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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Larry Elliott

Liz Truss favours trickle down economics but results can be trickle up

Prime minister Liz Truss.
Prime minister Liz Truss is using the ‘trickle down’ argument to justify the £30bn of tax cuts to be announced in Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini budget on Friday. Photograph: Toby Melville/PA

Trickle down economics was highly fashionable on the political right in the 1980s, when both Ronald Reagan in the US and Margaret Thatcher championed the idea. It resurfaced in America under both George W Bush and Donald Trump, and it is now undergoing a revival in Britain under the new prime minister, Liz Truss.

The theory of trickle down economics is simple. Governments should cut taxes for the better off and for corporations because that is the key to securing faster growth. Entrepreneurs are more likely to start and expand businesses, companies are more inclined to invest and banks will tend to increase lending if they are paying less in tax.

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