of his videos. At which point it will be possible to actually check his economic, tax and even number claims. Those I’ve looked at, like the above, tend not to pass truth nor reality tests. Those claims of grossly increasing inequality? UK income inequality is a little lower than it was in 2008 and wealth inequality seems not to have changed in 14 years. But that’s just the Office for National Statistics saying that rather than a column in The Guardian.

The reason for this? A book, an investigation? Well, it’s because Gazza appears to know fuck.