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Ben Chu

@Benchu_

Ben Chu is economics editor of The Independent. In 2019 he spent a year as economics editor of BBC Newsnight. Previously he was the Independent's chief leader writer. He is also the author of ‘Chinese Whispers: Why Everything You’ve Heard About China is Wrong’, published in 2013

<p>Vote Leave highlighted the cost of the UK’s EU budget contributions – but studies indicate the damage from the Brexit vote had already cost the UK economy between £400m and £800m a week by the end of 2019</p>
UK Politics

The real ‘Brexit dividend’? Minus £800m a week – and counting

<p>Nightclubs were due to be allowed to reopen on 21 June</p>
Business Analysis & Features

Would a delay to the 21 June unlocking derail the UK recovery?

<p>The price of the US cinema chain AMC doubled on Wednesday after it offered free popcorn to its small investors</p>
Business

Why is the meme stock mania back?

<p>Extinction Rebellion protesters have targeted Barclays bank for funding fossil fuel companies</p>
News

Does defunding fossil fuel companies make environmental sense?

<p>Some other developed countries seem to be spending much more </p>
News analysis

Is the £1.4bn education catch-up package simply too small?

<p>The reaction on Chinese social media to the announcement of the latest rule change was one of bemusement rather than celebration</p>
News analysis

What will China’s new three-child policy mean for its economy?

<p>‘There is no point in damaging the competitiveness of economies such as the UK while other countries maintain their competitive edge,’ argues the former trade secretary Liam Fox</p>
News analysis

Should Britain impose a carbon border adjustment tax?

<p>The Irish finance minister Paschal Donohoe has reiterated Dublin’s resistance to any minimum corporation tax rate</p>
News analysis

Could Ireland thwart a global minimum corporation tax rate?

<p>Beijing is wary that the digitisation of cash could erode its control of the domestic financial system and the Chinese economy’s money supply</p>
News analysis

Why is China trying to kill off bitcoin?

<p>The government’s own modelling shows a negative impact from a UK-Australia free-trade deal on Britain’s farmers</p>
News analysis

Would a free-trade deal with Australia put UK farmers out of business?

<p>‘Help us’: Alitalia workers stage a protest at Rome’s airport in April</p>
News analysis

Will the UK’s economy flatline like Italy’s?

<p>Eliminating cryptocurrencies might not be straightforward, even if national authorities were so minded</p>
News analysis

Could Elon Musk’s Bitcoin U-turn destroy the cryptocurrency market?

<p>The overall vista for skills funding from the government remains barren</p>
News analysis

Does Boris Johnson’s adult skills revolution add up?

News analysis

Does Boris Johnson’s adult skills revolution add up?

<p>The overall vista for skills funding from the government remains barren</p>
<p>Despite the Bank of England’s predicted surge in GDP, by the end of the year we would still only just be back to where we were before the crisis struck</p>
News analysis

Why it’s complacent to talk about record economic growth

<p>Would waiving intellectual property rights help vaccinate the world faster?</p>
News analysis

Should drug companies waive their coronavirus vaccine patents ?

A researcher works on a vaccine against Covid-19 at Copenhagen's University research lab
Voices

Will big pharma profit from the race for a coronavirus vaccine?

<p>The mirrored Maraya concert hall is one of AlUla’s centrepiece venues</p>
Business Analysis & Features

How the man behind Canary Wharf is helping to transform Saudi tourism

<p>The mirrored Maraya concert hall is one of AlUla’s centrepiece venues</p>
Business Analysis & Features

How the man behind Canary Wharf is helping to transform Saudi tourism

<p>The EU commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has been very clear about tariffs</p>
Voices

Why the UK’s economic conflict with the EU is only just starting

<p>If the UK stopped all North Sea production overnight a quarter of a million jobs in the sector would be jeopardised</p>
Climate

Can we defund fossil fuel companies and also protect jobs?

<p>Covid collapsed the national income by around 10 per cent</p>
Business Comment

Why £300bn of borrowing in the pandemic has been money well spent

<p>In the longer term could a stronger voice for fans make for a more sustainable economic framework for the entire game?</p>
News analysis

What will be the financial fallout from the Super League fiasco?

<p>The marketisation and commercialisation of football has been broadly tolerated by the majority of fans until now. Is this the tipping point?</p>
News analysis

Does the European Super League break the rules of sporting economics?

