Osborne is on track to rebalance the economy

Dr Spooner

hurrah for Obsorne, a genomonic Ennius

Marbury

That is really interesting, though you haven't shown that Osborne's chancellorship is responsible for this rebalancing, if that's what it is, correlation not being causation.

Pete Hoskin

Marbury: true enough, true enough. My language was a little loose above. I've tightened it up now.

annassasin

If GDP figures appear on BBC first then I will know it will be bad news. What figure is good enough? 0.5, if it is 1.0 will Ball self combust, or move to USA to help Democrats to deny their debt problem.

yank

What a flat out bunch of bullshit. Are you Spectator chavs on the Cameroons' payroll, or what?

"Hooray for stagflation!"

Is that it?

GDP growth is flatlined, and nothing near the peaks noted following other recessions.

Government spending same as all other recessions, with no consequential variance. To be expected, of course, as Dave and the wets are fully committed to maintaining the leviathan Blairist state.

And I'd like some breakdown on those business investment bars, if you don't mind. There's something fishy going on there, whether it's in the bars themselves or their QE-induced nature. The parallels with recent and 70’s is the tipoff here, as inflation was government policy in both cases. Unfortunately for the Cameroons, growth isn’t keeping up with the 70’s, although inflation seems to be surpassing it. Watch the producer price index… it’s skyrocketing here… it’s about to go viral.

Not to mention, these graphs are for the first 5 quarters after the 2008-2009 recession, so anything in them is to be credited to your mate Brown. It is the here and now by which we judge Osborne. And he's rated stagflationary.

Nice try, but it's not going to help. People are going to start getting this now, as here. The quicker you Spectator chavs get off your blind cheerleading, the quicker you might find yourself relevant to the argument.

Rhoda Klapp

Perhaps we ought to have Fraser in here telling us how higher base rates would have made these figures better?

Scotty

Just wait for the red eyed deficit deniers reading this article - there will be lengthy in depth well reasearched analysis concluding that the recovery is rubbish and balls would have done better - etc.
It clear the government is on the right path - a hard and pragmatic one but moving away from labours spend spend spend our taxes economic policy has to be correct.

Ed P

The grey boxes above show the insanity of Brown's approach - all eggs in the Public Sector basket. I am very thankful this governmant is economically literate, unlike the previous band of destroyers.

Pete Hoskin

Rhoda: I'm more ambivalent on base rates than Fraser is, but here's one line from the Citi report that might be relevant:

"Rebalancing will be helped if interest rates are fairly low, but does not necessarily need the rock-bottom rates required in the worst of the financial crisis."

yank: was just highlighting a striking graph, is all. Yours to take or leave, as you choose

AF

Yank,what a mouthfull,and an acknowledgement
from P.H.himself.
You must be empty after all that.

Occasional Ostrich

Ed P

I'd no idea GB was ruining the show (in a manner of speaking) in the early nineties.

Victor Southern

Yank

Is there anything or anybody that you don't hate or despise?

Is there anything or anybody who makes you feel good, or optimistic or vaguely genial?

Justathought

The graph does not show is what preceded the recessions in the 70's 80's 90's and the recent one, that is ; persistent high oil price spikes.

Credit to Osborne for dealing with this current threat (Brent $123 per barrel) by introducing the 'fair fuel stabiliser' in the budget along with deferring the 'inflation only' increase on fuel duty. The Osborne cut in fuel duty by 1p per litre has helped the struggling motorist and may avoid the demand destruction catastrophe because of persistent high oil prices on the wider economy.

My only gripe would be that there seems to be overcharging by the utilities particularly on gas and electric which may be as a result of lack of competition.

yank

Mr. Southern,

No, I hate everything and everybody, but especially whiny wets.

TomTom

It is sad being an economist in Britain where political columnists write so much propaganda. Maybe it is simply London MediaLand where noone has any idea how flaky Government statistics are and how hollowed out manufacturing is.

If Japanese component shortages put Toyota and Honda and Peugeot on short time how are things "re-balanced" ?

Brown should have used the Civil Contingencies Act in 2007 and declared a State of Emergency removing all UK Mortgages from the Banks and putting them under direct BoE supervision. This silly game of Debt Monetization has deluded journalists into a state of narcolepsy. There are no easy ways out of this mess and the Realignment of Global Economics has not even started.....Britain is on the down escalator

AF

Yank,
luvin it man,
when I see your drawl I can't help thinking
of the lyrics to Big Bad John,
Big John,
Big John,
every morning at the mine
you could see him arrive
he stood six foot six weighed two forty five
kind of broad at the shoulders narrow at the
hip and everybody knew you gave no lip to big John
big John big bad Johhhn
big John.
Your a gas man,don't spoil my illusion.
I'm lovin it.

