Coronavirus - is enough being done to contain it?

(27-03-2020 13:02 )Chrisst Wrote:  I makes me wonder what the total availability really is. It's not even gonna be trillions is it. What's more that trillions, I don't know but whatever it is they've got it like it's so much loose change.
There's room for a good documentary on how rich we really are and what you could do with it. I'm prepared to bet that the Government could comfortably pay all our wages for a hundred years.

At the moment the government don't in fact have the money to pay for these coronavirus bailouts they have promised. The Chancellor has said that the money will be raised by borrowing, and not by increasing taxes.

The answer to your query therefore, about the total availability, is that total availabilty depends on how much money the government feel it's feasible to borrow. Or how much they feel they can feasibly raise.

Fortunately interest rates are rock bottom right now, but nevertheless when the virus is (hopefully) beaten the government will still have a higher interest bill to service. So we could face tax increases eventually.

If you're interested in detail, the government issued two 'corona' bonds last week, the first raising £2bn (maturing in 2049) and the second raising £3.25bn (maturing in 2025). There's bound to be more to follow.