Britain's Deficit-Cutting Plans Are 'oxymoronic' Says Former Us Treasury Secretary Larry Summers

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8439865/Britains-deficit-cutting-plans-are-oxymoronic-says-former-US-Treasury-Secretary-Larry-Summers.html

"I find the idea of expansionary fiscal contraction in the context of the world in which we now live to be every bit as oxymoronic as it sounds," Mr Summers told a gathering of economists and policy makers at the resort of Bretton Woods in New Hampshire.

The analysis from Mr Summers, who also served as US Treasury Secretary under President Clinton, will be unwelcome to a Coalition government that's pushing through tax increases and cutting spending.

The government insists that tackling the budget deficit is required to prevent bond investors losing confidence in the country's fiscal policy in the way they did with Greece and Portugal and have threatened to with Spain and Italy.

.....

However, Mr Summers said he was sceptical that a policy focused on improving "fiscal hygiene" would generate the confidence a recovery needs. "I'd be happy to say that if Britain enjoys a boom for the next two years from increased confidence," I will change my opinion, he said.

He made the remarks as part of a wide-ranging question and answer session at the conference in Bretton Woods.

The attack from Mr Summers underlines the extent to which many in Washington DC are watching Britain to see whether the government's effort drives the economy back into recession or helps lays the foundation for a lasting recovery.

Clearly the way to have a lasting recovery is to monetise deficit spending. It worked in the Weimar.

Spending money we don't have is clearly the way to create a long lasting recovery, I mean what's oxymoronic about that.

[The Masked Tulip]

The analysis from Mr Summers, who also served as US Treasury Secretary under President Clinton,

So basically a Democrat who, one normally assumes, has little love for the Conservatives?

[ralphmalph]

So basically a Democrat who, one normally assumes, has little love for the Conservatives?

Which makes the statement even more oxymoronic because did not Clinton reduce the US deficit and have growth (if my memory is correct).

Edit: Also he enjoys the S&M sessions with the Chinese delegation. "Yes we will pay you back, WHACK, Yes please more, more hit me harder, we will pay you back.

Edited April 9, 2011 by ralphmalph

[thebigpicture]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8439865/Britains-deficit-cutting-plans-are-oxymoronic-says-former-US-Treasury-Secretary-Larry-Summers.html

Clearly the way to have a lasting recovery is to monetise deficit spending. It worked in the Weimar.

Spending money we don't have is clearly the way to create a long lasting recovery, I mean what's oxymoronic about that.

Keeping confidence in the bond market is the key, do what you have to maintain that, as you say, if there isnt enough willing money in the market write some cheques to yourself to cover it? I always look at QE etc as a last ditched quick fix no hope policy. How is the US ever going to make any headway with those figures when the whole country is the worlds consumer?

[Democorruptcy]

Mr Summers, who also served as US Treasury Secretary under President Clinton

Larry Summers repealed the Glass-Steagall Act so Citicorp could become Citigroup

They should be, because Citigroup, which was already a huge winner in 1999 when then Secretary of the Treasury, Larry Summers worked with the Clinton administration and Congress, repealed the Glass-Steagall Act so Citicorp could become Citigroup, has today received another gift from the US government. The Glass-Steagall Act was a reform instituted during the Great Depression to prevent financial concerns from consolidating and becoming “too big to fail.” The Graham-Bliley-Leach (bi-partisan) Act that repealed Glass-Steagall was a gift to Wall Street which has wreaked so much havoc today.

http://obambi.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/larry-summers-repealed-the-glass-steagall-act-so-citicorp-could-become-citigroup/

[Democorruptcy]

Which makes the statement even more oxymoronic because did not Clinton reduce the US deficit and have growth (if my memory is correct).

Edit: Also he enjoys the S&M sessions with the Chinese delegation. "Yes we will pay you back, WHACK, Yes please more, more hit me harder, we will pay you back.

Did Clinton say "no more boom and bust" just after he repealed Glass Steagall

[South Lorne]

Did Clinton say "no more boom and bust" just after he repealed Glass Steagall

...country cousin to Brown the Clown....