TomTom

"he Osborne cut in fuel duty by 1p per litre has helped the struggling motorist"

Do you buy petrol ? Do you see the price ?

HFC

# TomTom
April 26th, 2011 8:11pm

Just in passing, although it cost me £88 to fill my gas guzzler today, petrol at £6.12 a gallon is cheaper in real terms than it has been for most of the years since the early 1960's when I started motoring.

I don't deny that the government take is high (taxing tax as in VAT on fuel duty is abhorrent)but that's the way it is.

Fatbloke on tour

PH

Love the hype based on a projected growth rate of 0.5%.

As always when SpeccyLand and economics no context at all.

Why no mention of the weather affected situation in 2010 Q4? Surely you remember, 0.5% contraction based on the poor weather, so any 0.5% expansion in 2011 Q1 would mean that growth has been flat over the past 6 months.

Not quite the go-go growth story you are trying to flog.

As always this is just the appetiser, the real deal starts in Q3 when Sniffy and the Dog Boilers cut loose.

Tomorrow is just froth, please tell "Trevor" so that he can keep his emotions under control. Prime time is the second half of the year and it is not looking good.

Major Plonquer 1

Osborne, it seems, has managed to do what Gordon 'I saved the world' Brown could never achieve. He's abolished boom and bust.

Chairman of Selectors

Agreed with all those rubbishing this post. This feeble Gov has done NOTHING to fix the deficit. Public spending is going through the roof. Not that the BBC will tell us that. All so lazy, workshy public sector employees can spend all day on the internet moaning about having to retire at 55, with a full final salary pension scheme sown up.

Fergus Pickering

Good God, the Fatman is back. I though you had died, old sport.

TomTom

"at £6.12 a gallon is cheaper in real terms than it has been for most of the years since the early 1960's when I started motoring."

Then you pay much less tax than I do. You must have suffered far less from the economic situation. You must not face the cost of living the rest of us face, nor the distances we have to drive. I don't know how you deflate your petrol prices but I know of no deflator that renders my cost of living lower than hitherto. China, Iran etc subsidise petrol. France includes Road Tax in petrol prices and they are still lower

Sir Everrad Digby

FatBloke,

Is it not about time you changed the record? Every article posted on the subject of the economy generates a response from you consisting of paragraphs of near gibberish,ending with a statement of what dire things will happen in the future.

For example,am I alone in wondering what 'As always when SpeccyLand and economics no context at all' means? Are verbs an unknown quantity to you? punctuation?

Let me summarise your all to familiar themes.

You have no idea what will happen,when it will happen,or what the impact will be. But it will be terrible.

Is this now official opposition policy on every issue?

Isolde

Scotty, Yank's already there.

Yank, you just can't stand it can you ? Miserable little socialist.

John Richardson

"The quicker you Spectator chavs get off your blind cheerleading, the quicker you might find yourself relevant to the argument."
'yank'

Unarguable.

Hence the lack of opposing argument.

Sir Everard Digby

Mr Yank. I suggest your knowledge of the 1970's in this country is obscured by distance. Inflation was not 'government policy' The key factor in fuelling 70s inflation was the price of oil.From 1973, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reduced the amount of oil available in international markets. By the end of 1974, the price of oil had quadrupled, releasing powerful inflationary forces in the British economy and elsewhere. In 1976, the government faced a financial crisis which forced it to apply to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan.

Your comments would be better worthy of discussion without either the inaccurate and/or abusive comments

yank

Sir Everard Digby
April 27th, 2011 3:21pm

Inflation was not 'government policy' The key factor in fuelling 70s inflation was the price of oil.From 1973, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reduced the amount of oil available in international markets. By the end of 1974, the price of oil had quadrupled, releasing powerful inflationary forces in the British economy and elsewhere. In 1976, the government faced a financial crisis which forced it to apply to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan.

Your comments would be better worthy of discussion without either the inaccurate and/or abusive comments

.

Oil is one of the key factors fueling inflation today as well, Mr. Digby. So little difference then.

And as we know, government action in the UK is credited with eliminating the stagflation occurring there in the 70's. I think then you're left to explain how government policy cannot be blamed for that inflation, since government policy did eventually drive it off.

And yes, you'd be correct, the Brit government was in fiscal chaos, as today, with its hand stuck out begging, and thus prone to inflate away its current and future debt.

All sounds familiar then, eh?

And as you've moved on to the personal, let's add that your comments are generally skippers for me, so good that you put my name at the top of your post, to attract my eye, as I find you whiny and error prone, historically obtuse and unprofitable.

And did I mention that you’re whiny?