Why British Homeowners Have It Worse Than Most

The Brits have a lot on their minds this week. They have many of the same worries as everyone else—the shifting global order, deglobalization, fractured supply chains, unpopular political leadership, the end of Pax Americana and a desperate need to bump up defense spending. That sort of thing.

But those worries are slightly more intense in the UK than elsewhere. Note that only this week a former NATO chief pointed out that the UK’s armed forces are so depleted that Britain simply isn’t safe. The UK also has more domestic worries than most. First, the country has been added to a club no one would voluntarily join: the “BIF.” The market has lumped together Britain, Italy and France as economies that have seen the biggest rise in bond yields since the US and Israel started their war with Iran, and so are the ones most vulnerable to debt crises (a more derogatory term surfaced for weak economies in the run up to the European debt crisis).