The best economics on the web this morning is on the TUC’s blog

Posted on October 11 2012

For those who want to know why the economy is in a mess, and how Osborne got it all wrong there are two outstanding articles to read this morning.

The first is by Duncan Weldon. It's entitled 'Fiscal Multipliers, the IMF & the OBR' - and yes, Duncan can do geek - because all good economists can - but this is actually highly accessible and shows why the IMF, Osborne and all the austerians got their assumptions so wrong.

The other is by Owen Tudor., and it's entitled Keynes was right, IMF admits. And the deficit fetishists are wrong.

I warmly recommend both.

And yes, they are both TUC colleagues. And yes,  I'm proud of that - and the fact we did get this right all along. Austerity does not work.

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4 Responses

  1. JJ says:
    October 11 2012 at 10:07 am

    On the second article — it’s wrong in two places. Firstly, deficit spending can be justified even if the multiplier is less than 1; so long as it’s greater than 0, deficit spending will help the economy to grow. Secondly, a multiplier of greater than 1 is insufficient for increasing spending to be the best way to close the deficit; whether that is the case or not depends on tax rates and where the increase in GDP occurs.

  2. David Kirkham says:
    October 11 2012 at 2:13 pm

    Just saw this article by Ian Mulheirn at SocialMarket Foundation, tweeted via Faisal Islam, CH4 News.

    “Growth and the IMF: Has the cat got the coalition’s tongue?

    We’ve all learnt much over the past two years as the effects of policy actions have become clearer. But the Coalition’s arguments are still very similar to the ones made back in June 2010. In answering my questions on Tuesday, maybe our ministers would have been better off drawing cats on a piece of paper…” (read the article then you’ll get what he means :)…)

    http://www.smf.co.uk/marketsquare/posts-by-ian-mulheirn/growth-and-the-imf-has-the-cat-got-the-coalitions-tongue/

  3. Friday’s Article « iwastoldtheredbegin says:
    October 12 2012 at 5:52 pm

    […] Tax Research Uk – The Best Economics on the web […]