That awful time, about three o’clock in the afternoon, when one has had a good lunch and is sitting in a small audience listening to an economic briefing. I dearly wanted to close my eyes and sleep. But I knew that the really important things were about to be said.
“The current situation involves the on-going threat of recession, the aftermath of the banking crisis, the legacy of the budget deficit, the problem of national debt, the pensions catastrophe, and perennial short-term political decision making…
“The Labour Party is wedded to what Joan Robinson called bastard Keynesianism. This means they are picking out only the bits they like. Keynes specifically referred to running a government deficit as ‘abnormal spending’…
“One particular Keynesian assumption need challenging – the idea that governments can intervene to smooth economic peaks and troughs. And even if they could intervene (which they can’t), whether it is morally right that they should. Hayek told us that government intervention is ALWAYS at the cost of freedom…
“Look at the study done two years ago by the LSE and the University of Maryland, telling us that in a world open to trade and with floating exchange rates the effect of the Keynesian multiplier was zero…
“The Austrians believe that boom cycles move too fast for effective government intervention and by the time they get round to it the economic cycle has moved on…
“Treasury figures show domestic borrowing AND corporate borrowing are both at one hundred per cent of GDP. In any case, GDP measures expenditure, so is never a good measure. Most people do not realise this…
“Healthcare and education should not be run by the free market…
“Gross UK debt is probably three hundred per cent of GDP if you add in bank bailouts, PFI and public sector pensions…
“The government has an interest in inflation being as high as possible…
“Ludwig von Mises demonstrated that if you don’t stop a credit bubble you end up with a collapse…
“If there is too much money in the system the price of money goes down, in the same way that oversupply of any other commodity leads to a fall in price…
“We need a written constitution insisting on a balanced budget…
“You cannot control the money supply unless you are prepared to control bank lending…
“With such low interest rates no-one can expect to fund their retirement…
“Long term the enemy is inflation, not recession…
“A big problem is career politicians. For a politician a problem deferred is a problem solved. At a time like this we do not need career politicians, we need leaders…”
“The current situation involves the on-going threat of recession, the aftermath of the banking crisis, the legacy of the budget deficit, the problem of national debt, the pensions catastrophe, and perennial short-term political decision making…
“The Labour Party is wedded to what Joan Robinson called bastard Keynesianism. This means they are picking out only the bits they like. Keynes specifically referred to running a government deficit as ‘abnormal spending’…
“One particular Keynesian assumption need challenging – the idea that governments can intervene to smooth economic peaks and troughs. And even if they could intervene (which they can’t), whether it is morally right that they should. Hayek told us that government intervention is ALWAYS at the cost of freedom…
“Look at the study done two years ago by the LSE and the University of Maryland, telling us that in a world open to trade and with floating exchange rates the effect of the Keynesian multiplier was zero…
“The Austrians believe that boom cycles move too fast for effective government intervention and by the time they get round to it the economic cycle has moved on…
“Treasury figures show domestic borrowing AND corporate borrowing are both at one hundred per cent of GDP. In any case, GDP measures expenditure, so is never a good measure. Most people do not realise this…
“Healthcare and education should not be run by the free market…
“Gross UK debt is probably three hundred per cent of GDP if you add in bank bailouts, PFI and public sector pensions…
“The government has an interest in inflation being as high as possible…
“Ludwig von Mises demonstrated that if you don’t stop a credit bubble you end up with a collapse…
“If there is too much money in the system the price of money goes down, in the same way that oversupply of any other commodity leads to a fall in price…
“We need a written constitution insisting on a balanced budget…
“You cannot control the money supply unless you are prepared to control bank lending…
“With such low interest rates no-one can expect to fund their retirement…
“Long term the enemy is inflation, not recession…
“A big problem is career politicians. For a politician a problem deferred is a problem solved. At a time like this we do not need career politicians, we need leaders…”
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