Autumn Statement 2013: Britain’s needlessly slow recovery

DALIAN/CHINA, 12SEPT09 – Martin Wolf, Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator, The Financial Times. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is an excellent, MUST-READ article, by Martin Wolf, in the FT. Check it out!

Autumn Statement 2013: Britain’s needlessly slow recovery – FT.com.

Personally, I believe that Martin Wolf’s article is probably the best that I have seen on George Osborne‘s Autumn Statement.

I agree with Marin Wolf that Osborne has focused too much on austerity and debt levels, at the expense of restoring economic growth to pre-crisis trend levels. So far, the growth increase has come from consumption, on the book of property inflation, stimulated bu Government guarantees. There has not been enough urgently-needed, quality Public Sector investment, taking advantage of exceptionally low borrowing costs. Similarly, the low skill-base and poor export performance of the UK has not received enough attention. Most worrying of all, is the risk that Public Sector cuts will be reversed by a weak Government.

In case, you think that Martin Wolf’s view is a one-off, check out similar concerns by leading Oxford economist, Simon Wren-Lewis.

Any thoughts?