The Lemon Fool

You cannot spend your way out of a financial crisis

Britain’s economy is being kept afloat by an “unsustainable” spending binge last seen just before the crash, the Treasury watchdog has warned.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 19351.html

What's left in the locker - negative interest rates for all? Print a load more money?

Nemo wrote:You cannot spend your way out of a financial crisis

Britain’s economy is being kept afloat by an “unsustainable” spending binge last seen just before the crash, the Treasury watchdog has warned.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 19351.html

What's left in the locker - negative interest rates for all? Print a load more money?

Who actually speaks for the OBR? Is it Charles Bean (in the Inde [surprised it's still going]), or is it Robert Chote (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/201 ... year-last/). Because Bean says we are borrowing beyond our means (he should know, given his record at the BoE), while Chote says we have never had it so good.

Perhaps it should be remembered that Bean got his post referendum / impact of Brexit predictions disastrously wrong (https://www.ft.com/content/47b1b358-204 ... 1e01fabc0c). If I had been in his shoes, I would not have been able to live with the shame and I would have slunk away quietly. But some of these 'experts in macroeconomic forecasting' don't have any shame.

Perhaps it should be remembered that Bean got his post referendum / impact of Brexit predictions disastrously wrong

Most people got this wrong

As someone with academic background in economics (one time lecturer) I appreciate that it is more of an art than a science, and that reality has finally dawned on the BofE:

We are unlikely to spot next financial crisis, Bank of England official says

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... of-england

Anyone under 40 has never known anything other than cheap money and borrow/spend in ways that would have been unthinkable 20 years ago. This has created an asset bubble in equities and property and kept the High Street/Motor industry afloat

You cannot spend your way out of debt anymore than you can drink yourself sober