<p>‘We’ve got our freedom’ says Sir James Dyson – but at what cost for UK exporters to the EU?</p>
News analysis

Sucking it up: Manufacturers look in vain for Dyson’s Brexit benefits

<p>The unemployment rate of black people aged 16 to 24 has almost doubled over the past year to 42 per cent – for white people the rise has been much smaller</p>
News analysis

The evidence of discrimination against black people in the job market

<p>David Cameron lobbied Greensill to access publicly guaranteed funds</p>
News analysis

What are the government’s emergency coronavirus business loan schemes?

<p>‘We’ve got our freedom’ says Sir James Dyson – but at what cost for UK exporters to the EU?</p>
News analysis

Sucking it up: Manufacturers look in vain for Dyson’s Brexit benefits

<p>The unemployment rate of black people aged 16 to 24 has almost doubled over the past year to 42 per cent – for white people the rise has been much smaller</p>
News analysis

The evidence of discrimination against black people in the job market

<p>David Cameron lobbied Greensill to access publicly guaranteed funds</p>
News analysis

What are the government’s emergency coronavirus business loan schemes?

<p>‘A vicious cycle of inequality could morph into a social and political seismic crack,’ warns the IMF</p>
News analysis

Is a tax on the pandemic’s winners a good idea?

News analysis

Is a tax on the pandemic’s winners a good idea?

<p>‘A vicious cycle of inequality could morph into a social and political seismic crack,’ warns the IMF</p>
<p>Janet Yellen is pushing for an unprecedented level of international coordination</p>
News analysis

Is a global minimum corporate tax rate actually possible?

<p>Joe Biden promotes his infrastructure plan in Pittsburgh </p>
News analysis

The significance of Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan

Business Comment

Saudi Arabia’s pledge to cut carbon can lead other nations

<p>It was one of the biggest first day falls on record for a large company making its stock market debut.</p>
News analysis

Why have Deliveroo shares tanked on their stock market debut?

<p>It was one of the biggest first day falls on record for a large company making its stock market debut.</p>
News analysis

Why have Deliveroo shares tanked on their stock market debut?

<p>As the ‘family office’ of a hedge fund veteran called Bill Hwang, Archegos was not compelled to publish information on the size of its assets and liabilities</p>
News analysis

What is Archegos – and why has it created such financial chaos?

<p>It’s not just the absence of transparency from the shipping industry in a crisis like this that’s a problem say critics</p>
World

Global shipping, the world’s most opaque industry

<p>The Treasury has launched a major personal branding and publicity campaign for the chancellor, including a recorded Zoom chat between Mr Sunak and the celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay</p>
UK Politics

‘Brand Rishi’: Sunak boosts Treasury communications budget by 25%

<p>“Each of these entities, whether the EU, the UK or US are just doing it [vaccine nationalism] in different forms” says Chad Bown, a trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics</p>
Independent Premium

The EU, UK and US: Who is really guilty of vaccine nationalism?

<p>Some studies suggest the decline in the number of migrants in the UK might have been rather less extreme</p>
News analysis

Did a million migrants really leave the UK during the pandemic?

<p>The government’s rationale for the changes in the electric car grant is that it doesn’t want to subsidise the well-off to buy expensive electric vehicles</p>
Independent Premium

Is the government doing enough to incentivise households to go green?

<p>Some have wondered whether consumers might have a role to play in driving behaviour change in these companies</p>
News analysis

Should we be prepared to pay more for gig-economy services?

<p>The drop in trade is far bigger than following previous Brexit deadlines, suggesting stockpiling cannot realistically explain the entire drop</p>
Business

What does the collapse in UK exports to the EU tell us about Brexit?

<p>More than £1.2bn was spent on the development of Concorde – equivalent to around £10bn in today’s money</p>
UK Politics

Is test and trace the most wasteful public spending programme ever?

<p>Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng’s decision has drawn criticism</p>
News analysis

Why is the government killing off its industrial strategy?

<p>Inflation might be ‘Rishi’s nightmare’ but should it be ours? </p>
News analysis

Should we be worried about inflation?

News analysis

Should we be worried about inflation?

