Experts explain: Why is the UK economy doing so badly? 

Trouble is that in Britain it is never a good time for a wage rise and always the time for record profits.

I'm a Brit living in Germany since 2010 and I run a small business here. Before Brexit I would order materials from the U.K. , the prices were competitive and delivery was quick. Since Brexit, it no longer makes sense to order from the U.K. The prices are not as competitive but the most problematic part is that delivery is often delayed considerably, due to customs issues. I can't rely on receiving orders on time. This causes real problems for my business as I order materials for specific projects with tight deadlines. With inflation currently at about 10%, my primary concern is how to maximize my savings/retirement fund of about £600k which has been sitting duck since forever with zero to no gains.

I'm not an economic expert but, I am happy to guess that the reason the UK is doing so badly is because of the absolute incompetence of the people who are meant to be in charge. It's a fatal combination of indifference to the greater good, and a complete lack of ability.

A number of the most eminent market experts have been expressing their views on the severity of the impending economic downturn and the extent to which equities might plummet. This is because the economy is heading towards a recession and inflation is persistently above the Federal Reserve's 2% target. As I'm aiming to create a portfolio worth no less than $850,000 before I turn 65, I would appreciate any advice on potential investments.

I might consider coming back to Britain, but what’s the offer exactly? Working in a factory in Basingstoke with 1960s technology for falling real-terms wages, paying a grand a month to rent a damp semi-detached house on a soulless estate where nobody knows or likes each other and there’s nothing to do but work and watch football on the telly?

This claim of "high skilled, high wage economy", is exactly what Thatcher claimed that she wanted, 40 years ago. At the same time she devastated industries that had "high skilled, high wage" employees, and replaced them with low skilled, low wage vacancies in new call centres and in the new service industries. The only place where "high skilled, high wage vacancies" were created, was in the City of London. So, 40 years later, the current Conservative Government are demonstrating that they have learnt nothing from the mistakes made in the past, and are indeed, intent on repeating them.

This is impressive content you have here, Working with a financial professional can actually help you prepare for life financial struggles. I'm glad I was able to call my coach Katherine Anne Roos since I was actively cashing out from my portfolio and finally made over 370k just in the first quarter while everyone else was crying about the downturn. early this year.

I haven't been to Britain since I became an expat in 1989. Everywhere that I have been living,China,S. Korea,Thailand,Czech Republic during this period has been moving up. The UK during this period has been under delusions about its importance in the world which is unfortunately,rapidly diminishing. Does it make any sense in this new world where Britain is economically smaller than California ,and soon Jiangsu and other provinces in China, to buy and run 2 aircraft carriers? Or to try and police their version of the world. The billions and billions which must have been spent on Iraq and Afganistan. What is needed is a government which puts the people first, that has a realism about where the UK stands today,not the pampered Britain of Eton and Winchester, but the Britain of the vast majority which to survive satisfactorily needs investing in.

I find it ironic that there are so many businesses complaining about not finding people to fill job vacancies. I've applied to different job positions, all of which I am qualified for, and never hear back. I also think it is an issue on the side of the employer that the requirements for many jobs go beyond what the job is actually worth. I also want to add that it is so, so sad to see how far the Labour party has strayed from its roots. I believe the UK has a two party system akin to the US where both leading parties are barely different from one another.

The weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth in Britain as a result of a lapse of reason in Tory ranks is audible around the world. The Tories cannot fix the mess. It will take REAL MEN OF GOODWILL TOWARDS THEIR COUNTRY. Time for Change!

You have employers like mine, large west London airport that thought Covid was a perfect “opportunity” to use fire and rehire to rip up employee contracts, lost half their workforce as a result and then struggled through 2022 as the pool of people willing to work shitty hours (5/6 weekends) for a shitty company wasn’t as big as they expected, those they’ve hired aren’t staying, and also finding those that stayed through fire and rehire are now actively leaving themselves for better jobs elsewhere.

Because the UK ruling government of 10 years has one interest: Shrinking the state by any means, empowering the billionaires, hoping the billionaires remember to invite them to the party when the economy suffers.

