The dangers of mounting national debt are spelt out clearly and persuasively by Frank Field in an article for today’s Guardian. Well worth reading the whole thing, but the bottom line is that desperate times may call for desperate measures:
“If the debt can’t be sold, it will be impossible for the government to continue. The only options then will be to print money, with all the dangers for a country of going along with such a policy; or for the political parties to come together – in a national government – to try to convince the gilt market that the country is serious about bringing under control the gap between projected government expenditure and its falling tax revenue base.
It is crucial that we begin to plan for this scenario for, once in this totally uncharted territory, we may not then have that long to convince the markets that Britain’s political class really means business in trying to get the nation’s accounts into some sort of order.
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