Posts under ‘Macroeconomics’

The IFS: viewing the economy through wrong end of a telescope

by Ann Pettifor.

Government debt should not be measured in pounds; it should be measured in GDPs. When GDP is high, so are tax revenues, and so is the ability of the government to repay. – Prof. Roger Farmer, NIESR, November, 2016, Three Facts about Debt and Deficits Today the Institute for Fiscal Studies produced a review of political […]

Tories want to drive living standards lower. Corbyn wants to end austerity

by Tom O Leary.

This article first appeared on Socialist Economic Bulletin. During the current crisis the UK has experienced the longest-ever recorded fall in living standards. The biggest part of that fall is not the cuts to government spending, even though these have had severe effects. Instead the largest factor contributing to the fall in living standards is the […]

Britain isn’t booming – it’s in a crisis

by Tom O Leary.

The latest UK GDP data confirm that the British economy remains in a crisis. As government spokespersons never tire of telling us the opposite, and are dutifully echoed by the majority of the media, then it is important to set out the factual case on the economy and to explain where the discrepancy between rhetoric […]

Hammond’s National Insurance Nightmare

by Phil Burton-Cartledge.

George Osborne may have been the worst chancellor of modern times, but he understood one thing. Subordinating the national interest, i.e. those of British business-in-general to the narrow concerns of the Conservative Party, allowed for good press and the accumulation of political capital. It didn’t matter if these actions weakened the economy or made life worse […]

A Left Economic Strategy for Labour – putting meat on the bones

by John Penney and Danny Nicol.

Left Futures recently published an article of mine, Labour needs to rediscover comprehensive economic planning, in which I argued that Labour, and the radical Left generally, needed to rediscover the centrality of the need for a comprehensive Left Economic Programme both as a core policy offer for Labour, and as a guide and implementation tool […]

Why Theresa May is lying to you 

by Luke Davies.

In her party conference speech Theresa May promised to transform the Conservatives into the ‘party of the workers, the party of public servants, the party of the NHS’. She declared: ‘it’s time to remember the good that government can do’. Journalists on both right and left have been queuing up to announce a new era in […]

We need a new agenda for a better and more constructive Europe

by Bryan Gould.

For over 45 years, and based on my early involvement with the issue in the Foreign Office, I have contested the issue of Britain’s membership of what was the Common Market and then grew into the EU, and I have always been on the losing side.  It could be argued that my own political career, […]

Why I shall vote to remain in the EU

by Ann Pettifor.

Back in 1975 I did not just oppose membership of the EU, I actively campaigned against it. In the 1990s I strongly opposed Britain’s membership of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). My opposition to the Labour leadership’s support for ERM helped ensure that I did not get chosen as Parliamentary candidate at the time. I […]

Rotten Tory ideology is laid bare by crisis in steel

by Michael Burke.

In order to defeat Osbornomics it is necessary to understand it. A central tenet is that the private sector is the key to prosperity and that therefore everything possible should be done to promote and encourage it. The state should shrink in order to release the inherent dynamism of the private sector. The argument runs […]

Mr Osborne’s untruth: the chart that shames the Treasury

by Jeremy Smith.

There was much to disagree with in George Osborne’s Budget announced on Wednesday, in particular the increasingly foolish and damaging target to achieve an overall budget surplus of over £10 billion in 2019/20 and 2020/21 via further spending cuts.  But one specific claim made by the Chancellor in his speech to the House of Commons […]

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