I argue that many on the political right-wing obsess about interest paid on government debt as if it disappears into some black hole. It doesn’t. It’s just interest paid on savings deposited with the government and there’s been nothing excessive about its overall cost of late.
That’s because real interest rates have been around and about negative for 15 years. And now they’re moving positive which changes that cost calculation…..
We “obsess” eh? But constantly demanding that the world be reordered to make everybody poorer is totally different.
I’m surprised he isn’t arguing that the tax paid on the interest means the whole thing pays for itself.
Soon he’ll be raving about the scandal that some of the interest is paid to foreigners. It’s OK to be xenophobic if you aren’t far right.
I’m rather intrigued by the fascination that the blogs that I visit seem to have with Richard Murphy. What significance does this guy have in reality? Does he have a malign influence over anyone other than a small handful of acolytes? Is it just really difficult to look away when he is being so consistently wrong about quite literally everything all of the time? Given that he seems to be quite obnoxious, poking fun at him seems quite appropriate. Disagreeing with him on your own blog is presumably required due to disagreeing with him not being allowed on his.
@Stonyground
He is the go-to/rentagob “academic economist” often called upon by a lot of journalists, radio programmes and sometimes on the TV. So has a rather impact on the UK public debate than the following of his blog implies – despite even the Corbynistas deeming him not to be a serious economist. (Though they thought he was sound on tax justice…)
To give Murphy credit he says political right-wing not far right. That’s an encouraging sign of intention to distance himself from extremists.