the Austerity Con or Con

[french frank]

Please correct me if am am wrong, but roughly translated..

Powerful bank interests say that giving government subsidies and contracts to big powerful engineering (etc) groups, (financed by powerful banks) is just what banks and big contractors need to get themselves moving.

Is that what slowing down the cuts and investing in infrastructure means?

[teamsaint]

What people say and what they do don't always tally.

Danny Alexander is looking to switch spending into infrastructure, at the expense of other "Lower value spending". I know what I think that means,(moving spending from people to big companies,) but perhaps I am wrong.

Lipton only says " that the UK should consider slowing the pace of cuts", and goes on to say several times that we should spend on infrastructure. Given that it all has to be fiscally neutral, that can only mean spending going towards capital projects, and away from people.
Inverment in infrastucture is great, if properly done, but less use if it is on things like HS2, or at the expense of the daily needs of the poor and vulnerable.

[french frank]

that can only mean spending going towards capital projects, and away from people.
Inverment in infrastucture is great, if properly done, but less use if it is on things like HS2, or at the expense of the daily needs of the poor and vulnerable.

Well, I agree that it does matter what they're investing in, but creating jobs is investing in people and I take the advice to go slow on austerity as referring to the needs of the poor and vulnerable. Ed Balls seems to agree with the message anyway

[teamsaint]

Well, I agree that it does matter what they're investing in, but creating jobs is investing in people and I take the advice to go slow on austerity as referring to the needs of the poor and vulnerable. Ed Balls seems to agree with the message anyway

Well as long as Ed is onside...!

I am afraid I view this as being less benign. I think the advice to go slow on austerity is being us as a mask for switching spending into infrastructure, and away from the direct needs of the vulnerable.
And of course there is plenty of room for divisive argument on these issues.
I would look at what they do, not what they say, and what they are doing is diverting money away from those at the bottom, and into the corporate sector.
I'm afraid labour being in agreement doesn't cheer me up at all, sadly.

[aeolium]

I don't really think the IMF is in a position to lecture others about easing off on austerity, given that it has co-authored a devastating programme of austerity policies in Europe as one of the Troika.

This article seems to be an interesting historical analysis of how we have got to where we are, showing how the IMF inter al were involved in the deregulation of finance which helped to precipitate the 2008 crash. It contrasts the very successful work of the early Common Market and EEC with the damaging pursuit of monetary union. I'm not sure that it is correct in stating that there had been little public protest against the austerity policies which succeeded the crash - the Indignados in Spain, the riots and generals strikes in Greece and elsewhere, the Occupy movement and the complete collapse in some countries of electoral support for governing parties. But the author does seem to be correct in asserting the impotence of the left - in opposition and government at least - to respond to the crisis. The article does not though emphasise the other side of this, that it is the far right that has flourished in almost every part of Europe - Jobbik, Golden Dawn, the True Finns, the Freedom Party in the Netherlands, UKIP here, etc. Perhaps this is another lesson that should have been learnt from the 1930s: not only does austerity not work on its own terms, it creates a political vacuum which extremists from the right are more likely to occupy than those from the left.

[eighthobstruction]

Hmmmm....http://www.cityam.com/article/city-s...t-s-resurgence

This discussion on Tues Newsnight very interesting - Gillian Tett, Robert Reich, Allister Heath.... 21min 30sec in http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...ht_21_05_2013/

[eighthobstruction]

Robert Reich Blog....http://robertreich.org/

[Serial_Apologist]

Robert Reich Blog....http://robertreich.org/

8th

Since first seeing him on The Century of the Self, I've liked him a lot

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

indeed ... what a good discussion .... loved the from obscurity to meaningless without doing anything in between as a description of structural reform

what i take from that excellent link 8o is that wages and employment should be paramount strategic objectives .... not profits and asset prices [which are the gods austerity serves]

[eighthobstruction]

Osbourne said on C4 news last night "we are infastructure projects by cuts in welfare"....he did not mention any other means, just cuts in welfare....

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Larry Elliot in the Graun says we are Lab Rats, actually lab Rats are treated better than we are by Georgie O

[amateur51]

Two other main reasons:

idleness
the belief that the country owes you a living irrespective of what you do to help yourself

Oh dear, he's been been reading Tory central office Press releases again (but not the ones from when Supermac was in charge of the public housing boom in the 1950s ).

Meanwhile, in the real world ...

"Benefit changes, rising private rents, and depleted social housing all force councils to spend billions at Travelodge and Premier Inn in stop-gap measures to help evicted families"

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/travelodge-families-the-new-face-of-the-housing-crisis-8635215.html

And stand by! - even the Daily Mail is pretty het up about this ....

"While the government has placed caps on housing benefit as part of its austerity drive, rents in many cities have continued to rise.

As a result, private landlords are increasingly handing their tenants notice and forcing them into homelessness.

Some of the worst affected areas are London, Cambridge and Oxford where rents have increased noticeably and there is an acute lack of social housing."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz2UhSZIOas

[amateur51]

Larry Elliot in the Graun says we are Lab Rats, actually lab Rats are treated better than we are by Georgie O

Try this link instead ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/may/26/britain-osborne-austerity-programme-experiment?INTCMP=SRCH

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Vienna = Oasis....Discuss

?

I thought it was Ultravox?

[eighthobstruction]

It means nothing to me....