Does Labour never learn?

Thrugelmir

CLAPTON wrote: »

surely you mean 'greater ' and not 'worse'?

So a larger debt to service and eventually start to repay isn't considered to be "worse".

Appears as if we are heading for a Japanese style recovery.

BobQ

Are the current policies working?

Political infighting apart, if they are working we should continue with then as Osborne appears to be intent on doing.

Others (mainly on the right) advocate the only solution is to cut deeper to a degree that might see the the NHS reduced to emergency care alone and welfare largely replaced by charity). Putting aside the fact that those who advocate it will be largely unaffected by the deeper cuts, are they right? Will it cure the problem or just kill the patient?

Those (mainly on the left) advocated some form of controlled borrowing to stimulate the economy. Are they right? Will building infrastructre employ more people and generate more tax revenue?

Is there any difference between Government spending to stimulate the economy and Government spending to underpin the poverty caused by the lack of good employment prospects?

I sometimes wonder if we have the worst of both worlds.

CLAPTON

Thrugelmir wrote: »

So a larger debt to service and eventually start to repay isn't considered to be "worse".

Appears as if we are heading for a Japanese style recovery.

Since all parties agree that borrowing is OK, it is a sensible question to ask whether some more lending would be better or worse for the economy overall

as it is a sensible question to ask if less borrowing would be better or worse for the economy overall

The current government believes it is best to borrow a bit more over the next few years as this will be good for the economy; so I presume they don't think this is 'worse' but rather they think it is 'greater'.

Thrugelmir

BobQ wrote: »

Are the current policies working?

Working yes. As they are broadly a step in the right direction. Are they cutting enough? Probably not.

If everybody worked an extra hour a week that would increase output and therefore growth. At no cost except time.

CLAPTON

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Working yes. As they are broadly a step in the right direction. Are they cutting enough? Probably not.

If everybody worked an extra hour a week that would increase output and therefore growth. At no cost except time.

Maybe we are not short of output but are short of demand.

bigheadxx

What nobody ever mentions is the real drain on todays public finances, which did not exist when Labour was in power. The baby boomers have started to retire, en masse. Tens of billions of pounds we are now borrowing is to pay for state pensions AND public sector pensions for people now retiring.

Labour made no effort to tackle the "pension time bomb" instead it taxed private pension funds, taking money out of todays economy to spend/waste when times were good. In fact Labour took billions of pounds out of today AND tomorrows economy to bolster its growth figures so that it could claim to be "responsible on the economy" It's the most disgraceful government this country has ever had for the simple fact that it lied its way through ten years, bribing us with our own money, destroying industry and bringing us to the brink of bankruptcy.

How Labour ruined the UK.

DervProf

wotsthat wrote: »

We're two years from an election. I'm far more interested in what the government DO rather than what the opposition SAY.

As we get closer to an election, I'm more inclined to ignore what a government do.

CLAPTON

bigheadxx wrote: »

What nobody ever mentions is the real drain on todays public finances, which did not exist when Labour was in power. The baby boomers have started to retire, en masse. Tens of billions of pounds we are now borrowing is to pay for state pensions AND public sector pensions for people now retiring.

Labour made no effort to tackle the "pension time bomb" instead it taxed private pension funds, taking money out of todays economy to spend/waste when times were good. In fact Labour took billions of pounds out of today AND tomorrows economy to bolster its growth figures so that it could claim to be "responsible on the economy" It's the most disgraceful government this country has ever had for the simple fact that it lied its way through ten years, bribing us with our own money, destroying industry and bringing us to the brink of bankruptcy.

How Labour ruined the UK.

Given all that labour waste one assumes it would be trivial to reverse that waste and have a surplus once again.
Simple really

why don't the current lot do that?

bigheadxx

Public sector pay cuts are under way but 13 years of over the top rises cannot be undone in a couple of months. Excess jobs have been cut, but even that has to be staged as the state is a massive part of the economy (which is how Labour fiddled GDP by pumping money into the state). However you have not addressed my key point, a big chunk of the budget deficit is down to baby boomers retiring. Not only are they now drawing their income from the state, they are no longer spending money on consumer goods whereas ten to fifteen years ago they had high disposable income. All boomers are now over 45 and moving out of the peak spending phase of life, drawing more money out of the economy.

This economy can only grow if we borrow more money. This country can only survive of we don't.

PaulF81

guess its time to get into assets then. Anyone with paper cash holdings are screwed.