Return to Growth How to Fix the Economy – Volume One
By Jon Moynihan
The UK has, in recent years, been suffering from what is nothing short of an economic crisis. Growth has now completely stalled in those western democracies, the UK included, where high government spending and high taxes have steadily burgeoned, decade after decade. Free-market economies now threaten to leave us behind in terms of wealth, opportunity and standards of living. At the end of Rishi Sunak’s 2024 government, expenditure was at 45 per cent of GDP and taxes were 36 per cent and rising – yet still nowhere near sufficient to cover public expenditure. The government’s net annual borrowing is now a completely unsustainable 4.4 per cent of GDP, with our overall national debt growing rapidly and alarmingly.
In this arresting and powerful manifesto for economic change, Jon Moynihan analyses the UK’s decades-long stagnant economy and looks at what can be done to resuscitate it. Combining rigorous research with unparalleled business experience, he explores the key dynamics affecting economic growth, ranging from government borrowing, expenditure, tax and regulation to the way national resources are deployed on non-productive and futile, growth-stifling endeavours.
Ultimately, Moynihan shows that unless we act now to reverse the decline, by radically restructuring our economy to stimulate economic growth, the UK risks stagnation, financial collapse and a long-term disintegration in our standard of living. Ignore his warning at your peril.
Reviews
“A must-read for any would-be Chancellor. It is a compelling blueprint for how to end decades of economic malaise.”
Andrew Pierce
“A trenchant, eye-opening and controversial tour de force from one of our foremost economic brains. Anyone who wants growth and wonders why it has become so elusive in western social democracies needs to pick up Return to Growth and take urgent note. Jon Moynihan shows, in crystal-clear and accessible prose, that you can either have ever greater government expenditure or you can have decent levels of growth. Contrary to cakeism, you can’t have both. Rising public-sector expenditure brings greater debt, inflation and ultimately, if it is not controlled, national bankruptcy. A smaller state which does not crowd out the private sector is better able to preside over higher economic growth, which raises standards of living for the country as a whole. If the analysis of how we got into our current economic predicament is sobering, Moynihan’s meticulously elucidated prescription offers a more hopeful way forward for those brave enough to take it. Return to Growth is an essential and compelling read for policymakers and general readers alike.”
Justin Marozzi
“Jon Moynihan is right – it’s time for a fresh look at how our economy should work. Growth and aspiration will only return when private-sector entrepreneurialism is allowed to thrive in a low-tax, free-market setting. More hard work and less regulation is the way forward.”
Lord Bamford
“If Rachel Reeves is serious about her growth agenda, she should buy herself a copy of Jon Moynihan’s book. Lucid, passionately argued, contemptuous of the groupthink that landed our country in debilitating stagnation; here is a manifesto to get Britain motoring.”
Allison Pearson
“Since the election, Conservatives have been desperately looking for a solution to Britain's economic malaise that isn’t just a retread of the failed policies of the past twenty-five years. They need look no further. This book is the answer. Future governments will ignore it at their peril.”
Toby Young
“Jon Moynihan combines serious business acumen with a firm grasp of the political big picture. Return to Growth is an important and timely book – a route map to a more dynamic, secure and prosperous Britain, by someone who knows what works.”
Liam Halligan
“In terms that the economic layman can understand, probably because he’s not a professional economist himself, Jon Moynihan lays out the economic, political, but also moral basis for how Britain can get growing again. These ideas are so practical, achievable, logical and overdue that his thesis is frankly unanswerable. It represents nothing less than a manifesto for national revival and has profound implications for economies beyond the UK too.”
Andrew Roberts
“This may well be the most important economics book of recent years. Moynihan’s book is an urgent appeal to stop the decline and set western economies on the road to growth and prosperity.”
Matt Ridley
“Moynihan challenges the bovine assumptions of ‘social democracy’ that will inexorably lead to fiscal collapse. No doomster, he asserts convincingly, ‘We needn’t keep doing things this way. We needn’t keep digging our own graves.’ Clear, readable, riveting and vividly illustrated.”
Lionel Shriver
“Moynihan reviews three enemies of growth: high expenditure, high taxation and high regulation. His inescapable – and well-supported – conclusion: raising taxes, bloating spending and bureaucratic meddling just make things worse. I love this book.”
Art Laffer
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- Hardback, 512 pages
- ISBN: 9781785909030
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10 September 2024
Available to pre-order - £25.00
- eBook
- ISBN: 9781785909429
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10 September 2024
Available to pre-order - £19.99