The colourful Tory mayor of London, Boris Johnson has come out forcefully in opposition to the disasterous austerity policies that are at the centre of Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne’s economic strategy. Following in the tradition of British Conservative Keynesians like former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan whose family publishing house had been John Maynard Keynes’s publisher, Johnson speaking at the Davos Economic forum called on Osborne and prime minister David Cameron to abandon the failed austerity program and turn instead to an infrastructure investment stimulus program in order to reverse the slump that Britain now finds itself in teetering on the edge of a triple dip recession. The timing of his speech was auspicious since the British Office of National statistics released data that showed the British GDP shrank in the last quarter of 2012 by 0.3 %.
If the next quarter shows negative growth the triple dip recession will be official. The Osborne, Cameron , Clegg strategy of growth and employment creation through austerity has clearly failed as I and other Keynesians predicted. The time to admit it and change course is now. Its good to have the Mayor of London on board the progressive lower unemployment train. Its a position that suits his up beat view of London.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
About haroldchorneyeconomist
I am Professor of political economy at Concordia university in Montréal, Québec, Canada. I received my B.A.Hons (econ.&poli sci) from the University of Manitoba. I also completed my M.A. degree in economics there. Went on to spend two years at the London School of Economics as a Ph.D. student in economics and then completed my Ph.D. in political economy at the University of Toronto. Was named a John W.Dafoe fellow, a CMHC fellow and a Canada Council fellow. I also was named a Woodrow Wilson fellow in 1968 after completing my first class honours undergraduate degree. Worked as an economist in the area of education, labour economics and as the senior economist with the Manitoba Housing and Renewal Corporation for the Government of Manitoba from 1972 to 1978. I also have worked as an economic consultant for MDT socio-economic consultants and have been consulted on urban planning, health policy, linguistic duality and public sector finance questions by the governments of Manitoba, Saskatchewan,the cities of Regina and Saskatoon, Ontario and the Federal government of Canada. I have also been consulted by senior leaders of the British Labour party, MPs from the Progressive Conservative party, the Liberal party and the New Democrats on economic policy questions. Members of the Government of France under the Presidency of Francois Mitterand discussed my work on public sector deficits. I have also run for elected office at the municipal level. I first began to write about quantitative easing as a useful policy option during the early 1980s.
haroldchorneyeconomist 