After Liz Truss’s disastrous financial performance as UK prime minister, the first task of her successor, Rishi Sunak, is to reassure markets that he is a professional. He must acknowledge the market worries about deficit spending, which were on full display in the turmoil that followed former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s “mini” Budget.
But Sunak must be careful not to impose too much austerity, which could trigger a full-blown financial crisis in a country that is facing many headwinds, including a shortage of affordable housing and a looming pension crisis.
To deal with these problems he has a useful tool at his disposal: issuing perpetual bonds. Sometimes called “war bonds” or “consols”, perpetual bonds have a long history in the UK. They were first issued in 1752, and later used to consolidate the debt accumulated during the Napoleonic Wars (which is why they were called “consols”). These wars pale in comparison with the global distress brought on by Covid-19. Issuing “Covid consols” to help confront the aftereffects of a calamity looks eminently reasonable.