Are the eternal optimists on here still feeling optimistic?

Masomnia

I'd love to see a graph of the debt like that plotted against GDP.

Things are very different now. The state is much larger, we no longer have the world's reserve currency. It was easy to cut spending after the war because most of it was spent on the military which could be cut away no problem once the war was over. We don't have that luxury now when the living standards of so many are dependent on government spending.

Thrugelmir

MFW_ASAP wrote: »

All I've known since is falling rates.

Some of us have different experiences. The month after I completed on my first property rates rose 1% from 10% to 11%, and the month after, and the month after, and the month after. To end up at 14%. So for a few months our budget went out of the window.

What we did have back them was sizable pay increases. Covering inflation with a little more on top. So debt was rapidly deflated away. A different scenario to the one that is faced today.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Masomnia wrote: »

I'd love to see a graph of the debt like that plotted against GDP.

Well as that graph is debt as a % of GDP you can visualise it yourself easily enough.

But here's GDP....



And here's debt over a similar time frame...

Things are very different now.

I don't think they are....

Cyberman60

shortchanged wrote: »

Was the UK the only country affected by the financial crisis?

Did/do any other countries run a deficit?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_government_budgets_by_country

We were running a deficit in boom years as Labour were bribing voters with money that would have been better saved. In boom years a government should run a surplus as a contingency for the next recession. Labour failed to do this as Gordon Brown in his own words had cured 'boom and bust' :rotfl:and vastly overspent in 2009 by 160 Billion pounds.

Trying to justify a deficit by saying that other countries had one is clearly ridiculous.

Thrugelmir

shortchanged wrote: »

Was the UK the only country affected by the financial crisis?

Did/do any other countries run a deficit?

The UK's large budget deficit was due to decisions made years prior. Brown got his forecasts wrong. Totally misread the boom the in financial services and therefore over to committed public expenditure. Took years to get there, take years to unwind. Blair is on record as being in disagreement with Brown in 1995 regarding the increase in the welfare state spending.

shortchanged_2

So America the ultimate capitalist society with it's very unequal society still runs a deficit. So where does all their money go.......apart from military expenditure?

Thrugelmir

shortchanged wrote: »

So America the ultimate capitalist society with it's very unequal society still runs a deficit. So where does all their money go.......apart from military expenditure?

The UK is equally unequal with an increasing divide.

shortchanged_2

Thrugelmir wrote: »

The UK is equally unequal with an increasing divide.

Maybe but at least we have healthcare free at the point of delivery and a welfare system for those in need. However I also accept that these are far too open to abuse in the UK and there is great difficulty in sorting out the genuine cases from the wasters.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Thrugelmir wrote: »

The UK is equally unequal with an increasing divide.

That it is.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

For those still thinking about Tory/Labour deficits.



They've been pretty much equal in modern times.

The global financial crisis being the real issue.