Who would have thought leaving the biggest single market on the planet would negatively effect our economy🤔

I been an expat for 20 years now, and every time i visit home it seems poorer. When i was young living in the UK i had never heard of a food bank and pawn brokers were something my grandparents told me about from pre wwii times. Brexit made it worse for small businesses. My best mate from school had built up a nice little business exporting Jams, jellies and pickles into Europe and could not be bothered with all the paperwork so took early retirement and made his staff redundant.

In my opinion, the remedy to weather this recession and high inflation is short-term trading, as opposed to long-term, most folks using these techniques are netting a ton of gains, sure the risks are higher but yet again isn't the current market equally as risky?

When it comes to investing, what's your say to anyone with over 50k $ looking for the best ways to invest it and as well make good earnings off it?.

Unfortunately if we zoom out, this is the long decline of a once powerful empire. Happened before to empires gone by and is happening now un the UK today. Unfortunately the road ahead will get much worse as most people are still in denial on how serious things really are.

I'm glad I saw that! Don't sit around all day complaining about the economy or waiting for a miracle. Invest today in something productive that will not only help you save money but also make a profit. Today, I can boast a portfolio of almost a million dollars, which I have achieved through consistent investing and also through working with an investment advisor

Brexit was never about boosting the UK economy. It was about protecting billionaires from European money laundering laws and other regulations.

"Experts explain: Why is the UK economy doing so badly?" Michael Gove 3 June 2016 "I think the people of this country have had enough of experts" Michael Gove 2 oct. 2017 “So by selling more sows’ ears to China, we can buy more silk purses for British farmers.” Michael Gove 30 oct. 2022 "Brexit has been 'a significant success' 😂😂 😂

Why is the UK economy doing so badly? Answer: We have had 12 years of an incompetent Government who are never accountable for anything and who don't have the basic levels of common sense to see what is right from wrong and good from bad. Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and now Sunak are all from the same stench of incompetency. That's why the UK economy is doing so badly.

The 70's were a golden age compared to today's Britain. You got paid to go to University, there was plenty of cheap affordable places to live and Britain led the world in music and fashion.

Germany France, Sweden et Al have high skill, high wage economies and they have free movement. They also have highly unionised work force and high employment regulation.

The problem is they are quadrupling down on neoliberal capitalism, a paradigm that has run its course. When you have this level of inequality, this level of poverty, giving more money to producers and the top 1% won’t do anything but make the problems worse.

So it has nothing to do with the UK leaving the single market?

Matt Frei forgets to mention that the UK does have sanctions. But unlike Russia, the UK willingly placed these sanctions on itself. Moreover, didn't the UK choose to sell off its gas storage facilities. Selling off the "family silver" for short-term gains.

British news people mocked Macron when he fully nationalized EDF (France's power company) when it was already majority owned by the government, saying it was a backward way of doing things. But he was then able to cap electricity price rise at 4% by having EDF operate at a loss! The French are not wandering if they should ""heat or eat". That's what a competent government does: anticipate, plan then act before an issue appears. Much to learn!

It's a vicious circle. If you increase employment and wages in UK then you will have to pay more for the end product, this means that people who are buying the product will not have the money to buy the product because wages will never be high enough to keep up with the increase in product pricing (this is simple Economics). Your only way to keep the product prices down is to export production to countries with cheaper labour and lower raw material costs are abundant i.e. third world countries. This in hand means that you lose jobs in your country and means that job market stagnates and unemployment goes up. So, you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. The only reason UK did well prior to BREXIT was because they paid low wages to immigrants for low end jobs from countries where jobs were scarce and pay was very poor even by UK standards. Therefore people were working in UK for cheap and sending money to families back home which (when converted in local currency) the people ended up being a lot better off, this is what made it so attractive to work in UK or any first world European country (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, etc). Now that UK has severed its ties with Europe no wonder the prices of everything have shot up, this would have been the case even without the war and pandemic. The fact that these two additional factors happened simultaneously have literally thrown even bigger problem in the UK. From business analytics perspective this is one of those events that you never plan for due to such an inconceivable rarity that it did not seem worthwhile investing resources in to put a contingency plan in. However, risks should always be analysed on a regular basis and upgraded with a status, which means if the risk has come to fruition and it has now caused a problem then you need to dedicate huge amount of resources to focus on rectifying this problem, and this is where the government dropped the ball. Now, we are all paying the price of government inefficiency. Prime example, UK could have been a carbon neutral country a long time ago as well as massive green energy producer (wind, geothermal, wave, solar, etc), but this was not a priority and as such we are where we are now.

