The IMF recommends:

Britain and other rich nations should raise taxes on capital gains to support a surge in benefits spending, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said.

In a report released on Monday, the IMF urged governments to tax businesses and investors more in anticipation of welfare bills rising across the world.

That’s eating the societal seedcorn to cover current spending. Something that leads to famine down the road. The justification doesn’t even work:

It said higher capital gains taxes should be used to support workers as artificial intelligence was increasingly being used to replace jobs.

As robots produce things more cheaply then consumers become richer - things are getting cheaper. Which isn’t - at least, it’s not a cogent - an argument for consumers requiring more support.

This then meets t’other idea:

Investment in the UK has trailed other G7 countries including the US and Germany since the mid-1990s, according to a report that urges Labour and the Conservatives to reverse planned cuts to investment or risk long-term damage to economic growth.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank found the UK was bottom of the G7 league for investment in 24 out of the last 30 years, using figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

A lack of spending by UK companies on technology and innovation over the last three decades was mostly to blame for the underperformance,

We’re willing to entertain - entertain, not insist upon - the idea that low levels of investment in the UK simply demonstrate that we’re more efficient at investment than many other places.

But look at the combination. Companies don’t invest enough and therefore a good policy is to tax the returns to successful investments more so that fewer people bother to invest. We tend to think that’s more than a little confused.

We have heard of this idea of joined up government and we think it would be a jolly good idea. When will it arrive?

Tim Worstall