Economic austerity and the household belt-tightening analogy

Fallacy of composition as explanation fails to do the trick – too technical sounding. Perhaps something more than analysis, rigorous or simplified, with supporting data, simply explained, is needed. Not Simon Wren-Lewis with his macro mania, nor Paul Krugman, nor a host of others have succeeded in getting their message across. And nowhere was that failure more evident than in the recent UK elections.

The Short, then the Long Reads – Austeri-who?

Dull, dismal economics stuff. Especially macroeconomics. Useful to cure insomnia.

As elections approach in the UK, it is worth a spare moment to look at some of the economics and ‘economics’. Chris Dillow at his mumbling and stumbling blog has had a heavy slog at trying to explain that ‘austerity’ is not really the economics discipline, and there ain’t no such animal as ‘expansionary austerity’, all to no avail. His most recent post, “SERIOUS” POLITICS, he states his choice of a party other than the two – in ally, the US, such a luxury is non-existent with an entrenched duopoly of corporate parties of cosmetic differences (‘culture wars’, ‘hot button issues’).

From my perspective, the main parties are just daft. They are promising to cut the deficit although this risks exacerbating any future slowdown and ignores the fact that negative real rates make this a great time to invest in infrastructure.