<p>Inflation might be ‘Rishi’s nightmare’ but should it be ours? </p>
<p>Is the chancellor really levelling with people about the spending implications of his plans?</p>
News analysis

Why and how is Rishi Sunak bringing austerity back to public services?

Budget 2021

OBR now sees ‘faster recovery’ says Rishi Sunak

<p>Rishi Sunak did not delay in relating the welcome news that the OBR now expects a ‘swifter and more sustained economic recovery’ thanks to the impressive vaccine roll out </p>
Business Analysis & Features

What did we learn about the UK’s economic outlook from Sunak’s budget?

UK Politics

The 2021 Budget in charts

UK Politics

The 2021 Budget in charts

<p>Despite the pandemic house prices are rising at their fastest rate in six years </p>
News analysis

What will the return of Help to Buy mean for the property market?

<p>The great fear is that the UK economy might experience the economic equivalent of long Covid</p>
The Longer Read

Long or short Covid? The true state of the UK economy

<p>The indications are the Chancellor is preparing to introduce more than a placeholder “wait and see” Budget </p>
Politics

What can we expect from Rishi Sunak’s Budget?

<p>Keir Starmer campaigned for the party’s leadership on a pledge to ‘reverse the Tories’ cuts in corporation tax’ </p>
News analysis

Is Labour’s opposition to corporation tax rises indefensible?

<p>‘I have to say to you that would be highly controversial – and that would be something that we would have to, and want to, resist very firmly,’ said Mr Bailey </p>
Business

EU in ‘serious escalation’ over UK financial services, says Bailey

<p>HSBC says its decision to reduce its international office space by 40 per cent will lead to a ‘very different style of working post-Covid’ </p>
Business Comment

What does HSBC’s decision spell for the future of the office?

<p>Uber driver Yaseen Aslam outside the Supreme Court, London, on Friday after justices ruled that drivers should be classed as workers, not independent third-party contractors</p>
Business

What does the Uber ruling mean for the UK gig economy?

<p>On the face of it, a British Recovery Bond seems an odd idea from the point of view of stewarding the public finances</p>
News analysis

Did Starmer’s big economy speech actually have any economic policy?

<p>It’s unclear whether ‘no jab, no job’ contracts would be breach of the 2010 Equalities Act</p>
News analysis

Should employers be able to demand all their workers are vaccinated?

<p>The Chancellor Rishi Sunak is preparing his budget for 3 March, and briefings suggest he is examining the case for tax increases</p>
News analysis

Will we need big tax rises after the Covid crisis is over?

<p>There are no specific forecasts in Andy Haldane’s article but he does suggest that the UK annual GDP growth ‘could be in double-digits’ this time next year</p>
News analysis

Is the UK economy ready to rebound like a ‘coiled spring’?

News analysis

Is the UK economy ready to rebound like a ‘coiled spring’?

<p>There are no specific forecasts in Andy Haldane’s article but he does suggest that the UK annual GDP growth ‘could be in double-digits’ this time next year</p>
<p>Many are urging policymakers and politicians now to seize the chance to implement a “Green New Deal”, to rebuild the global economy over the coming years in a way that puts us decisively on a path to decarbonisation</p>
News

What would a ‘Green New Deal’ for a post-pandemic world look like?

<p>Andrew Bailey worries the UK will become an EU ‘rule taker’</p>
News analysis

Is the EU really being unreasonable over the City of London?

<p>Trade secretary Liz Truss in Mumbai this week</p>
News analysis

The truth about the UK’s new trade ‘deal’ with India

<p>Musk might simply be amusing himself, by inflating a bubble – doing it because he can</p>
News analysis

Why is Elon Musk promoting cryptocurrencies – and why does it matter?

<p>Musk might simply be amusing himself, by inflating a bubble – doing it because he can</p>
News analysis

Why is Elon Musk promoting cryptocurrencies – and why does it matter?

<p>Every year over the past decade successive governments in the UK have promised to increase fuel duty but cancelled it at the last moment every time.</p>
News

Should we reject or embrace new carbon taxes?

<p>Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey is thought to be sceptical of negative rates</p>
News analysis

Have negative interest rates in the UK really moved closer?

In Denmark, where interest rates are negative, one bank did unveil a 10-year negative interest rate mortgage last year
Business Analysis & Features

What are negative interest rates and what would they mean for you?

<p>Jeff Bezos has used Amazon’s dominant position in e-commerce to extend deep into a host of other areas</p>
Business Analysis & Features

Mapping the Amazon: What is Jeff Bezos’ economic legacy?

<p>Is GameStop a microcosm of the broader market, an indication that something more fundamental is out of kilter with reality?</p>
News analysis

Are stock markets heading for another dotcom-style bust?

<p>Melvin Capital, before it threw in the towel on its short position in GameStop, had been bailed out by a $750m injection of funds from Steven Cohen, the founder of SAC Capital, which was closed for insider trading in 2013</p>
Business

Read this before you cheer the humbling of hedge funds by day traders

<p>Thanks to the Democrats’ surprise victory in the two Georgia Senate run-offs races earlier this month Joe Biden has an opportunity to change US tax policy</p>
Americas

The truth about Biden’s tax policy and how it might affect you

<p>The EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides says AstraZeneca’s vaccine supply downgrade is not acceptable</p>
News analysis

Is the European Union guilty of vaccine nationalism?

<p>It’s at least highly plausible – if not likely – that a lack of state financial support is discouraging self-isolation</p>
Business Analysis & Features

Should everyone with Covid be given £500 to self-isolate?

<p>Some European retailers have simply given up on selling to the UK</p>
News analysis

Why has Brexit disrupted online shopping so disastrously?

<p>Biden will have to work fast to exorcise the nation of Trump and his policies&nbsp;</p>
US election

UnTrump America: What Biden can do to rid the country of the president

<p>Are ministers in danger of, once again, being overly optimistic about success in the battle against the disease?</p>
News analysis

How quickly could vaccines allow us to reopen the economy?

<p>The first hurdle is defeating the virus</p>
News analysis

Will Joe Biden’s economic plan really rescue the US economy?

<p>There is no clamour from business to overhaul employment regulations</p>
News analysis

Would scrapping the 48-hour working week be good for Brexit Britain?

<p>Industry groups report that many Scottish fishing boats stand idle due to the export crisis</p>
Politics Explained

Will Brexit end up sinking the Scottish fishing industry?

<p>‘A lot of the French and German business was being done out of London – it’s now being done within the EU. We’ve got back control but they’ve got back their trading’</p>
Business Analysis & Features

How the City of London got screwed by Brexit in week one

<p>There is no clamour from business to overhaul employment regulations</p>
News analysis

Would scrapping the 48-hour working week be good for Brexit Britain?

<p>Industry groups report that many Scottish fishing boats stand idle due to the export crisis</p>
Politics Explained

Will Brexit end up sinking the Scottish fishing industry?

<p>‘A lot of the French and German business was being done out of London – it’s now being done within the EU. We’ve got back control but they’ve got back their trading’</p>
Business Analysis & Features

How the City of London got screwed by Brexit in week one

<p>The rather terrifying fact is if I’d not noticed this one questionable payment I might have been paying £15 a month forever</p>
Voices

I write about corporate economic tricks, yet I was a victim of one

<p>At the turn of the millennium UK services exports to the EU accounted for 25 per cent of total exports. Last year they were worth 42 per cent of the total</p>
News analysis

Just how damaging is this Brexit deal for UK services?

<p>Some have argued high rates among children reflect high rates in their local communities, rather than high transmission between children</p>
News analysis

Are schools really responsible for driving the spread of coronavirus?

<p>Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange: this image came to symbolise the hunger, poverty and hopelessness endured by so many Americans during the Great Depression</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
The Longer Read

2020: The year the global economy finally fell off a cliff

<p>With a free trade deal, the UK and the continental authorities are much more likely to cooperate on smoothing out new border frictions</p>
Business Analysis & Features

What does this Brexit deal mean for the UK economy?

<p>In the absence of a sudden desire among the British population to return to the land, increasing domestic horticultural production will require an influx of migrant workers</p>
News analysis

Is the UK too reliant on imports of food?

<p>Leaving the EU with a successful trade deal probably won’t have a short-term negative impact on UK house prices</p>
Brexit

Will Brexit affect house prices and mortgages?

<p>A 4 per cent of GDP loss from leaving with a trade deal accounts for £80bn in today’s money, or around £3,000 for each of the UK’s 28 million households</p>
Brexit

Here’s what Brexit will mean for your wages, benefits and taxes

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