I just read S Moore comments.
He almost has it right. "The Tory party are the political wing of the banking industry and therefore lack any real understanding of the financial decisions that they make and they most definitely lack any social conscience whatsoever"

But they do have a "real understaning" of exactly what they are doing.
Give them some credit.
They believe it totally.
They have turned their arrogance into righteous indifference to those they claim to rule.
Or rather some sections of those they claim to rule.

"Oh dear, George. Things are not looking so good."

David, you sound allmost happy when a new round of figures adds further proof that Osborne's policies do not work.

To you this may be just an intellectural exercise but to many, like myself, depressed growth just means fewer options of finding work and increased anxiety over an uncertain future.

Sometimes, 'being right' is not something to be happy about.

Dogs would have prevented this mess in the first place: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/pets/8443038/What-we-can-learn-from-ma...

Yet again Mike555 can't quote a fact to save his life.

Consumer spending accounts 68 % of the economy, strange how clueless Mike555 is of this fact.

The reason why we got into this trouble is because Osborne has killed the recovery and murdered confidence in the economy.

@Matt

"Consumer spending accounts 68 % of the economy, strange how clueless Mike555 is of this fact."

And? Doesn't it matter if people spend beyond their means then?

Still waiting for your answers to that long list of questions.

What do you think of Matthew Bishop interviewing Joseph E. Stiglitz at the 92nd Street Y (video) - http://f4a.tv/fVagPo

@Mike555
The relation between personal debt and consumer spending is central to the OBRs predictions for UK growth over the next few years.
Quite simply if their growth predictions are to be met then personal debt will have to resume its inexorable rise-- or if people choose not to become more indebted growth will stagnate at a level well below that consistent with replacing public sector job losses.

"Mr Balls is NOT the answer and provides no alternative... after all he's the one that put us in debt."

Strange remark. I thought that Ed Balls used to be Schools Secretary, not a hedge fund manager.

These political economists frighten me. The fact is that previous government spending, plus funding wars and banks, got us into this mess. We are going to have a massive cut in standards whatever is done, before economies come back under control. Most taxing is going to go on interest payments, so defaults by the UK and US are on the cards.
The UK and US are trying to print money to shrink the debt. No wonder China is buying gold as fast as it can to get rid of all the useless dollars it's been paid for exports.

Aren't economists wonderful people, all have the answers to our economic woes, but not one predicted the financial crisis. I did, and i'm not an economist. You can't keep spending what you no longer have and you can't keep borrowing your way out of debt. I'm angry with Labour, and with Mr Brown in particular. Because they didn't see it coming. But i shouldn't get angry. After all, Brown like myself aren't qualified economists.

As Mike Wood says, we are suffering from an overall lack of demand in the economy. This is because the highly-indebted are trying to save not spend.

To keep the economy running, those that are not highly-indebted, or have money saved, must spend and/or borrow more. This *includes* the government (which has relatively low debt by both historic and international comparisons).

This is why interest rates are low - to induce those that can to borrow and spend. Right now, the government is borrowing at an interest rate less than the rate of inflation, so is actually making a profit on its borrowing (providing of course that GDP keeps up with inflation. It will, won't it George?)

Anthony Binder,

The definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of declining production. We only had one quarter so it was not a recession. Might sound pedantic but it is necessary to decide on a minimum time because of variations in production. An extreme example would be using a twelve hour period and saying we fell into recession between 6pm and 6am, every single day!

Osbourne sn of millionaires doe snot have a clue about budgeting !

Blanchflower, I cannot believe how disingenuous your article is, misguiding your fellow socialist readers with utter nonsense. The IMF also described the UK cuts as "necessary" and criticized other countries for failing to rein in their debt.

Funny the type of info you omit from your articles.

By the way, what was your opinion on the UK joing the Euro currency??

Will Cameron add Osborne to the list of ministers he hangs out to dry when things go wrong? Interestingly, I have been noting for some time that Osborne and Cameron seem somewhat estranged, what I cannot work out is if Cameron is distancing himself from Osborne or it is the other way around?
Does Osborne think that Cameron is now damaged goods and is keeping his distance with one eye on the top job?

The coalition is in deep trouble, Osborne must know it!

Clegg is proving to be a PR disaster and I don't see "call me Dave" putting up with that for much longer, coalition or no coalition, Clegg is beginning to hurt the Tory party as well as taking part in the ruination of his own party. Doomsday is May elections, depending on the results, I think things are set to get a bit lively after then!

Job creation in the private sector is the ultimate decider of whether George can win or lose in his strategy. His aim to help private companies move to the UK and create employment is the key. But we need jobs now and fast! Maybe George is putting all his eggs into one basket but I don't know what else he can do... one thing i do know is that Mr Balls is NOT the answer and provides no alternative... afterall he's the one that put us in debt and now he want's us to 'trust' him to fix it... erm... don't be fooled by this joker!

in my opinion all 'chancellors' are liars but unlike the Labour government who can cover their tracks with a booming economy George has nowhere to run. I fear we'll be in this for the long run and if Labour gets back into government in 2015 they would do the same but 'slower' in their words which doesn't solve the problem either...

Thanks Labour, for not saving a single penny and for a record borrowing and debt in our years of 'boom'...

This is what the report issued by the IMF actually says.

For instance, growth in the United Kingdom
is projected at 1¾ percent in 2011 as necessary
front-loaded fiscal consolidation dampens domestic
demand. Page 65

Perhaps Mr Blanchflower did not write the headline and the first two lines as I note he does not in the article actually say that the IMF report denouces the government's measures. The headline though gives a completely misleading idea of what the IMF report says.

Am I the only one that has noticed that the economy isn´t likely to be pushed into recession? Just look at the figures from Oct-Dec,
-0.5-0.6% means WE ARE ALREADY IN A RECESSION, a contracted economy (that´s what the little '-' means) indicates a recession!!!! So atleast we were in recession ending 2010

Please, start talk about the reality we are in, you can´t add up economic growth from last spring to balance the contraction that actually exists.

With time Osborne policies could possibly work, but time waits for no man.
He is a lucky man to have gotten this far, but with a compliant media, a non-existense opposition, and dogma and with Portugal, Greece and Ireland to point his finger at to force fear into our hearts, his luck holding.
No doubt he'll be working on 'new' bogeymen to pin the blame on in the weeks ahead.
I think he's only too aware of what he is doing but is too stubborn and egotistical to admit he has got it all badly wrong.
The alternative that he atually believes all this economic nonsense of his is too horrific to even comtemplate.