Tuesday, August 21, 2012

The Fairy Tale Of British Spending Cuts

As we all know, Keynesians blame Britain's double dip recession on the Cameron governments allegedly savage austerity, and argues that the recession proves that he should reverse course

 There's one big problem with that argument: those spending cuts are nowhere to be found. Below are central government spending in Britain for the first 7 months of 2012 and 2011. The number excluding interest is arguably the most interesting one since interest rates isn't something the governmment can directly decide upon.

 Central Government spending 2011 Jan-July: £356.35 billion

 Central Government spending 2012 Jan-July: £368.91 billion +3.5%

 Excluding interest 2011: £327.81 billion

Excluding interest 2012: £342.22 billion +4.4%

 I'm asking you, do these numbers look like spending cuts to you?