Image generated by ChatGPT

The FTSE may be at an all-time high, but Reeves should not pretend all is calm when the waters are extremely choppy for small businesses, says Andrew Griffith

Embattled ministers love good news to boast about on social media or in a TV studio, and this government’s most embattled minister, Rachel Reeves, is no exception. Last week she and her cadre of flunkies leapt at the opportunity to celebrate a new FTSE all-time high. If that sounds a little like the mayor in Jaws celebrating the initial departure of the titular shark, it’s because that’s exactly what Reeves is doing.

A surge in the FTSE100 is welcome; it’s a boon to savers and pensioners who have been under attack by this government and good news for the mostly global quoted companies who have seen their stock literally rise. Still, it has less to do with Reeves’s two calamitous, tax rising budgets than it does with global hopes of interest rate cuts, the performance of a few key players like Rolls Royce and the buoyancy of the global economy.

Most of all a number on a computer in........

© City A.M.