Published:
Sep 14, 2024
Author:
Sarah Parsons Wolter
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While the US presidential debate may have been the major headline of the week, we aren’t the only country with contentious policy divides at home. Also hot off the press is the UK’s debt dilemma. In the next half century, the ratio of public debt to GDP is projected to climb to nearly 275%, vs 100% now. In addition to the widely accepted impacts that productivity and an aging population will have on the public debt outlook, another theme has been thrown into the mix: climate.
This time though, the datapoints are as concrete as an aging population. Damage related to climate change is a major contributor to the outlook over the next 50 years, with the potential to drive up debt by 20-25% of GDP, even if global temperature increases are capped at 2 degrees Celsius. If temperatures rise by up to 3 degrees though, debt could swell by 33% of GDP – at least – as the Office for Budget Responsibility highlighted a "considerable" risk that the actual costs might be significantly higher.
Climate has been a notoriously partisan issue, but as the links to the economy become more and more tangible there may be less room for ‘alternative facts’ on both sides of the pond.
Portfolio News
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Coincover supports regulatory compliance for Canadian crypto exchanges in new partnerships - VirgoCX and Netcoins, two of Canada's leading crypto trading platforms, will benefit from Coincover’s industry-leading protection technology designed specifically for the crypto market. It will protect customers against both malicious activity and the loss of cryptocurrency, meaning users are safe from hackers and human error. Read more
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Rising Temperatures & Political Tension
UK government finances are on an ‘unsustainable’ path, watchdog warns - Demographic pressures and the costs of climate change will weigh on the public finances, says the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). Surging public spending is projected to lead to a rise in the ratio of public debt to 274% of GDP over the coming 50 years, compared with less than 100% now. Read more
Industry News
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PayPal teams up with Shopify in CEO’s latest partnership deal - The deal will see PayPal processing some of the e-commerce platform's company’s debit- and credit-card transactions. As part of the agreement, PayPal’s wallet will also integrate with Shopify Payments. Read more
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Goldman to hand off a $2b credit-card book to Barclays - The Wall Street giant is poised to sell the portfolio of loans made to GM customers to Barclays at a discount to the value of the outstanding balances. Goldman Chief Executive Officer David Solomon said Monday the bank expects to take a $400m hit from the transition of its GM cards business and other small retail ventures. Read more
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Select Financings
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NetNow - Toronto based trade credit automation platform raised $1.8m in pre-Seed funding led by Ripple Ventures. Read more
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