What British 'austerity' would look like if we were in the eurozone
One thing that constantly amazes me reading the often self contradictory drivel which is written about the economic crisis is the way many commentators seem to apply one set of rules to the Eurozone...
View ArticleEngland is drifting towards grave civil unrest
Were it not for smartphones, England would be close to a state of civil disorder. It is a kingdom divided against itself, but it has so far lacked a single point of controversy around which public...
View ArticleDebunking austerity claims makes no difference to Europe's monks and zealots
Yet another pillar of the austerity edifice has crumbled. As many readers will have seen, fresh research has refuted the famous Reinhart-Rogoff paper showing a cliff-edge fall in growth to minus 0.1pc...
View ArticleFiscal pump-priming averts UK triple-dip
Lest anybody draw the idiotic conclusion that Britain's 0.3pc rebound in the first quarter validates "naked" austerity, three quick points. 1) There has not been much austerity in Britain, whatever the...
View ArticleCriticise it all you want, Germany is not going to drop austerity
Fuelled by an intensified wider debate about the merits or otherwise of austerity as a remedy to economic problems, the last few weeks have seen politicians, commentators and economists coming out in...
View ArticleCan public sector austerity coincide with private sector austerity?
Martin Wolf of the FT has made popular a certain slightly technical way of thinking about the interaction of private and public sector austerity, to the effect that it is all but impossible for the...
View ArticleFurther remarks on private vs public sector austerity and accounting identities
My post yesterday on whether national accounting identities imply that it is impossible for households to repay mortgages at the same time as the government reduces the deficit seems to have got some...
View ArticleThe Spanish perspective
Here is my answer to those many critics on this comment thread convinced that my view of Europe's EMU catastrophe is somehow an Anglo-Saxon or Little Englander or – for that matter – a Right-wing...
View ArticleHere’s the really worrying news for Portugal: the distance to Germany is...
So here we go again. Portugal’s coalition government is basically falling apart as we speak. Paulo Portas, leader of the junior coalition partner, the People’s Party, has resigned, with more of his...
View ArticleOh God – I cannot take any more of the austerity debate
I don't know about you, but I'm bored stiff by the austerity versus growth debate, so let this be my final word on the subject – until I'm forced to write about it again of course. Simon Wren-Lewis,...
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