Tuesday 22 September 2009

Will Hutton on our immediate economic future

Some will say Hutton is a proper authority on economic matters, others will say he knows f-all. I think he and i broadly agree, so he must be a pretty clever lad.
His analysis of the current economic situation, and his ideas for the future, are top.


He stresses how important it is that we have stability and infrastructure, which includes a realistic and stable approach to Britain's national debt. While there are those crying out for a good bit of slash and burn, Hutton argues this would be counter productive. For a bloke of his standing to claim our current debt is affordable should make people stand up and listen. I think it's affordable, so having his agreement enhances that. I know he's a bit of a lefty, but bias exists.
He says that free markets got us into this mess, and they aren't going to get us out of it. Agreed. "Too much entrepreneurship in Britain comes from the same school as the four MG Rover directors, who directed tens of millions into their own pockets, or those traders earning absurd bonuses for being micro-seconds ahead in some socially useless trading."

He claims we need to invest. Agreed. "we need a world class-infrastructure – from a high-speed rail network to great schools and universities. Then there should be a discussion about better enabling and equipping ordinary people to build their careers and lives and how better to manage risk by offering a new deal on insuring their incomes, their mortgages and offering new resources for training over their working lives."

"All this costs money, but fortunately Britain can sell its debt easily. We should be measured about cutting the deficit, certainly no faster or sooner than Darling plans. Nothing should stand in the way of a determined effort to build a high-innovation, high-skill economy. Investors will find this more reassuring than the self-harm of swingeing budget cuts and will care no more about whether the national debt is 100, 80 or 60% of GDP than our forebears did when they used it to build British industrial and military pre-eminence. David Cameron please take note."

While he does get a bit political for an economist, there exists such a difference betweent Labour and the Tories that it's difficult not to when either side is attaching such policies to itself.
As always, left is best. Labour right, Tories wrong

No comments: