Crypto News: A nation of gloomy shopkeepers

If Britain is a nation of shopkeepers, it's not a particularly happy place to be right now. Today, one of its most famous retail chiefs, Stuart Rose, joined the chorus of complaints about Labour's tax-raising budget.

"It's a big burden for business to carry," said Rose, the Asda chairman with possibly the chunkiest CV in the sector, having previously held leading roles at Marks & Spencer, Arcadia, Argos and Ocado.

Bloomberg's markets team reported this afternoon that higher taxes and another jump in the minimum wage are dragging down shares in UK retailers and hospitality businesses. Among the biggest fallers today are currently Halfords (11%), Greggs (6%) and Mitchells & Butlers pubs (8%), while M&S and Sainsbury's are also down after their CEOs said margins would be squeezed by the soaring costs.

Rose predicted more inflation, less hiring and ultimately less economic growth as a result of Chancellor Rachel Reeves's £24 billion annual increase in employers' national insurance contributions.

One doesn't have to be a swivel-eyed right-winger to think he has a point (indeed, a lot of swivel-eyed right-wingers still dislike Rose for his anti-Brexit views.) Let's say, for example, that you were given five years as chancellor to make Britain the fastest-growing economy in the Group of Seven nations. Would you…

- Raise taxes on employing staff?

- Raise wages for staff at over three times inflation?

- Make it more burdensome to hire staff?

One may like to do all these things, or at least the last two, but it's hardly congruous with the G-7 target.

Labour has also increased capital gains and inheritance tax on farms and businesses, of course, but the amount of noise around the latter does not match its fiscal size: the IHT reforms are expected to raise less than 1% of the amount pulled in by the national insurance hike. So the next time you read about farmers descending on Parliament Square, consider that maybe it should be retail chiefs marching with pitchforks.

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The stories you need to know about this evening

Interest rate cuts in Britain depend on it avoiding "big new disturbances" after Donald Trump's reelection.
UK births to British-born parents tumble to lowest on record.
The EU wants to accelerate talks with the UK on a new defence pact.
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Photographer: Shiho Fukada/Bloomberg

A cut of wagyu takes a week to be transported from Japan by plane, land and sea before arriving on the plates at Harrods' upmarket grill in London, where diners pay around £260 ($335) per steak. For the store, the meat's globally renowned status justifies the wait — and the price.

Journey times could soon be dramatically reduced, however. A growing number of British farmers are raising wagyu cattle on home pastures in a bid to replicate the delicacy, often much more cheaply.

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