After fourteen months offline this Blog is now again active. During the past year I have completely revised my presentation of the facts about the economy, been cured of prostate cancer and moved to temporary accommodation as I buy a much smaller London flat.
The passage of another year has made it clear that the underlying economic crisis is essentially and fundamentally political. From 1980 to 2008 British politicians welcomed - indeed, gloated about - the casino banking that seemed to be carrying the economy forward as the ongoing destruction of industry was accompanied by sales to aliens of the most valuable intellectual property assets in the country. Taxes on banks and their staff flowed into the Exchequer along with the one-off proceeds of privatisation and North Sea oil revenues - and quickly went out into the growing flood of 'benefits', to remunerating NHS managers and allowing schools to attract the designation 'failing' alongside the contemptuous description as 'sinks'. The Thatcher governments fostered the first generation of a new wave of 'hereditary paupers': a species that had been eradicated in the eighteen-thirties. New labour followed through, expanding the budget and wantonly miscalling massive flows of current spending as 'investment'. The 2010 coalition talk about draconian 'cuts' that shake out as minor reductions in the rate of increase of government spending and of the national debt. They and their advisers are still in cloud-cuckoo land.
In the coming days, the facts and arguments underlying these assertions will be presented, in the context of contemporary events.
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