Correct me if I am wrong, but Russia did not cut supply, all countries decided not to buy gas from Russia on the expense of their citizens, without any plan how to support rising living costs....

No talent/skilled migrants will come to the UK just because you have a nice migrant pointing system. The wages have to be competitive and not only in comparison to other countries but also in relation to the costs of living, which in England (London particularly) is very high. How much money stays in the pocket at the end of the week/month matters. Since UK weather is not a positive factor, taxes should be.

Maybe leaving the biggest market in the world was a bad idea 🤔

This is like asking why water is wet or why trees are green

The age of austerity has now been rolled out for the middle class!

So it sounds like brexit is providing high skilled high pay jobs for immigrants and low skilled low payed jobs from the citizens of the UK. Didn't see that on the side of a bus. Also why is that is never put to these ministers, british journalist never seem to ask the right questions

Take back control of something you never lost and lose everything you had......

With everything that is happening,most of us are a paycheck away from being homeless,hope we are all prepared,get yourself an alternate source of income

A labour MP talking about putting a cap on immigration is the height of irony.

Never going to get better, it’s being tanked on purpose.

If the UK government didn't waste so much money fighting pointless wars they might be in a better position today.

The trouble with the UK is that the politician's have not looked into the energy needs of the country long term. We were told we are putting up wind turbines, soon energy will be free!!! What utter BS. Self serving politicians who can only look into the next few years whilst they are in office and obsessed with being voted back in!!!

No. The energy price shock is just straight up profiteering. Raw energy prices are not at unworldly levels. It’s all visible by simply looking at charts showing the historical trends. And the energy prices weren’t so high back when the raw energy costs were at this level.

The political class in the UK are completely out of touch. The majority of the country aren't against immigration, we are well up for incentivising skilled immigration. Putting up thousands of unskilled people with zero security checks in hotels everyday at our expense is what many find annoying. Spend less on them and incentivise skilled immigration, which in turn, will improve services for us and lead to economic growth. Open the floodgates to the right people. Currently those with degrees, trade skills and healthcare training simply can't justify moving here due to the hoops they have to jump through and the cost. Why can't we incentivise these people? Would it be different if they came across the channel in a dinghy? Its absolutely bonkers.

Good on Starmer, and I say that as a Corbyn supporter, always though restricting immigration should be a left wing position. Cheap labour only benefits the bosses and hurts the workers, not to mention issues of culture and social stability.

imagine if UK had invested all profits from oil to build hydro and wind power.

MP's can claim christmas parties on expenses now, wow a kick in the TEETH!!!

We have short supply of IT workers, specifically in AI? I work precisely in that industry and it certainly doesn’t feel like recruiters are desperate 😂 still a challenge to switch jobs

The business men said it takes too long to train someone. If we keep taking that view we have had it . Tell them tough and to start training, a competent person will be a valuable asset through training not just at the end of it. A good business will plan for the future and expansion that includes their labour force. Stop letting business off .

Who wants to move to the UK after you made it quite clear what you think about cooperation even with your nearest neighbour - EU? Also, the public health care system is a joke, and rent (especially in London) unaffordable. No one will move to Britain - I can tell you that much. All of my EU friends have either left or are thinking about leaving.

Didn't the news report that UK only imports about 5% of Russian gas....we have tens of years worth of gas in the North sea but because we have this vanity project of being seen to be carbon friendly we would rather some other country take it out and then ship it to us at exhorbitant cost

Does the UK not have its own independent energy sources? As far as I know, BP is extracting oil from the North Sea, so how is there an energy crisis in the UK?

This question need should ask the new PM leader. Everyone still remember he said that " British with China were ending cooperstion together and we were done ". But he didn't know which who need who the most right now. Also he's super deep loyal to his master to against China instead of care UK economy get better.

Just stop voting for tories

I wasn’t old enough to vote for or against brexit I’ve recently turned 20 and now I have to suffer in all the mistakes our people have voted for

The Tories: The bottom line is we need immigrants but we don't really want them.