[needsleep]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8439865/Britains-deficit-cutting-plans-are-oxymoronic-says-former-US-Treasury-Secretary-Larry-Summers.html

Clearly the way to have a lasting recovery is to monetise deficit spending. It worked in the Weimar.

Spending money we don't have is clearly the way to create a long lasting recovery, I mean what's oxymoronic about that.

Hmmm, I know where you are coming from. But, the path Osborne is following is not a strategy for growth. It's like he's only doing half the job and he's doing that bit badly.

It does seem counter-intuitive but to get out of this we have to keep spending and we have to borrow to do it. We also need to cut too, and cut big time. What is needed:

1. brutal, very well targeted and achievable cuts. No party officially disagrees with this.

2. very well targeted stimulus to maintain & achieve growth in key economic sectors. Necessary to increase confidence and stimulate overall growth.

What we are getting from the conservatives

1. Unachievable cuts. No joined-up thinking between departments. Badly targeted cuts some so politically sensitive they can't be passed into law.

2. Increased spending anyway, none of which can be targeted for economic growth. Falling confidence. Flatlining growth. Rising inflation. Falling employment. Declining tax receipts.

Osborne has screwed it up. And worse still I fear he's doing it in such a way that we'll not see any falls in house prices.

[thebigpicture]

Osborne has screwed it up. And worse still I fear he's doing it in such a way that we'll not see any falls in house prices.

Isn't that the plan though?

[indirectapproach]

"So basically a Democrat who, one normally assumes, has little love for the Conservatives?"

Who said Uncle Sam spent too much after he was fired by Obama.

The guys a bloop.

[Grimbert]

I would have thought the concept of spending your way out of debt was the oxymoron.

[South Lorne]

I would have thought the concept of spending your way out of debt was the oxymoron.

..ask Ed Balls ..he's the expert ...

[needsleep]

I would have thought the concept of spending your way out of debt was the oxymoron.

Depends what you are spending on. That's the crux of the matter.

[wonderpup]

Summers also opposed any regulation of the derivatives market- and in his spare time lost Harvard University nearly 2 billion dollars.

Why does anyone take these idiots seriously?

[South Lorne]

Depends what you are spending on. That's the crux of the matter.

..ask Gordo ...if anyone knows about spending he's your boy...and is he not at the meeting ....stirring it up...?....

[needsleep]

..ask Gordo ...if anyone knows about spending he's your boy...and is he not at the meeting ....stirring it up...?....

Ah yes, I hear he spent all the money.

[South Lorne]

.....here we are.... conspirators together..

The four-day conference started this afternoon and is being sponsored by the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), an organization with Soros ties.

The conference will have keynote addresses from Gordon Brown, the former prime minister of the United Kingdom, and Larry Summers, the former director of the White House’s National Economic Council. Soros also will be on hand.

http://planetfreedom.org/?p=152199

[Tiger Woods?]

"So basically a Democrat who, one normally assumes, has little love for the Conservatives?"

Who said Uncle Sam spent too much after he was fired by Obama.

The guys a bloop.

Larry Summers....ah, the genius economist who lost Harvard University 1 billion dollars with interest rate swaps.

Yes, just the sort of person we should all be taking advice from.

[Grimbert]

It's a pointless argument anyway. This money is just numbers on a screen. No different to Farmville dollars. When I got my mortgage whose savings did I get?

No-one's - the money was printed / made to appear on a screen.

The people at this Soros meeting know this and want to reorganise the charade that is money so that when the next shit hits the fan and everyone realises we're playing musical chairs with money, people think that something is being done. It may work until the next crisis.

However, numbers on a screen are not money. Money is stuff - jars of coffee, bushels of wheat, ounces of gold. All these can be changed into more and more worthless pixels on a screen or purple bits of paper. All the real money was stolen out of the system between 1920 and 1971, leaving us with money made of copper and paper.

Soros knows this which is why he buys gold link

[South Lorne]

...the Clown has spoken ..we await the details with bated breath....

