On 5 Jul 2017 at 1:41pm Prof Mark Blythe wrote:
Politicians today in both Europe and the United States have succeeded in casting government spending as reckless wastefulness that has made the economy worse.
In contrast, they have advanced a policy of draconian budget cuts—austerity—to solve the financial crisis. We are told that we have all lived beyond our means and now need to tighten our belts. This view conveniently forgets where all that debt came from. Not from an orgy of government spending, but as the direct result of bailing out, recapitalizing, and adding liquidity to the broken banking system. Through these actions private debt was rechristened as government debt while those responsible for generating it walked away scot free, placing the blame on the state, and the burden on the taxpayer.
On 5 Jul 2017 at 4:37pm bobobob wrote:
Austerity is entirely separate to QE and QE didn't cause debt.
Austerity is an ideological approach to government spending and reducing the deficit. How you have a strong economy without a healthy, well educated/trained workforce is beyond me (still waiting for an answer from Conservatives...)
Abridged version is...
In return for banks taking on government bonds (government debt owned by pension funds etc) they were allowed access to increased central reserve funds. So debt remains constant but moves from bonds to central reserves.
This improved the banks liquidity by increasing the proportion of their debt that was 'good'. Not by reducing it and taking it on as taxpayers.
This meant they could continue to function. They did this and most of the benefits of this returned liquidity were kept within those who benefit from the financial sector machinations which is not the general public. That's the problem, it was a very inefficient and unfair way to attempt to prop up the economy.
We're not suddenly massively more in debt, but we did and still are rewarding those who made money from causing the credit crunch and those who don't need help.
On 5 Jul 2017 at 5:13pm Boboknob wrote:
Does anyone actually read these posts???
On 5 Jul 2017 at 6:31pm Bobajob wrote:
I read but fail to understand
On 5 Jul 2017 at 9:08pm Bobogob wrote:
People should learn when to shut it....this tripe can do without...
On 5 Jul 2017 at 9:18pm gobgob wrote:
Take your own advice, Bobgob.
On 5 Jul 2017 at 9:33pm Knobogob wrote:
Shant...so there
On 5 Jul 2017 at 11:33pm wrote:
I’m afraid, for far too many people, this sort of post is firmly in the ‘too hard to understand’ basket, and explanations won’t make a shred of difference.
Labour’s handouts creating the debt that’s landed us in hot water, on the other hand, is quite a simple argument to believe, regardless of what the reality is. Especially when we’ve been told repeatedly how left-of-center is inherently evil. That’s why we’re always going to believe what the Rothermeres and Murdochs tell us.
It’s like the Bible; the concept of evolution is quite hard to follow, when there’s the much easier to understand God Did It alternative.
On 6 Jul 2017 at 1:53am Mr Fandango explains all wrote:
We are living in an capitalist illusion. Money is a made up construct that has no value other than to enable those who sustain the illusion, to enslave those who believe in it's existence.
If a national emergency forced the government to find 10 Trillion overnight, they would find it. Where the money come from would never be revealed. We would be told that we had borrowed it, and that we (meaning the ordinary people) would have to pay it back- with interest - Who it was that we have to pay the debt back to, would be shrouded in secrecy.
MP's would be as much in the dark as the rest of us. They would waffle whatever they were told to waffle. None of them would know where the money came from.
Where does it come from? From the magic money tree of course. It isn't really a tree though, its just a number that exists on a computer screen in the vaults of the bank of England.
Need more? Add a few zero's to the end of the number.
Pay it back? Don't make me laugh. It never existed in the first place.
It's all just a political ploy to make us slaves without stirring us up into a revolution.
On 6 Jul 2017 at 5:49am Hoboknob wrote:
Crunchy
On 6 Jul 2017 at 11:55am bobobob wrote:
Hi bobonob etc,
You're not forced to read it. It's possible to find anything you want on the internet yet here you are.
If the first post had been simple my response would have been simple.
Enjoy your day searching online for things you don't enjoy, sounds fabulous!
On 6 Jul 2017 at 12:04pm Knobogobobobobog wrote:
Hahaha....
On 6 Jul 2017 at 7:09pm Clifford wrote:
What I always enjoy is the right-wing story - often on here - that 'austerity' was necessary to clear the deficit 'left by Labour', while at the same time they say there haven't really been spending cuts.