Government Debt

Rethinking ‘Crowding Out’ and the Return of ‘Private Affluence and Public Squalor’

— /

This article traces the history of ‘crowding out’, and its use as a justification for austerity and state deflation from its origins in the 1920s to its latest post-2010 incarnation. It examines why governments have kept turning to austerity and continue to justify it on the grounds that public sector activity crowds out more productive private activity, despite the accumulated evidence that this traditional pro-market formulation has failed to deliver its stated goals. It examines three other embedded forms of crowding out that have been highly damaging—leading to weakened social resilience and more fragile economies—but which have been ignored by both governments and mainstream political economists.

Rethinking ‘Crowding Out’ and the Return of ‘Private Affluence and Public Squalor’ Read More »

Why government debts and deficits aren’t the real economic worry

— /

We had an exceptional public health emergency to deal with and, like other national emergencies, such as the Second World War, we simply had to spend the money to deal with it. Just as we didn’t panic about repaying the debt as fast as possible after WW2, instead building the NHS and the welfare state, so today we shouldn’t be panicking about it, either

Why government debts and deficits aren’t the real economic worry Read More »

PEF publishes blue print for the post-covid economy on 29th April 2021

— /

“After decades of assault by state-shrinking ideologues, a collision of crises has revealed how only the power of good government can save us. Covid, climate catastrophe and Brexit crashed in on a public realm stripped bare by a decade of extreme austerity. Here all the best writers and thinkers on the good society show recovery is possible, with a radical rethink of all the old errors. Read this, and feel hope that things can change. ”
Polly Toynbee

PEF publishes blue print for the post-covid economy on 29th April 2021 Read More »

The UK budget offered no vision for sustainable economic growth

— /

The budget was singularly lacking in ambition when it came to the government’s role in creating a sustainable, inclusive and investment-led recovery.

There was no new green stimulus despite the UK facing a £100bn funding gap to reach its net-zero by 2050 target and despite its hosting of the global COP26 climate change summit this November.

The UK budget offered no vision for sustainable economic growth Read More »