FionaK |
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| OT http://mainlymacro.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/...profligacy.htmlSimon Wren Lewis is doing a series of blogs about the economic myths being hyped by the media, and I think it is worth reading. I link this one because I have often seen people talking about Gordon Brown's wrecking of the economy while in office as Chancellor and as PM. I hold no brief for Mr Brown, and I do not agree with the economic position which underpinned his decisions. But it is important to understand what he actually did, and why he did it. Mr Brown believed the mainstream economic theory which holds universal sway in political and policy circles throughout the western world. He acted on those beliefs, and in their terms he did reasonably well. The problem is that those beliefs are flat out wrong, but that does not alter the fact that all the political parties within the UK at that time accepted them. The tories wanted a more extreme version, and that is what they are now pursuing (mitigated by reality, certainly, but to a very small extent and without any thought they might challenge the theory itself). Osborne is worse than Brown because he is not as clever as Brown. Brown did what he did on the basis of theory: Osborne has no idea about theory, so far as I can see: he is doing it on the basis of class interest alone. The upshot is the same, though rather worse when Osborne gets his way, because he has no understanding and therefore has not even the possibility of changing his mind when the facts change. |
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