Great questioning Matt.

In every social media *AMK29X* is literally the number one trend so why would you even ask about it here

Vacancy in the UK for a proper statesman to take charge of a huge mess ,,, are there any takers ?

And why is the house price still so high?

The govt wants a high wage/high skill society, so why do they object to our skilled and professional worker having an inflation equivalent rise?

Well done video but I don't understand why Britain has such a shortage of workers. Get those on Universal Credit off their butts, retrain and put them to work. Did that in Canada and unemployment is a thing of the past now.

Stop fucking about and get us back in the single market!

If politicians were doing their job, they would have never left the country in such a vulnerable place!

Part of the problem is Wealth distribution (inequality). If we can tax Abramovich, we can tax the rest of the 1% in the UK.... Wealth mainly comes from Assets, like houses, stocks, which CANNOT be moved out of the UK - they CAN be taxed if we want them to be... Meaning, the rest of us won't have the bear the FULL burden for economic woes.

Mmmmh... funny how there is never a shortage of workers at all levels in politics. Wouldn't it be great if we could talk about vacancies for councilors, MPs, and ministers? No shortage of bloviators then.

If only it had been possible to foresee that being utterly reliant on a hostile dictatorship for your energy might have negative consequences...

If the majority of sectors of the labor market are striking it is because they know there is money for wage increases. It isn't random. And- in my opinion , it would serve leaders well to respect the intelligence inherent in their work forces.

High skilled, high wage, a 'points based immigration system'. Can someone explain how this will service the critical shortage of care staff, farm workers and those in hospitality and other lower skilled, poorly paid jobs? Because the criteria for a points based system will fail in helping where huge issues exist in our economy. Because it is quite clear that our own pool of workers are not up for wiping bottoms, digging up potatoes in Jan or serving in bars, hotels and restaurants, the Eastern Europeans were.

A round of applause for all the Brexit voters.. you've really levelled us up haven't ya?

Question is when are we going to get the brexit dividends

All we need is a Government to take swift and decisive action to address major issues. What have this Government achieved so far?

Free market doesn't work for providing people with skills and job training. With rent so high, people cannot afford to pay to upskill and they shouldn't be expected to go into debt to aquire skills/qualifications. It is the responsibillity of the government to prepare the people for the workforce, and they have been failing for the kast 20 years. There's no reason why we could not have followed the german model, and trained our own, while we were inside the eu. Reckless profit chasing is to blame and the majority of us have paid the price.

Because you put an Indian chancellor before and now an Indian home secretary and now an Indian prime minister. They engineered the downfall of Britain as a payback for colonialism.

After watching this I still ponder the question why is the UK doing so badly

Russia did not impose the gas shortage, the US/EU self-imposed it.

yes, you will need to invest into training of the "work-force" and into improving the entire culture around individual and public investment into productivity+education+next gen industries subsidies+grants+loans+incentives, etc

I didn't vote brexit, but....I'm getting tired of businesses coming up with horrible excuses not to train British work labour force old & new. Also increasing the wage, business still refuse to do the decent thing. If they can't even cope, then some of these businesses deserve to fail and go bankrupt.

Brexshit.. we've sanctioned ourselves!

Why everything is so bad? Answer: conservatives are in charge

Please people in the UK. Start a real Labour Party. The old one has gone rogue.

whether students in Uk will get any job now onwards as Uk is going towards bankrupcy

The main problem of UK is gas and energy crisis, automatically many economy impacts influence it. It called multiplier economic

Makes you wonder how many of those people now saying we need more immigration to fill the gaps believed Boris' Brexit Bus 🤭

The UK is in no way dependent on Russian gas, yet Germany is and its GDP reduction is less than the UK, yet the politicians keep telling us Putin is to blame.

As far as I can remember it should've gotten better 4 to 5 years after the government introduced austerity measures in 2010. I'm still waiting for the better times while corporates have record profits every single year.

Engineered depressions make some rich and many poor…it is a cycle….or the new term is Reset!

