The neo-liberal project to shrink the state—although driven by the right and accepted even by parts of the centre-left—is starting to bite hard. Even the financial markets are worried that the so-called debt crisis cannot be solved unless there is growth.
Memo to Vince Cable: lack of credit demand, not supply holds back UK economy: time for a cut in VAT and increase in quantitative easing
Despite a record low for government bonds, the treasury refuses to release the purse strings, condemning us to a ‘paradox of thrift’
Britain is bottom of the G7’s growth league table. Excluding earthquake-hit Japan, Britain is growing more slowly than every other major developed economy.
The goverrnment’s axing of Regional Development Agencies have left a huge gap in support for local businesses – as seen by the huge demand for the Regional Growth Fund, which is around a third of the size of the RDAs
A round-up of all the key indicators from IPPR senior economist Tony Dolphin
Figures released today show that the Coalition’s flagship NICs holiday policy has flopped. It has helped just 5,000 businesses rather than the 400,000 originally suggested.
Enterprise Zones, the dusting down of a failed Thatcherite policy, shows the government has no strategy for real growth, just ad hoc short termism.
Following the depressing growth figures, coalition big wigs have been keen to offer their hapoth’s worth to George Osborne with a series of bizarre ideas.
If the economy continues to stagnate, the coalition could borrow more than Labour this year, writes Cormac Hollingsworth.
