But to move beyond the obvious, the bigger reason for why that has not been noticed to date is that the government fails dismally to account for its actions on a proper basis by producing regular income statements and balance sheets that are reconciled by a cash flow statement. As a result, it has no perception. of the scale of underinvestment that austerity has created. It has simply pretended that this is not an issue.
OK. Let’s have proper government banalce sheets. Including all that future spending on pensions which have not been saved for…..
Including all that future spending on pensions which have not been saved for…..
I thought the Somalis were supposed to pay our pensions.
The dizzlecksick Prof responds, fists a-thumping:
Reply
Richard Murphy says:
September 4 2023 at 1:00 pm
If they atevt9 get the required investment they will bleed to be ntiinakisedu
I imaine they will also use sustainable cost accounting
To summarise, austerity has brought us to our knees.
Given it hasn’t actually been tried then that’s an interesting conclusion. Public expenditure is at an all time record and the national debt continues to spiral ever onward
Government dogma has permitted that.
Paradoxically here he is actually not completely wrong. The belief that Money can simply be created out of thin air and there will be no impact to such process in terms of inflation has been catastrophic. However, he supports the creation of even more fake money.
Government accounting has overlooked and even encouraged the failure.
Apparently GAAP or International accounting standards are not important – the Man in the Semi Detached knows best.
We need massive investment now, or matters will get very much worse.
Never mind the quality, feel the width
This will cut income available for consumption in the short term – and we need to come to terms with that. We have been living way beyond our means.
Again he might have a kernel of truth in his analysis here – but that’s surely an argument for reduction in investment rather than increasing it.
But the funding for this is available. In a country with £15 trillion of financial wealth it is absurd to suggest otherwise.
If you can’t find it we need to expropriate assets until such time as there’s nothing left to take
What we will, however, need is the willingness to turn that wealth to public advantage and if inflation is to be controlled, that will require significant new taxes on wealth. My publication programme on this issue will begin this week.
We can’t say we haven’t been warned
Am I right in thinking that end-terrace houses in Ely somehow won’t count as wealth in his exciting new regime?
Slightly OT.
Mrs Spud is alive and well and living in Germany:
https://x.com/schnellenbachj/status/1698721116380905702?s=61&t=VX5cJ0-osgn_JSz7j-uowQ
So is government spending good or bad? He seems to change his mind from sentence to sentence
New template? Lots of things seem …off…
But for the Great Comptroller,,,,
He forgets that statistics tell us that of all the Original Revolutionaries, the bulk of them ended up under the Axe themselves, in due time.
So …yeah… Let him have it.
Given that common sense has given up… Give him his Moment. Let people experience why we have ..Objections… against Farts like him.
Then Clean up the Mess. And get on with Real Life™ with enough of a stick for the Youngsters to show them what you really , *really*, don’t want to happe in your life.