Comments on: Economic illiteracy – their economics teachers must be weeping in shame

By: Ralph Musgrave

Ralph Musgrave — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:37:13 +0000

I agree with Owen. Unfortunately the present government’s efforts, although somewhat better than Tory proposals, arent vastly better. The present government’s policy to date has consisted of borrowing vast sums (which crowds out private sector spending and investment) and pumping the money into banks, which in turn sit on it. Would I be right in thinking the net effect is a net increase in saving: exactly what Keynes said a country should NOT do in a recession?

If only we’d had Laurel for Prime Minister, Hardy as leader of the opposition and Charlie Chaplain as Governor of the Bank of England, we’d have been better off.

By: Robert Day

Robert Day — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:37:46 +0000

At the risk of being thought to be banging on with one argument, once again we see that the Tories either don’t realise that the UK is a low wage economy or they don’t care. The argument that savers are penalised by low interest rates can be addressed by making sure that pensioners don’t have to rely on savings to have a healthy, safe and comfortable life.

Monetarist policy always prioritises the needs of capital, and is happy to use any argument in support of that. They accuse us of having one-sided arguments whilst conveniently forgetting that their arguments are just as one-sided.

By: Owen Tudor

Owen Tudor — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:58:21 +0000

I should of course have referenced the TUC’s official response, which is at http://www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-15797-f0.cfm.

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:06:43 +0000

You said it all,Owen. But the Tory proposal got a very positive headline in The Daily Mail this morning. Job done from Cameron’s point of view!