Hi Ronan, interesting post as always. I’m no expert on any of this, but as you say, some people would say some of those jobs shouldn’t have existed anyway. I’m just curious — what if that debt was written down? Wouldn’t that remove the economic and thus political imperative to push through austerity measures that would help bring us back to a base from which we can build more sustainable growth? I can imagine a danger of ending up in a similar situation with high debt again very soon if this debt is written down. I realise that the banking debt is not from the same source as more “normal” national debt, but if it’s doing any good at all it is giving politicians the ability to cut back on areas that traditionally would have been untouchable and maybe help reverse some of (IMO) the mistakes of FF.
It’s just a thought, and I’m not at all sure of how much sense this makes or particularly how fair it is (if that can even be established anymore…), and obviously genuinely sympathise with those affected by the cuts (as I have been and as have those of my immediate family!). Nevertheless, I’d be curious to hear your opinion on it since I’m no economist.
On a side note, as a number-cruncher yourself have you ever read Nathan Yau’s blog (http://flowingdata.com/)? If not, he’s got a great book out on visualising data that you might find interesting.
DowtheBow
,
Hi John,
Austerity measures will be pushed through anyway as th EU is trying to get every country to have a 3% Deficit. These were the original Eurozone rules but were largely ignored, but it is not sustainable to continue borrowing 50m a day to run the country.
It would mean however that the burden of debt would decrease so less of the tax take would be spent on servicing the debt and repaying bondholders every year
John ,
Hi Ronan, interesting post as always. I’m no expert on any of this, but as you say, some people would say some of those jobs shouldn’t have existed anyway. I’m just curious — what if that debt was written down? Wouldn’t that remove the economic and thus political imperative to push through austerity measures that would help bring us back to a base from which we can build more sustainable growth? I can imagine a danger of ending up in a similar situation with high debt again very soon if this debt is written down. I realise that the banking debt is not from the same source as more “normal” national debt, but if it’s doing any good at all it is giving politicians the ability to cut back on areas that traditionally would have been untouchable and maybe help reverse some of (IMO) the mistakes of FF.
It’s just a thought, and I’m not at all sure of how much sense this makes or particularly how fair it is (if that can even be established anymore…), and obviously genuinely sympathise with those affected by the cuts (as I have been and as have those of my immediate family!). Nevertheless, I’d be curious to hear your opinion on it since I’m no economist.
On a side note, as a number-cruncher yourself have you ever read Nathan Yau’s blog (http://flowingdata.com/)? If not, he’s got a great book out on visualising data that you might find interesting.
DowtheBow ,
Hi John,
Austerity measures will be pushed through anyway as th EU is trying to get every country to have a 3% Deficit. These were the original Eurozone rules but were largely ignored, but it is not sustainable to continue borrowing 50m a day to run the country.
It would mean however that the burden of debt would decrease so less of the tax take would be spent on servicing the debt and repaying bondholders every year