Mostly stuff on the economy this week. First up, I liked this post from Think Left, which includes some nice quotes and a video promoting MMT:
Why do politicians tell us debt/deficit myths which they know to be untrue?
Neoliberal news now, and Guardian columnist George Monbiot informs us about the US/EU trade deal about which I was previously only dimly aware. It doesn’t sound good:
The lies behind this transatlantic trade deal
One of the positive pieces of economic news over the last year has been the increase in employment. The Tories have been trumpeting this with hilarious charts like this (what scale are they using here):
Beneath the headline though, what’s less certain is about the type of employment being created. Self-employment for example has risen quite sharply in recent years, but much of it seems to be quite poorly paid, and as a result, self-employed worker’s earnings have been falling:
Self-employed worker’s earnings slump by nearly a third
And in related news, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has been boasting about how many families have been ‘turned around’ by his troubled families programme. The definition of turned around seems as vague as the original definition of troubled families was. Turned around doesn’t seem to include finding work though as this story from my local paper describes:
Government jobs scheme gets jobs for just three in Bradford
On to the autumn statement now, and I liked this blog on George Osborne’s stated desire to run a budget surplus:
Why do the British enjoy committing economic suicide?
The economy does seem to be recovery though, although the OBR say they expect it to slow down somewhat next year. George Osborne vindicated? The FT’s Martin Wolf thinks not (must register to view):
Autumn Statement 2013: Britain’s needlessly slow recovery
And as long as we keep seeing stories like this, any claims of recovery must be dismissed:
Bradford food bank makes urgent ‘help’ plea
Moving on again with the news of Nelson Mandela’s death at the age of 95. I was only 8 when Mandela was released from prison, and I think a lot of people of my generation don’t know much about his life before that point, and how he was viewed by different people. A lot of rewriting of history seems to be going on and I thought this blog was interesting in its perspective:
They come to bury Nelson, not just to praise him
Finally, on a lighter note, the news that Amazon has been trialing drone deliveies. I thought this mocked-up Amazon calling card was well done:
alittleecon 