Bernie Sanders on the US debt debacle.
As the US Congress debates whether to accept a plan to cut $2.8trillion in spending over 10 years, and raise not one cent in taxes on the rich, let’s hear from the one* decent man in the Senate. * this may be a slight exaggeration – Franken’s not bad – but it’s sadly not far [...]
8 things about Britain’s debt
1) How big is it? We have had a higher debt: GDP ratio for 200 out of the last 250 years – historically, our debt is very small compared to the size of our economy (ie how rich we are). We also have one of the lowest debt: GDP ratios in the western world. 2) [...]
Dick of the Year: Alistair Darling
Reading through the nominations on the blog, I’m struck by the rush to slot the political football into an empty goal. Nominating Donald Trump, Nick Clegg or Lord Browne is easy. Their behaviour is so obviously destructive, self-serving and just plain stupid. I always like a more difficult task. I believe it is Alistair Darling [...]
The Green solution to Unemployment, Deficit and Recession
The country is at an economic turning point. Wednesday was the most significant domestic political event of most of our lives. It was the full announcement of a Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR). Unfortunately the CSR is final proof what many of us predicted before the election. That the Conservative party has a profoundly wrong-headed economic [...]
Why not nationalise to cut the deficit?
The national deficit isn’t really a problem. Well, at least, certainly not in the short or medium term. The UK government is borrowing less per unit GDP than most other Western countries. And 80% of this money is borrowed from UK citizens – largely pension funds. This means, in the unlikely event that interest rates [...]
Clueless Cameron u-turns on the economy – again
The Tories have backed off proposals to appeal to the frothy mouthed party loyalists and funders. They’ve decided not to drive the economy back into a recession in the first year of their government. They’re not going to cut public spending. So, Bright Green has its first victory. Or that’s what I’d like to think. [...]
We can’t go on like this. Cut the deficit obsession, not the deficit.
There have been a number of mash ups of the David Cameron “We can’t go on like this” poster. Possibly the most entertaining is this: There has been, however, a concerted campaign by the political right to exploit the current recession for their longer term aims. The Conservative party, backed by the Taxpayers’ Alliance and [...]