Everyone knows bureaucracies don’t shrink themselves. Why on earth would they? Rather, their sole aim?is to grow bigger, concluded economist William Niskanen in his budget-maximising theory of 1968.
No one in Britain should have expected a smaller state under Labour. In the US, Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is forecast to raise federal debt by a fifth relative to output by 2035. Even the pfennig pinching Germans wish to be more Latin America circa the 1980s these days.
Politicians are much to blame for our indebtedness. But worryingly for investors, the problem transcends party politics. Both left and right have lost control of spending. Populism is on the rise with promises galore. Voters across the spectrum refuse to sacrifice.