George Osborne has been humiliatingly been accused of talking "sheer nonsense" by U.S. business and technology news website Business Insider, after Osborne cited the crisis in the Cypriot banking system as an example of why Britain must continue the "painstaking work" of austerity.
Oh dear.
George Osborne has been humiliatingly accused of talking “sheer nonsense” by U.S. business and technology news website Business Insider, after Osborne cited the crisis in the Cypriot banking system as an example of why Britain must continue the “painstaking work” of austerity.
Cyprus is set to receive 10 billion euros to stave off bankruptcy but the island’s savers are being forced to pay up to 10 per cent of their deposits to raise another six billion.
“That is an example in Cyprus of what happens if you don’t show the world that you can pay your way.
“I mean that is why in Britain we’ve got to retain the confidence of world markets,” Osborne said.
Business Insider deputy editor Joe Weisenthal responded by branding Osborne’s words “sheer nonsense“:
This is sheer nonsense. This has nothing to do with whether the country could “show the world that you can pay your own way.” It has to do with the fact that the Cypriot banks had large exposure to Greek debt (because of how intertwined their economies are) and took big losses on Greek debt writedowns. And it has to do with the screwed-up Euro system, whereby no country has their own currency.
And it has to do with having an oversized banking system, and all kinds of other things. There are virtually no applicable lessons to the UK here. But the government is using the incident as another excuse to justify disastrous policy.
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19 Responses to “Osborne talking ‘sheer nonsense’ about Cyprus”
Newsbot9
So basically you’re claiming that most poor people, many of whom spend well over a third on the inflated rent, are bankrupt. You want to force them to be homeless, fraud. You want to throw them onto the street – this is YOUR PLAN.
And how dare taxation take away some of your millions for retirement!
Newsbot9
No, the depression is because of the deliberate suppression of demand by the government. Taxation on your rich is falling. Corporate welfare is soaring. This is your austerity, a cause of GDP shrinkage.
Newsbot9
Austerity denial. Triple dip denial.
Keep claiming that this is caused by tax cuts for your rich, so they can send ever-more overseas. Keep claiming that the minor expense of tax for the poor, which returns far more to them, is “making things worse”. It’s stopping you ripping them off even more, which is your “problem”.
Newsbot9
No, he’s the sort of policy wonk who informs the Austerity Gospel of St. Osborne.
LB
Doesn’t work.
Remember that the state pensions are linked to inflation.
As fast as you print money, inflation goes up, and the debts go up.
The state has promised more than GDP. That’s the issue. They have promised more (and taken far more).