Get Brexit MORE Done. More isolation, More bureaucracy with your biggest and nearest trading partner (the EU), More stiff upper lip and MORE economic soundbites from the Tabloids. 👍😂🤣

For the first time in modern history there is a shortage of labour In a free market. You know what the laws of supply and demand mean, offer better wages, better hours, competitive bonuses. We've a right to gain fron the free market as much as companies

There is more than enough migration we do not need more, it puts more pressure on our services and lowers wages. We need no migration for the short term to catch up on the claims of asylum, get rid off everyone who has NO right to be here, change our laws including writing the EU out of our laws, get everyone back to work who isn't working, review all benefits systems, bring in training schemes for those who are not working to bring those unemployed upto the skills required, take off caps on training out own nurses and doctors training so we can train more. We do not have enough homes to have immigration at present and the more immigration the more pressure on services , NHS, GP's, dentists, schools , housing. We need British people back in work we have 2.5 million people not working currently and a works shortage of 1.5 million so we have enough people to fill the jobs. We are poorer at the moment because of the Lockdowns, stopping producing our own energy and getting away from NET ZERO as renewables are more expensive to run and we do not even produce them here we buy everything from China and then at the end of their life we export the non biodegradable waste which it all is to other countries instead of melting it all down and recycling it here into other useful objects, mass immigration and the temp housing of thousands of illegal immigrants of which the estimate is well over the 42000 and all costs for feeding them etc is upto 10 million a DAY!! Promising money to other countries who have not invested in infrastructure themselves over the decades to help them now do this , money sent to Ukraine to help the war effort there when we should be encouraging talks to settle it peacefully with less lives lost. This budget was a low/no growth budget which will make it harder for small companies and individuals to stay afloat. Lack of housing because of immigration means our young people cannot buy their first homes very easily anymore and we should be helping them to do so as new private homes are being built in smaller numbers now as we are running out of space and we still need large amounts of agricultural land to feed Not only us in the UK but also others around the world along with other countries but where countries are being forced to stop farming or farming has been hit by bad weather ,it will cause food shortages for all of us !!! We need more farming not less and we do not need to be eating bugs or to have our supermarkets bringing in bug based foods next year!!!!!!

Just the games the rich and powerful playas they don’t feel the pain the rest of us do.

I'm afraid my British cousins aren't close to the bottom yet. Things are gonna get very dangerous. I also think Northern Ireland and Scotland will bolt and the weakened British government won't be able to stop it. It's not just Britain, we are experiencing a breakdown in a financial and social world paradigm that no longer works. GREED and CORRUPTION is at the core of the problem. My heart goes out this great nation and all who suffering from the predation that is falling upon them

To my 🇺🇸🇬🇧 friends especially with mid-to-low economy like me... How much does it cost to get the daily life essentials things in your area? Just wanna compare the level cost of living Thanks before!

The real reason is because we have a system that increases wealth inequality during EVERY world crisis, then has no way of stabilising or getting that wealth back when it needs growth.

So basically the answer is obvious but no one wants to do the answer because it’s a bad word

The government will soon announce that the cake ration will be increased to from 100g to 80g per day.

If they are any experts, we would not be in this mess. Ther are no experts only people who think they are.

Question why we still useing gas in 2022 if we have electricity and liquid energy the can produce electricity also ? The strange ? It make you wander what is going on in England or London or uk or Britain ?

This happens when development means big buildings and large industries.

An endless supply of cheap labour meant that British managers were able to reduce costs without deploying any ingenuity at all. So they forgot how.

To me from Germany, it is a bit weird to still stress the effects of Brexit, this is over and nobody here talks about it anymore (I think it was a loss for us too (less economical than as a european society)), but its over and we look forward). The simultaneousness of Covid and the energy crisis due to sanctions is not really in our hands. The effect is similar to all European countries, while measures seem different. Germany is substantially investing into renewable energy (all across from private sector to the industry) - this may reduce dependancies and give a boost to our economy in the mid term, and at least we have a common goal to work on.

Look at statistics, and you will see that Germany has depended on Russian gas, and the UK doesn't, but the UK has got more issues and economic inflation. In all around the world, systems are working by procedures and rules, but in uk, everything is based on the queue . The most sophisticated thing in the UK is queue, and their proud of it. 🤣 The other thing is that more than 80% of the economy in the UK is headed by a few billionaires and families, and now one of them is directly their prime minister 🙄