The austerity debate has become as silly as it is stale
A blot on Britain’s jubilee
By Steven Pearlstein, WashPost, Saturday, June 2, 1:56 PM
London
When it comes to pomp and ceremony, nobody does it better than the British, and this weekend they’ll be wallowing in it as Queen Elizabeth marks her 60th year on the throne with concerts, parades and a royal flotilla down the Thames.
But the ghost that hangs over the British economy these days is not that of the queen but of her least favorite prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, whose stubborn refusal to budge from her program of fiscal austerity in the face of a deepening recession 30 years ago still animates the policies of her Tory successors.
“The lady’s not for turning,” Thatcher famously declared to the Tory faithful in response to calls for a “U-turn” of her plans for budget cutting and privatization. Now, as the British economy, along with the rest of Europe, slides back into recession and financial crisis, Prime Minister David Cameron is determined to appear equally steadfast in his determination to reduce the deficit and pare back a government that had swelled to 50 percent of gross domestic product under 17 years of Labor rule.
In economic terms, the austerity debate here, as in the United States, has become as silly as it is stale.
(More here.)
London
When it comes to pomp and ceremony, nobody does it better than the British, and this weekend they’ll be wallowing in it as Queen Elizabeth marks her 60th year on the throne with concerts, parades and a royal flotilla down the Thames.
But the ghost that hangs over the British economy these days is not that of the queen but of her least favorite prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, whose stubborn refusal to budge from her program of fiscal austerity in the face of a deepening recession 30 years ago still animates the policies of her Tory successors.
“The lady’s not for turning,” Thatcher famously declared to the Tory faithful in response to calls for a “U-turn” of her plans for budget cutting and privatization. Now, as the British economy, along with the rest of Europe, slides back into recession and financial crisis, Prime Minister David Cameron is determined to appear equally steadfast in his determination to reduce the deficit and pare back a government that had swelled to 50 percent of gross domestic product under 17 years of Labor rule.
In economic terms, the austerity debate here, as in the United States, has become as silly as it is stale.
(More here.)
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