tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3881762807913180318.post2060801426283398931..comments2024-01-23T16:53:02.428+00:00Comments on Mark Thompson: Fraser Nelson and numbers shorn of meaningMark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00744387583593537268noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3881762807913180318.post-64636336920706413372010-01-05T10:03:29.535+00:002010-01-05T10:03:29.535+00:00A sound acid test. Although keep in mind the publi...A sound acid test. Although keep in mind the public at large and nearly all the infotainment industry are virtually innumerate and so it is often a forlorn hope to offer explanation through numbers.<br /><br />Also, the half million pounds figure is not such a bad example perhaps. The message has been given that the debt is way too high, disasterously so (*), and being able to say it has increased by £1/2 million in a known (to the audience) period of time may well be effective. £1/2 million is a graspable figure for many - 2 or 3 times the worth of the average home.<br /><br />(*) This is not a Keynsian-type recession and large debt balances may be a symptom of past errors but bring their own fresh probems.Cardinal Richelieu's molehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07355424371874064362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3881762807913180318.post-64409865102108396312010-01-05T01:07:02.521+00:002010-01-05T01:07:02.521+00:00And before I forget, a warning for Cameron from Ja...And before I forget, a warning for Cameron from Japan:<br /><br />http://freethinkingeconomist.com/2009/09/28/how-cutting-the-deficit-can-increase-the-deficit/Alexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3881762807913180318.post-47836034669709608022010-01-05T01:03:44.560+00:002010-01-05T01:03:44.560+00:00"The acid test of these sort of figures for m..."The acid test of these sort of figures for me is to imagine if they were an order of magnitude lower or higher. Imagine if the figure was £100 Billion or £10 Trillion. Would most people know what a reasonable figure for household debt was when described in these sort of terms? I would suggest not."<br /><br />That has to be the wisest thing I've read in quite a while.<br /><br />I should also point out that the stat you got from twitter doesn't add up - the person has used a government debt figure of roughly £200 bn when it should be £175 bn.<br /><br />I should also point out that the twitter person, Cameron and Nelson all don't seem to understand economics. Why is this debt supposed to be a bad thing? The debt is the symptom of our real problem, which is the fact we're in a recession! The tax take has plummeted, and welfare payments have increased (and this partly helps us, since it is in some small sense a Keynesian response to just allow these "automatic stabilizers" to just kick in and not fight against them). And a fiscal stimulus (which the government did in some small way, although not good enough try, with its VAT tax cut) helps us even more by bringing back growth, even though it increases the debt further (though not as much as the automatic stabilizers) in the short run (in the long run, the debt is less than if we took no action though).Alexnoreply@blogger.com