We are pleased that ‘The Economic Consequences of Mr. Osborne’ (which you can link to here)  has attracted attention and comment from a wide range of economic and political analysts.

The Royal Economic Society in its latest (July 2010) newsletter (not yet online, but expected to be soon) refers favourably to our paper in

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By Victoria Chick and Ann Pettifor – 13th of July 2010

Green Roof Art School, Singapore

Bloomberg Opinion

Until recently, there was almost complete agreement on the need for a period of synchronized austerity across Europe. This consensus, at a time of private- sector weakness and banking fragility, is very worrying.

But Alan Budd’s resignation as chairman of the British government’s newly established Office of Budget Responsibility, coupled with a growing number of dissenting voices, suggests a fault line in this consensus. Nevertheless even most of those who dissent do so not because they support fiscal stimulus but only because they fear that a “consolidation” is premature.

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“Are we downhearted?”  No, sang the British people in 1914 when First World War battles commenced, and hordes rushed to the War Office’s recruiting centres (pictured) .

“While we have Jack upon the sea/ And Tommy on the land/We needn’t fret. ”

The British are cheering again, as the present-day version of General Sir Douglas Haig –  the chancellor and a cabinet packed with millionaires – send the equivalent of yesteryear’s Tommies off to the economic parallel of the Battle of the Somme.

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