As the FT notes this morning:
Mr Osborne's austerity programme, which now extends until 2018, has put him in the front line of a global economic debate: does austerity work?
I think there's a one word answer to that.
No.
The answer doesn't even need elaboration any more.
Now, shall we move on?
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It works well as an excuse for saying we can’t afford to maintain the assets we have (welfare state, NHS) so they have to be sold off to private interests. From the point of view of those interests, austerity does its job well.
Agreed Bill .. and as an inducement for EZ countries to give up their sovereignty to achieve fiscal (and political) integration in a Federal State of Europe.
http://think-left.org/2013/03/20/is-george-osbourne-failing-or-succeeding-brilliantly/
And to con naive voters into believing that running a country’s finances somehow resembles managing a household budget or a corner shop, and so see the role of Chancellor as being some kind of ultra-prudent, financial Mrs. Beeton, (or do I mean Mrs. Thatcher?).
And also, (if we really must have naive domestic analogies), to sidestep the bleedin’ obvious: that if you’re broke and under- or unemployed, and you’re offered a job, but don’t have a suit or a car, you don’t say you can’t take the job until you’re out of the debt that you actually have no income to clear, (or until after you’ve sold your shirt and your bicycle). You borrow some money to buy the suit or car, so that you can work your way out of your debt and pay for the suit or car.
And they call it a ‘global economic debate’? Duuhhh.