summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
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Chewbacca
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Not a racist though
summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
A metaphor for Brexit negotiations.
I for one am glad we never had to experience that "coalition of chaos" the Tories warned us about.
It wasn't a general election though, it was a referendum on a subject. I wasn't voting for the people on either side. I was voting on the question which I was asked to vote on.
These are lifelong labour voters, especially round my way, an area decimated by Thatcher in the 80s. People who have just as much reason to hate the Tories as people from Liverpool, for example, if not moreso.
After they left, where did the tolerant go to?
I Miss Chang
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I am not sure you understand how monetary policy works. Contrary to popular belief, money is not ultimately a discreet physical object, like Pound notes. Every time banks lend money, they are essentially inventing new money which did not exist before (though of course they also simultaneously create a liability). Still, IIRC in the UK banks are only required to hold 3% of their liabilities at any given time.
All of which is to say that, as I noted before, it is a fallacy to regard household debt as akin to national debt, provided that a country's debt is denominated in its own currency. In other words, if the United States owes money denominated in US dollars, it is not remotely a problem in the same way that it is for Argentina, which owes debt in American dollars but which can create only Pesos. Britain, having wisely swerved the Euro, is particularly well equipped to borrow during times of global uncertainty, because UK gilts are still regarded as a safe asset - in fact, demand for British bonds has soared just in the past few days, ironically because of the renewed chaos provoked by Brexit.
This is why a debt/gdp ratio of 70% is actually fairly conservative for a country with a respectable currency. Japan, for instance, has a debt/gdp ratio of well over 200%, and has maintained this with no seriously ill effects for decades (to be clear, there are many problems with Japan's economy, but debt/gdp ratio is not one of them). The United States has a debt/gdp ratio about 50% higher than Britain's - and not coincidentally, its economy is growing far more quickly than ours (of course in America, a far more institutionally corrupt state than even Britain, the problem is that the overwhelming share of the gains are accrued by fewer than 100,000 people in a country of 300+ million). Anyhow, there is a well-established correlation between government surplus and private debt, and vice versa, which is why pursuing a surplus during austerity is so, so idiotic - and also why Osborne could never meet his own deficit reduction targets; his approach ensured that the stagnation in growth prompted by the cuts always outpaced the theoretical deficit reductions. Now, to be sure, I am not convinced by MMT, but it is nonetheless still abundantly clear that Britain could have effortlessly shouldered a far greater debt load - interest rates have been more or less at par with inflation FFS - and used the funding to stimulate growth in its many ailing communities. Or, if we were going to be exceedingly hawkish about the deficit, we also could have made companies like Starbucks or Amazon actually pay taxes, in the process doing small businesses on local high streets an enormous favour.
I don't know what your textbooks have told you, but I (for what that's worth...) have never held that there is a necessary correlation between unemployment and austerity. Countries which are generally hostile to labour rights and protections, like the UK or US, have maintained reasonable employment rates during the recession, though as I noted in the post you quoted, this has come at a terrible cost to workers - which explains why the Phillips Curve is no longer so certain. On the other hand, countries which have traditionally sought to protect workers, like France, have witnessed higher rates of unemployment after the crash. Is it better to be employed and utterly miserable, earning in effect less than minimum wage for Uber or Deliveroo in Britain? Or to be unemployed but much better protected from homeless and hunger, like in France? I suppose it depends on the individual, but I'm sure we can both agree that neither is ideal.
You asked me to explain why austerity during a recession is a bad idea. I don't know how to explain it more clearly than in the post you've just quoted.
I asked you to explain why austerity during a recession is a good idea, and I am still waiting for a coherent answer.
Beyond all that, it is worth noting that a new generation of economists is emerging, one which is deeply disillusioned with the nonsense that is Econ orthodoxy. If you're curious, James Kwak's attempt at a reality-based textbook (as opposed to 200 years of hilariously implausible David Ricardo graphs) would be a good place to start.
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Right, but they could still be socially conservative. I'm seeing it as pretty common amongst older labour voters.
Okay, that's a fair - and valid point. But it doesn't make them bad people or wrong. Maybe just they need to be 'educated' in a less patronising way. But them being called idiots or 'old codgers' isn't gonna help that.
The problem with Labour is they don't seem to see that. And then you get people like that div from Reverend & The Makers saying it's all black and white and anyone who voted Brexit is a 'posh p***'.
This is my problem. And I appreciate that's not your attitude.
The binman chronicles
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They've all become independents now.
When I can't get to sleep, I put on a CD of Bill Cash talking about something he's apparently passionate about.
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