12:00 - 2:00 PM Lunch

Keynote: Gordon Brown

Introduction of Keynote Speaker and Moderator: Robert Skidelsky - Emeritus Professor of Political Economy, The University of Warwick

Keynote Speaker: Gordon Brown - Former British Prime Minister, United Kingdom

http://ineteconomics.org/initiatives/conferences/bretton-woods/agenda

...he must have missed the Tartan Day Parade in New York today.....bet they're happy.....

[needsleep]

It's a pointless argument anyway. This money is just numbers on a screen. No different to Farmville dollars. When I got my mortgage whose savings did I get?

No-one's - the money was printed / made to appear on a screen.

The people at this Soros meeting know this and want to reorganise the charade that is money so that when the next shit hits the fan and everyone realises we're playing musical chairs with money, people think that something is being done. It may work until the next crisis.

However, numbers on a screen are not money. Money is stuff - jars of coffee, bushels of wheat, ounces of gold. All these can be changed into more and more worthless pixels on a screen or purple bits of paper. All the real money was stolen out of the system between 1920 and 1971, leaving us with money made of copper and paper.

Soros knows this which is why he buys gold link

Anything that people believe they can exchange for money at some point in the future is a substitute for money. It's how bubbles work - you would never buy into a asset bubble unless you believed what you were buying could be exchanged back into money in the future. Money is what people believe it is.

[Grimbert]

Anything that people believe they can exchange for money at some point in the future is a substitute for money. It's how bubbles work - you would never buy into a asset bubble unless you believed what you were buying could be exchanged back into money in the future. Money is what people believe it is.

So, money is a matter of faith, you say.

Surely money is a mechanism by which you value one thing against another. My labour is apparently worth £13/hr. The government takes a sizeable chunk of that, but I think it's fair that a jar of coffee costs £2, a loaf of bread £1, etc, etc. These are just numbers to value one thing against another.

In the mean time, between earning money and spending it I have these numbers on a screen, or bits of paper that say they are worth the labour I have expended. They are not. they are valuable because I know the supermarket will accept them. They will accept them because the government tells them to. They do not have any intrinsic value.

I would rather have my labour swapped for real things, not numbers on a screen or purple bits of paper. This is how it always used to be. Until 1920 coins were made of silver and gold. You actually received real live valuable stuff for the work you did. Then they invented deficit spending (because of WW1) and now the shit is hitting the fan.

I will not put pounds into savings because it deteriorates. A silver shilling is still 92.5% silver. A 5p is worthless. A gold sovereign is worth more than a pound coin. What money I don't convert into mortgage repayments, food, etc, I convert into shares and gold and silver while I still can. I have more trust in gold and silver than in paper and pixels.

[Panda]

es, but you get paid with this very quickly becoming worthless paper for all your efforts, during your office hours for tasks performed.............

This worthless, well not yet, but devalued paper you are given, is falling off a cliff relative to like you say "needs" "musts" "essentials", sooner or later people will wake up and realise they haved to work harder for the same or settle for less?

Wages, pensions, savings, investments paper backed, they are all falling off a cliff....................you can buy a commodity, but will support come for the dollar, if not, total collapse of FIAT, and you will need a big gun, so i expect support for the dollar, when who know's.........................

Just remember, a commodity is valued relative to FIAT paper, what happens when paper has no value, how do you value your paper Gold, or coffee......

People have value, they add value, a commodity needs people to add value to the specific commodity through effort.....

Effort is value, welcome to slave labour to enrich the already rich..............What we are witnessing is a commodity spike, but more importantly a labour cost kill....

P

[Executive Sadman]

Hmmm, I know where you are coming from. But, the path Osborne is following is not a strategy for growth. It's like he's only doing half the job and he's doing that bit badly.

What sort of growth?

GDP 'growth' is nothing but inflation, renamed.

[billybong]

12:00 - 2:00 PM Lunch

Keynote: Gordon Brown

Introduction of Keynote Speaker and Moderator: Robert Skidelsky - Emeritus Professor of Political Economy, The University of Warwick

Keynote Speaker: Gordon Brown - Former British Prime Minister, United Kingdom

Venue:

The Whitehall Theatre.

Mind you everybody will be at lunch of course.

Edited April 10, 2011 by billybong