Politics

The dystopia of a world without growth

philmullan Economic growth, Green agenda, Politics, Welfarism

UN agencies, academics and other policymakers have launched an alternative to what they call the ‘doomed strategy’ of economic growth. Signatories to this ‘roadmap for eradicating poverty beyond growth’ include Olivier De Schutter, Joseph Stiglitz, Jayati Ghosh, Thomas Piketty, Kate Raworth and Jason Hickel.

Their ‘roadmap’ is typical of much contemporary growth-critical writing – it is wistful, authoritative and extremely vague about how the post-growth future can be realised.

The notion of a post-growth economy can appear dotty. Yet it embodies the influential ‘progressive’ frame of mind that upholds the need for abstinence on the part of the general populace. These particular economists are among today’s best-known growth sceptics – a splendid term coined by Daniel Ben-Ami to encompass the increasingly celebrated medley of ‘degrowthers’, ‘anti-growthers’ and ‘agrowthers’ (‘a’ is for agnostic). Predicated on the notion that humanity has breached, or will imminently breach, nature’s limits, their message is that human societies have to start curbing their economic and material development.

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Britain’s addiction to borrowing is a recipe for disaster

philmullan Debt, Economic policy, Politics, State intervention, Welfarism

Is Britain about to be plunged into even greater economic chaos? Pundits have highlighted a remark made by the supposed prime minister in-waiting, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, in an interview he gave to the New Statesman last year. The government, he said, had to ‘get beyond this thing of being in hock to the bond markets’. Understandably, the worry is that Burnham – who, if successful in the upcoming Makerfield by-election, will likely replace Keir Starmer as prime minister – would water down Labour’s ‘non-negotiable’ fiscal rules to finance even more public borrowing.

Burnham’s, and Labour’s, openness to further public debt needs to be defeated once and for all. Our addiction to borrowing – a near-permanent feature of British politics since the Second World War – is at the root of three issues that have led us to the financial and social abyss we find ourselves in. Borrowing has become financially destructive, it has sustained a class of weak and cowardly politicians, and it has entrenched a culture that has become increasingly dependent on handouts and subsidies. It must be ended.

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The reckless adventurism of Trump’s war in Iran

philmullan Changing world order, Geopolitics, Politics, United States

The White House has launched a war with little thought, strategy or rationale.

What do America’s air strikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran tell us about the disposition of this aged global power? Overriding everything else, the war confirms that America retains an extremely powerful military machine, but has a political class that doesn’t know how to act in its country’s interests.

The anxieties of its insular Beltway elite are worsened because it can’t brush off how much its economy’s apparent buoyancy is dependent on foreigners continuing to lend to it. Washington’s under-discussed debt trap is a persistent risk, including for funding its military. America’s objective position in the world, its unprecedented – I employ that overused word with thought – its unprecedented combination of military superiority alongside a hollowed-out industrial and productive base, makes it an erratic and dangerous force in international affairs.

This represents a perilous situation for Americans, as well as for the rest of the world’s population. Another lesson of the war is that in opposing unexplained and arbitrary actions overseas, many voters for Trump show a shrewder grasp of geopolitics and of US national interests than do Trump and his team.

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This Budget debacle signifies much more than Rachel Reeves’ ineptness

philmullan Debt, Democracy, Economic policy, Politics, state, Welfarism

After this shambolic Budget, it is now beyond doubt: no one should believe a word uttered by the chancellor of the exchequer. Her Budget statement this week amounted to a litany of broken pledges – including some made only weeks ago.

In her spirited response to Reeves’s statement, opposition leader Kemi Badenoch urged the chancellor to stop blaming others and instead blame herself. While Reeves certainly has much to answer for, it is ultimately misleading to hold her alone responsible for this politically and economically alarming state of affairs.

The deeper issue is that the British political system itself now produces figures like Reeves: technocratic managers who lack both authority and genuine democratic accountability. Reeves, Keir Starmer, and their cabinet colleagues merely personify the impotence of this type of managerialist politician.

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Rachel Reeves has no answer to Britain’s financial mess

philmullan Debt, Economic policy, Politics, state, Welfarism

The deluded chancellor is at it again as Rachel Reeves prepares her second “one-time-only” tax-raising and debt-increasing autumn Budget. After last year’s Budget, the chancellor declared: “We will never need to do another budget like this again… We have now set the envelope for spending for this parliament, and we are not going to be coming back with more tax increases or, indeed, with more borrowing.”

But Rachel Reeves has spent much of the past month suggesting that it would be necessary to raise income-tax rates in the next budget. But now Reeves has U-turned on her U-turn. Having spent weeks suggesting the dire state of the public finances necessitated income tax rises, she appears to have changed her mind again. According to reports, Reeves was told by the God-like Office for Budget Responsibility this week that the government’s financial shortfall will be not quite as large as first forecasted – closer to £20 billion than £30 billion. This ‘good news’ apparently allowed Reeves to back down on some of her floated increases in income tax rates. There’s little doubt that political expediency also played a significant role in this U-turn on a U-turn.

This government seems to have absolutely no idea how to tackle Britain’s profound economic challenges. So let’s imagine an alternative approach: a new government is elected next week, with a mandate to fix things. What sort of budget could it come up with in the interests of the country?

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