The headline in yesterday’s Observer was ‘NHS chiefs in standoff with Treasury over emergency £10bn’. Apparently: The row piles pressure on Sunak to find more money for the NHS ahead of his summer statement on Wednesday. The article says that, according to the NHS: “There’s a very, very significant difference between the phrase ‘the NHS… Read more
Category:
Money
The barbarians are not at the gate but actually in charge
European ‘Coronavirus’ emergency funding for the arts (approximate figures from various sources) currently stands at: France £6.5bn, Germany £900m, Italy £221m, Spain £68m, Ireland £18m and the UK – NIL. I’m ready to bet that the UK has the largest performing arts sector of any of these countries – indeed that may well be why… Read more
The debt deception
It was announced on Friday that government debt for the first time since 1963 is greater than GDP. Indeed it might be worse because GDP is currently declining. Really that is all quite remarkable… How fortunate we are that there were people waiting in the wings with the odd billion in their back pockets –… Read more
Victorian values return
Even the Telegraph considers this government less than optimum; “We see only a ship of fools, and a plague ship at that.” Others have suggested that it is a brains trust of the intellectually challenged. Yet Johnson in the Commons, opined that the British taxpayer has the right to expect that we will achieve maximum… Read more
If there is too much debt…
Isn’t there also too much – by definition – too much saving? Which exactly is desirable – or indeed not? I think the government should tell us…… Read more
Sustainable Government Finance is not a cult
In a recent post on the Tax Research blog I quoted Richard Murphy’s* own words because he seemed to be rather distressed that progressive economists didn’t seem to support Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) calling it a cult! Perhaps it is time to notice that ProgressivePulse readers have better christened it ‘Sustainable Government Finance’ (SGF). “And… Read more
The moral science of Economics
I am sometimes on twitter – usually as a viewer rather than contributor – mainly because a year or two after I arrived on it I found myself with access to someone else’s account and tweeting as them as well… I found twitter schizophrenia was not good for the soul and withdrew for another year… Read more
If money is created out of thin air perhaps ‘Silence is Compliance’?
“The only disease right now is the racism that we are fighting.” said England football player Raheem Sterling. He suggests that protesters who took to the streets after the killing of George Floyd are trying to find a solution to injustice. That’s eminently reasonable. But when are we going to get aboard the injustice of… Read more
Attitude changing by issuing a Central Bank Digital Currency
The Bank of England issued a report in March, on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) which would “allow households and businesses to directly make electronic payments using money issued by the Bank of England”. I must admit I pretty much ignored this idea as I thought that it was a bit of a flight of… Read more
Household Economics or professional approval?
Many will know that James Meadway, formerly of the New Economics Foundation, was the economic advisor to John McDonnell, previously shadow chancellor. During his time as advisor there was distinct adversity for people who believed that the government in fact created money. Yet the denial came down broadly to the idea that James Meadway couldn’t… Read more