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Thinking the unthinkable – Might there be no way out for Britain? [pdf]

19 points by sdfjkl 13y ago

isaacwaller 13y ago
It should be noted that this is from July 2011.
grannyg00se 13y ago
The debt driven economy is collapsing under unmanageable debt load. There is some refreshingly frank language used in this report. "An early objective for government should be to put an end to the state of national denial over the true condition of the economy"
alan_cx 13y ago
On one level, it reads like right wing think tank propaganda, given that the conservative party didn't oppose many of the things labour did. Indeed, one reason labour won power was that it adopted conservative economic policy. Old socialist policy was never going to work. But, all of the things that set up the false economy was conservative doctrine. That is why "new" labour had business support and won. So, yes labour got it wrong, but the conservatives would have too. Conservatives love a property, borrowing and spending boom. Its how Thatcher made her name in the 80's. A British disease. However, fascinating for me was the bit right at the end: Where the general public is concerned, one of the most distressing features of Britain’s evolution over the last two decades has to have been the relentless spread of surveillance and coercion. Britain is plastered with warning notices, CCTV and speed cameras, and other aspects of the surveillance state. Government needs to start stripping away much of this panoply of surveillance and coercion, and to enshrine in law the primacy of individual liberties. So presumably, part of their conclusion is that all this is actually damaging the economy. And, that conclusion was pre Snowden...
- cryofan 13y ago
  yep, definitely neoliberal think tank propaganda of the TINA (There Is No Alternative) variety. What the game is now is to scare the older folks into thinking that unless they vote for neoliberal sell-out politicians, there will be no funding of their old age pensions, etc. So once the think tanks (funded by Capital) have manufactured sufficient consent through scare-TINA propaganda, they get the politicians to allow massive waves of cheap labor immigration and lessening worker protections and benefits. Same old game they have been playing for decades now.
moocowduckquack 13y ago
Might be time to buy a boat.
barfbarf 13y ago
Was the first half garbled for anyone else. I thought I was looking at a piece of conceptual art for a minute.
- ZoF 13y ago
  Wasn't "garbled" for me ~
- foxylad 13y ago
  Yes, on Chrome 28.0.1500.71.
- cthulha 13y ago
  Scrolled down until it started working, then back up and it was fine. No idea why. Chrome on OSX.
prewett 13y ago
So after skimming this, it looks like they spend pretty much the whole 34 pages saying "the economy is bad and it isn't getting better." Fine, but I'm not sure that implies disaster. Aren't the typical solutions for massive debt either a) default or b) inflation? Since Britain has its own currency, it can just inflate away its debt if worst comes to worst. I didn't see any place where they even considered this possibility. On an unrelated note, I'm pretty impressed with how well Firefox's new PDF engine renders this large PDF. It's a bit slow, but not bad.
- tonyedgecombe 13y ago
  Inflating away debt has been government policy since the second world war: http://monevator.com/a-history-of-uk-inflation/ http://monevator.com/a-history-of-uk-inflation/

19 points by sdfjkl 13y ago

It should be noted that this is from July 2011.

The debt driven economy is collapsing under unmanageable debt load. There is some refreshingly frank language used in this report. "An early objective for government should be to put an end to the state of national denial over the true condition of the economy"

alan_cx 13y ago

On one level, it reads like right wing think tank propaganda, given that the conservative party didn't oppose many of the things labour did. Indeed, one reason labour won power was that it adopted conservative economic policy. Old socialist policy was never going to work. But, all of the things that set up the false economy was conservative doctrine. That is why "new" labour had business support and won. So, yes labour got it wrong, but the conservatives would have too. Conservatives love a property, borrowing and spending boom. Its how Thatcher made her name in the 80's. A British disease. However, fascinating for me was the bit right at the end: Where the general public is concerned, one of the most distressing features of Britain’s evolution over the last two decades has to have been the relentless spread of surveillance and coercion. Britain is plastered with warning notices, CCTV and speed cameras, and other aspects of the surveillance state. Government needs to start stripping away much of this panoply of surveillance and coercion, and to enshrine in law the primacy of individual liberties. So presumably, part of their conclusion is that all this is actually damaging the economy. And, that conclusion was pre Snowden...

cryofan 13y ago
yep, definitely neoliberal think tank propaganda of the TINA (There Is No Alternative) variety. What the game is now is to scare the older folks into thinking that unless they vote for neoliberal sell-out politicians, there will be no funding of their old age pensions, etc. So once the think tanks (funded by Capital) have manufactured sufficient consent through scare-TINA propaganda, they get the politicians to allow massive waves of cheap labor immigration and lessening worker protections and benefits. Same old game they have been playing for decades now.

moocowduckquack 13y ago

Might be time to buy a boat.

barfbarf 13y ago

Was the first half garbled for anyone else. I thought I was looking at a piece of conceptual art for a minute.

ZoF 13y ago
Wasn't "garbled" for me ~
foxylad 13y ago
Yes, on Chrome 28.0.1500.71.
cthulha 13y ago
Scrolled down until it started working, then back up and it was fine. No idea why. Chrome on OSX.

prewett 13y ago

So after skimming this, it looks like they spend pretty much the whole 34 pages saying "the economy is bad and it isn't getting better." Fine, but I'm not sure that implies disaster. Aren't the typical solutions for massive debt either a) default or b) inflation? Since Britain has its own currency, it can just inflate away its debt if worst comes to worst. I didn't see any place where they even considered this possibility. On an unrelated note, I'm pretty impressed with how well Firefox's new PDF engine renders this large PDF. It's a bit slow, but not bad.

tonyedgecombe 13y ago
Inflating away debt has been government policy since the second world war: http://monevator.com/a-history-of-uk-inflation/ http://monevator.com/a-history-of-uk-inflation/