http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8523034.stm
so what do the stw armchair experts think??

its pretty obvious that the times itself is too partisan to have a real say on this

but are the torries willing to wreck the countries hope of emerging from recession just to score some points against brown?

Not yet and in future by increasing taxation not reducing spending IMO

The lesson from the thatcher recessions are that a) cutting the deficit does not work as increased unemployment increases it again and B) it deepens and lengthens the recession.

but are the torries willing to wreck the countries hope of emerging from recession just to score some points against brown

Simple answer – yes.

Whilst i really dislike Mr Brown, i think handing the country over to the Tories would be suicidal.

its pretty obvious that the times itself is too partisan to have a real say on this

but are the torries[sic] willing to wreck the countries hope of emerging from recession just to score some points against brown?

unintentionally funny.

most amusing cranberry but what is your answer…..

Latest news on the budget deficit

Would these 60 Economists be the same 60 that no doubt failed to predict the recession .. why should we believe them now ! I laugh when we have Investment bankers appearing on TV telling us how the next year will pan out. FFS

For my ten bobsworth cut spending now, too much waste as it is and propping up failings with borrowed money, a lot of borrowed money that has to be paid back is not good economics in anyones books.

We can do now worse than let someone else have the key to Number 10, the Labour Government took us to this level of debt and that was with Brown as Chancellor telling me he was spending wisely and prudently,( i believe he was reffering to his MPs expenses account now) if i lashed money out like he has done i would be living on the Embankment and be declared bankrupt.

More than 60 senior economists have signed two open letters that back the chancellor's decision to delay government spending cuts until 2011.

The letters say that any measures to trim the budget deficit this year could pull the country back into recession.

Those signing the two new letters include two Nobel laureates – Robert Solow and Joseph Stiglitz – and five former members of the Bank of England's interest-rate setting committee.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8523034.stm

One of the letters, organised by crossbench peer Lord Skidelsky, accused the authors of The Sunday Times letter of trying to "frighten" the public over the scale of the deficit.

It asks how "foreign creditors will react if implementing fierce spending cuts tips the economy back into recession".

"For the good of the British public – and for fiscal sustainability – the first priority must be to restore robust economic growth," it says.

clearly succedeed in many cases.

Cuts now = increased unemployment= increased government spending = increased deficit and longer until recovery

It's not a case of cut now or cut later, it's going to be a mixture of the two schools of thought. However as there is a political battle going on everything has to be turned into one thing or the other so that the parties can say we are better. So as usual nothing will get done due to electioneering.

The lesson from the thatcher recessions are that a) cutting the deficit does not work as increased unemployment increases it again and B) it deepens and lengthens the recession.

Apart of course from the fact this is totally different to previous recessions, such as the one Callaghan sowed the seeds of. For a start the debt levels are such that they're affecting confidence in the UK economy which has all sorts of knock on effects on UK jobs etc.

We'll never pay off debt, we along with most other countries will always be in debt.

I'd like to know who we owe the money to as pretty much every nation is in debt