The Guardian view on Trussonomics: bringing on social and financial devastation | Editorial

The government and its central bank are plotting a path that will create a painful recession. Both ought to change course

In chess they call it zugzwang - a situation in which any legal move leaves the player worse off. Both the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, and the Bank of England are searching for a winning way out of their predicaments, given the constraints imposed by public opinion. They are unlikely to find one. Trussonomics" - a mixture of tax cuts, sharp reductions in public spending and higher interest rates - has arrived as Britons back higher investment, nationalised industries and lower levels of inequality. Voters are getting the opposite of what they want, with trust in ministers plummeting.

No government has sabotaged its economic reputation as quickly as this one. The Bank has had to step in three times since the chancellor's mini-budget to stop a big sell-off in UK debt caused by the government announcing a fiscal package that borrows, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, 370bn over the next two years for little obvious economic gain. The mayhem was entirely predictable. Mr Kwarteng is spending more than the government gets back in taxes; the difference is funded by selling government debt at a price determined by auctions where finance houses determine the yields. The more debt that is issued, the higher the interest rate investors demand to hold government IOUs - a process that leads ultimately to higher mortgage payments.