Last year’s budget was exceptional. It was less a statement of government fiscal strategy and the injection of homeopathic amounts into politically sensitive sectors than a rerun of that Oprah clip where every punter she pointed to got a car. Vast spending backed by ultra-cheap sovereign borrowing is a feature of wars and plagues. We have a plague to deal with. After both wars and plagues come periods of inflation, disinflation, and reset. In a country that borrows in another currency, as we do, the laws of economic gravity can only be suspended for so long, regardless of what proponents…

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