Back in the day...

[Filo]

What got us into this mess in the first place.
Gordon Brown with an Unlimited overdraft facility which he decided to use without any thought to the Consequences.
Also greedy Bankers who were seemingly out of control and nobody did anything about it until it was too late.
Yes austerity has not been a success because far too many of those on lower income levels have suffered the worst.
Minimum wage should be £10 an hour imo and zero hour contracts should be outlawed.  45% tax rate on £70,000 income band & 50% on
£100.000 & over.  That would raise considerable revenue
The alternative of a Labour Government is unknown of course but based on Corbyn’s rhetoric we will probably be bankrupt within 3/4 years.
The uk is like any PLC if you continually spend more than you produce then the eventual consequence is disastrous.
Just look at Greece as an example.

Your first sentence is totally wrong, what Brown did was copied by every major economy around the world, to prevent a global banking crash on a scale the world has never seen before

[BillyStubbsTears]

Campsall

Countries are not like companies. That sounds like sensible logic but it is utterly incorrect.

Greece got into trouble because it had high debts and it didn't have its own currency. That is not the case for most other countries, UK included. Our debt levels are far from ideal, but they are a much lower scale of problem than the pitiful levels of growth we've seen for the past decade, and are projected to get for the next decade. 

This is difficult stuff. The reality goes against what commonsense tells you.  And what you've written is wrong on pretty much every point.

[Glyn_Wigley]

What got us into this mess in the first place.
Gordon Brown with an Unlimited overdraft facility which he decided to use without any thought to the Consequences.
Also greedy Bankers who were seemingly out of control and nobody did anything about it until it was too late.
Yes austerity has not been a success because far too many of those on lower income levels have suffered the worst.
Minimum wage should be £10 an hour imo and zero hour contracts should be outlawed.  45% tax rate on £70,000 income band & 50% on
£100.000 & over.  That would raise considerable revenue
The alternative of a Labour Government is unknown of course but based on Corbyn’s rhetoric we will probably be bankrupt within 3/4 years.
The uk is like any PLC if you continually spend more than you produce then the eventual consequence is disastrous.
Just look at Greece as an example.

Your first sentence is totally wrong, what Brown did was copied by every major economy around the world, to prevent a global banking crash on a scale the world has never seen before

Is this the same Gordon Brown who used his 'unlimited overdraft facility' to be the first Chancellor in a generation to reduce the National Debt?

And the 'no thought for the consequences' jibe is something only an non-economist could come out with. I knew exactly what he was doing, and if I knew I'm damned sure he did.

As for the comparison to a plc, every company has to borrow to invest in order to make profits and grow. But for some reason the people who try to compare the country to a business don't seem to think that that principle applies to the country as well as a business.

[RedJ]

It's the dumbing down of economics that has led to the last eight years of kicking the f**k out of the economy for ideological reasons.

[idler]

The first course for a politician of any persuasion ought to be the good of the country. Following party lines to the detriment of your country and constituents is selfish and outdated or should be.
We should all be pulling together to get back on an even keel.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Like I say, economic policy is tough to understand but this man makes it clearer than most.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/opinion/the-perversion-of-fiscal-policy-slightly-wonkish.html#click=https://t.co/tiMWEuKJm5

The graph is very simple to follow.

Standard economics says that Govt should spend when there's a recession and unemployment is high, then cut back when the economy gets going and unemployment comes down. In other words, the line on the graph should go from bottom left to top right.

That is what every Govt on both sides of the Atlantic did from the 1930s to 2010. Then the Republicans in the USA bucked the trend and left the US economy stagnant for years. As you can see from the orange line. We did it even worse with even worse results.

You might want to ask why right wingers have been doing this for the last decade. And why we've all suffered as a result. Trump and Brexit are direct consequences of this, because folk have understandably lashed out.

[Bentley Bullet]

Folk didn't lash out enough to vote the Tories out in the election though.

[drfchound]

Folk didn't lash out enough to vote the Tories out in the election though.

Probably because of the Labour leadership.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Folk didn't lash out enough to vote the Tories out in the election though.

Well actually, they did.

[Not Now Kato]

Folk didn't lash out enough to vote the Tories out in the election though.

Well actually, they did.

Just not enough of them.

[drfchound]

Folk didn't lash out enough to vote the Tories out in the election though.

Well actually, they did.

Just not enough of them.

…..otherwise they wouldn't be in power.