The BBC ignored the oncoming US ‘Fiscal Cliff’ for a long time but has now got the recent deal that at least initially puts the brakes on marked down as one of Obama’s magical successes….something we in Britain, George Osborne in particular, could learn from.
However what the BBC aren’t telling us is that the deal imposes more ‘Austerity’ on the US than Osborne has imposed upon us (or should I say the Labour Party has imposed upon us?)…..
Brad Plumer in the Washington Post explains……
For years now, economists like Paul Krugman [mostly on the BBC!] have been criticizing countries in Europe for engaging in too much austerity during the downturn — that is, enacting tax increases and spending cuts while their economies were still weak.
But after this week’s fiscal cliff deal, the United States is now on pace to engage in about as much fiscal consolidation in 2013 as many European nations have been doing in recent years — and more than countries like Britain and Spain.
So how does the sheer scale of the U.S. austerity program for 2013 compare to what European countries have been doing over the past few years?
Britain has earned a lot of criticism for its austerity programs in the past two years. But at a total size of 1.5 and 1.6 percent of GDP, each of those two deficit-reduction years were smaller than what the United States is planning this year. The United States is also planning to cut and tax more heavily this year than Spain did in 2010 and 2011. Or France. That said, we’re nowhere near Greek or Portuguese or Irish levels of austerity.
A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests Congress has enacted around $304 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts for the coming year, an austerity package that comes to about 1.9 percent of GDP.
The BBC in the shape of Stephanie Flanders gives us a completely different picture..…
Investors are right to be grateful to Congress for not plunging the US into an entirely avoidable downturn.
If the global economy is going to thrive in 2013, it needs all the forward momentum it can get from the US, especially in the first few months. US fiscal policy will tighten by about 1% of GDP this year, but that’s similar to the tightening that occurred in 2012.
It won’t tank the economy.
Note that a 1% ‘tightening’ ‘Won’t tank the economy’.
Funny how Osborne’s 1.5% fiscal tightening is presented by the BBC as the death knell of our economy.
No brakes have been put on anything really. A bit of rouge has been put over the stale, discoloured old powder that was covering the hag. Not quite deckchairs on the Titanic but no real game changer either.
Flanders is floundering but you are right to highlight the differences in the way two countries are reported. Obama all good Cameron/Osborne all bad.
The double track the BBC applies between the US & UK based on who in power they prefer represents a horrible level of professional compromise across all beats.
If only the deficit actually was going to decrease a little this year. Mark my words: it won’t.
In any case, payroll taxes have already gone up, which hurts lowest earners most. The next anvil dropped on their heads will be losing their employer-provided health care and having to go on the O-Exchange, which they won’t be able to afford. And that’s only if they live in one of the States who weren’t wise enough to opt out.
But don’t worry, it’s still a major triumph for Him.
Excellent post, Alan – total hypocrisy at the BBC
Oh…and by the way:
“Workers making $30,000 will take a bigger hit on their pay than those earning $500,000 under new fiscal deal”
From the Daily Mail
say it ain t true ….
http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/british-rapists-and-pedophiles-converting-to-islam-in-prison/
check the boxes 😀
mo – paedophile
mo – rapist
“halfway to exemplary Muslimdom, five Christian and Jew-cursing prayers a day, a jaunt to Mecca while wrapped in a bedsheet, and slitting the throat of a goat once a year and they’re all set. ”
bbc – islam prison conversions – mark easton
if you were in prison, why might you decide to convert to Islam? A “cushier life” and “nicer grub”,
… because your penchant for rape, kiddie fiddling or even murder (just like Mo) get an understandably sympathetic ear? oops sorry i added that bit.
Maybe the Guardian put out its “let`s try to empathise with the paedos” article earlier this week, merely to curry favour with their new found chums in Islam..the coming force for good nice things, once their paper is sent gratis to every Belmarsh or Full Sutton in the country. No wonder that they want prisoners to get the vote then.
Howard Reform League and the other friends of Brady and Sutcliffe may well be the only paper boys and girls we can trust to deliver the paper anyway…shouldn`t it now come with an 18+ “stiff“kit” in a brown paper bag…no, make that a Palestinian shroud eh?
I always laugh when the BBC (and labour) compares the US economy and policies to what the UK is doing. THERE IS NO COMPARISON!
Just a few thing they fail to note are –
1. USA’s population density is so much less than the UK – 89 compared to 673 people per square mile. The US population has plenty of room to expand.
2. USA’s population is 311.6 million (approx), the UK’s is 62.6 million (approx). So the US open market has many more customers than the UK.
3. USA has vast resources of just about everything it requires (were they to be foolish enough to close the country.) The UK does not have this luxury, we MUST import and export.
4. US GDP is $15.811 trillion (Q3 2012), GDP per capita $49,601 (2012); UK is $2.253 trillion (2011), GDP per capita $39,600 (2011).
5. US Dollar is by default the World’s currency of last resort, AND oil, coal, gold, and many other commodities are priced in US dollars on international markets. UK pounds is, in international terms, an also-ran.
The UK will have a necessarily harder austerity than the US because the US has the economic might to put it off for a very long while. But it will come, as surely as the BBC reports get it wrong.