Front page headline in the Financial
Times this morning is that the IMF is advising the UK to spend more in
infrastructure so as to help escape the recession.
Well – doh – infrastructure spending is
about the daftest way there is to deal with a recession and for the blindingly
obvious reason that it often takes years to get infrastructure projects going –
never mine the number of years it takes to complete them. And by that time the recession
may be over.
Of course the amount to spend on infrastructure
should be under constant review, and (statement of the obvious) the objective
should always be to spend whatever the optimum amount is. But that’s all LONG
TERM stuff.
Sudden increases in infrastructure
spending is not a clever way to try to escape a recession. Apart from anything
else, attempts at sudden increases in spending on ANY AREA is likely to run
into skilled labour shortages, even in a recession.
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International
Monetary Fund.
Vacancy.
A vacancy has arisen at the IMF for an economist. Pay
and perks are generous, and the successful candidate will enjoy early
retirement, all gratis the World's long suffering taxpayers.
The successful candidate should be able to demonstrate a complete ignorance of
economics and be devoid of common sense.
Apply in person to Christine Lagarde who is currently appearing in court in Paris in connection with alleged embezzlement of public funds while she served under Francois Mitterand (probably in more than one sense of the phrase).
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We have also had the ECB big fromage in town, damning us with faint praise, which is ironic given their application of the Japanese treatment (lower and lower interest rates, trying to pump life into an ever-shrinking Euroland economy).
ReplyDeleteECB's Mario Draghi spots 'encouraging' UK economy signs
Looks like he is making a case for more Eurocentralisation.
Interesting if you look at:
Unorthodox Refinancing of Banks by the ECB