oh dear: Financial market turmoil could blow a hole in Osborne's budget plans

[BrilloPad]

So glad Osborne fixed the roof while the sun was shining.

You call this the sun shining? Until there is an interest rate rise I consider it a continuation of 2008....

[cretinscourge]

There's no reason to ... balance the budget

Ah yes the current idea du jour of the chattering classes.
We aren't really sure what happens if we don't balance the budget in the long run, but we do have an example of a country that threw caution to the wind in that respect: Greece.
Doh!

[DimPrawn]

You call this the sun shining? Until there is an interest rate rise I consider it a continuation of 2008....

All the boom and bust is great if you time it well. Buy property and shares, double your money, sell now, buy it all again in a few years time at half the cost, rinse and repeat, move to a tax haven.

The Tory path to riches.

[administrator]

Ah yes the current idea du jour of the chattering classes.
We aren't really sure what happens if we don't balance the budget in the long run, but we do have an example of a country that threw caution to the wind in that respect: Greece.
Doh!

That you sas?

[BrilloPad]

That you sas?

Why not compare ip addresses and let us know?

[DimPrawn]

Why not compare ip addresses and let us know?

If it is from the rough end of Lewisham, it's @rseguru alright.

[seanraaron]

Ah yes the current idea du jour of the chattering classes.
We aren't really sure what happens if we don't balance the budget in the long run, but we do have an example of a country that threw caution to the wind in that respect: Greece.
Doh!

Yes you do and it's been a superpower for over half a century. The balanced budget law in the United States has been a liability more than its fixed anything, but the fact is that you don't need that kind of legislation to keep the economy ticking over, it just needs to be diverse.

Of course Britain appears to be too small to emulate the States (doesn't stop this desire for an American-style consumer economy for some reason), hence why we're better in the EU. Unless the plan is to repair the damage Thatcher did to the industrial base and that "Labour" subsequently ignored because "we're post-industrial now?"

[cretinscourge]

That you sas?

Yep. can I have sasguru back, I've forgotten the p/w?

[cretinscourge]

Yes you do and it's been a superpower for over half a century. The balanced budget law in the United States has been a liability more than its fixed anything, but the fact is that you don't need that kind of legislation to keep the economy ticking over, it just needs to be diverse.

There are several reasons why the US has been able to "afford" to keep it's debt growing, not least its de-facto reserve currency status.
But that period may be ending - the collapse may be spectacular.

[ZARDOZ]

Labour never promised to get rid of the deficit, so they wouldn't have missed any targets. Their promise on the deficit was so vague and full of caveats - that the two Ed's could claim success no matter what happened.

So even if we end up in the same level of tulip, it would have sounded better under Labour.

But seriously, Osborne is being hammered for having the balls to set a hard target. He might be a total tulip-up, but at least he's made it easier to measure his degree of tulip-up ness.

Don't belive the hype government spending is increasing with all kinds of waste for example 70 billion on unwanted HS2.
Meanwhile the 'cuts' are ideological and don't scrape the surface. Expect more tax rises and debt to carry on toward 2 trillion.