I was surprised to see Novara Media publish an interview with Stephanie Kelton on modern monetary theory as historically they have been very resistant to it, being influenced (I think) by James Meadway, who was the very poor economic adviser to John McDonnell, who amongst other things claimed that the left could have no interest in MMT as there was no theory of class implicit within it.
Back when Jezza was all for the Magic Money Tree and Spud was his prophet. McDonnell then said that while the potato knew about tax he was ignorant upon economics. So, that killed off that.
Well, except for the other bit. Which is that the proposal was for Spud to gain a peerage and then his £30k a year attendance allowance would enable him to be an economic guru for Labour. Bit like Glasman was supposed to be when Mad Ed elevated him. Spud held out for a proper salary as well as vermine and so didn’t get either.
How lovely it is to see the old snits back again.
Huh, my previous comment didn’t show up.
McDonnell then said that while the potato knew about tax he was ignorant upon economics.
Murphy is ignorant about tax, too.
I never tire of hearing the story of how he could have had vermine and threw it away by being, well, himself. It’s a heartwarming classic.
I imagine Murphy tossed off furiously today hearing how employer’s national insurance will rise by 2% but the public sector will be funded to compensate so the rise falls entirely on the private sector. This just after capitulation to high public sector pay increase demands, with more to come.
CVNT
Well Timmy you are ignorant about tax and economics. So what’s the difference?
I was reading a Civil Service job advert earlier today which boasts about 29% employer pension contributions with just 4% employee contributions. It has a projection “£22,000 pa salary for 40 years, retire on £20,000 pa pension”. There’s a pot for Reeves to dip into.
Meadway is also a prat but he is far, far more amenable than Murphy. And MMT is frankly, at best a gross over simplification and at worst complete and dangerous nonsense. Neither Kelton nor Keen convince me especially and Murphy claiming the ‘argument is settled’ is risible.
Except their is no “pot”. It’s paid out of current taxation at the time it is due, which it’s why we talk about the unfunded liabilities of public pensions, which is in the trillions.
On top of their unfunded pensions, another little perk i’ve just found out about is the ‘Blue Light Card’.
NHS staff, Teachers, Police, Firefighters, RNLI and others get 10% off at thousands of outlets – Morrisons, Microsoft, airline flights…..Costs them £4.99 for two years worth of discounts:
https://www.thetimes.com/money-mentor/career/nhs-blue-light-card-discounts-full-list#Is-a-Blue-Light-Card-worth-it?
Question – who pays for this?
If Morrison’s are giving 10% off, they must be selling at a loss.
My wife was moved from the civil service Premium pension (PCSPS) to the Alpha pension.
The idea was to save money due to it being career average rather than final salary based.
Being the establishment, they’ve right royally fucked it up, because while the old PCSPS only started to be inflation linked when it paid out (i.e. when the recipient retired), the replacement adds an inflation linked uplift each year.
Doesn’t take a genius to see that over the last 4 years of high inflation what this means for future pension liabilities.
Total fuckwits the lot of them!