The debate is continuing on the purpose of government borrowing and the role of ‘balanced budgets’ – which was started by John McDonnell’s position of balancing the budget on current expenditure but borrowing for investment. This is not surprising given that economic policy has to be the core of the programme for a Labour government. […]
Posts Tagged ‘Investment’
The politics of Tory pledge-breaking
Jun 26th, 2015 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Political gravity is starting to assert itself on the Tories’ ridiculous manifesto. You will recall that this gang of scaremongerers, who spent the entire election trading on economic competence, getting the deficit and public sector debt down, and “strong leadership” promised £28bn in unfunded spending commitments – presumably with the view that they’d never get chance […]
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Tory own goal on debt and the deficit pledges
Jan 23rd, 2015 by Michael Burke.The Tory Party has decided to make public finances a key battleground for the election. Key supporters of austerity such as the FT’s economics editor Chris Giles have echoed that, arguing that the “defining battle of the 2015 general election [is] over borrowing and public spending“. It is only possible to stake out political ground on […]
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The economy should be Labour’s turf, not the Tories’
Jan 21st, 2015 by Michael Meacher.It is astonishing that the Tories have opted to fight the coming election on their economic record (maybe because fighting on any other issue would be even worse?) – and equally astonishing that Labour has made such a poor fist of retaliation. The simple truth is, there is nothing at all about the Tory economic […]
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Pain, no gain: the Austerity scam
Dec 3rd, 2014 by Jon Lansman.To coincide with the Autumn Statement, PRIME Economics has published an excellent short pamphlet Pain, No Gain: the Austerity Scam by John Weeks (Emeritus Professor of Economics, SOAS, University of London) which explains just why the deficit is not a problem – indeed is a necessary part of the solution – for the UK economy. In examining the […]
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What do Britain’s private sector firms contribute?
Nov 23rd, 2014 by Michael Burke.The main factors that account for economic growth are increases in the workforce or in the amount of productive capital in the economy. A far smaller contribution is made by improvement in productivity as a result of innovation. Since mid-2009 the British economy has grown. But this is wholly accounted for by growth in the […]
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Strip the private banks of the power of money creation
Nov 23rd, 2014 by Michael Meacher.The House of Commons held a very important debate this last week on the creation of money, a process which the Big 4 banks have monopolised and thus privatised the money supply. The abuse of this power over the last 3 decades has been enormous, and I used this debate to propose an entirely […]
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There is a magic money tree. It’s called investment
Oct 8th, 2014 by Michael Burke.Supporters of austerity have long argued that there is no viable alternative because of persistent government deficits and rising debt. David Cameron put it starkly arguing that “there is no magic money tree“. However these assertions contain two important fallacies. Firstly, it is evident that, if government is increasingly indebted it must be the case […]
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Fall in construction output shows Osborne “recovery” has lost momentum
Jul 15th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.The latest economic figures revealing a shock fall in construction output of more than 1% between April and May this year are alarming, but might be brushed off as an isolated quirk if all the other evidence pointed the other way. But it doesn’t. The construction slowdown is matched by an unexpected slump in factory […]
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94 reasons why French trade unions have boycotted Hollande’s job summit
Jul 10th, 2014 by Tom Gill.François Hollande’s jobs summit is becoming a farce. Unemployment in France has risen to a new high of 3.4 million. The socialist President is desperate to be seen to be doing something about it. But Monday yet another union walked out of the two day ‘social summit’, an unprecedented desertion by organised labour for any administration in Paris, let […]
