The Guardian reports:

Britain's stagnating economy faces months of gloom after a series of business surveys showed profits down and confidence among industry bosses waning.

A report by the accountants Ernst & Young found that UK companies issued 50% more profit warnings in the first three months of the year compared to the fourth quarter of 2010 as a squeeze on household spending, soaring commodity prices and rising inflation eroded consumer and business spending.

There's nothing suprising about this: it was inevitable.

The idea that austerity could create a private sector boom was always the work of fantasists.

I predicted 4 million unemployed some time ago now. I stick by it.

I also explained that the marginal cost of the government employing people when there is mass unemployment is tiny.

There is only one way out of the mess we're in: the government has to start spending now.

I and the Green New Deal group have said this all along. But still they won't listen. But we did tell them. And we're paying the price for their pig headedness now.