Ed Balls - economic genius?

Only a few months ago, Ed Balls was attacking the Conservative lead Coalition government's economic record.

'Your experiment with austerity economics has failed on living standards, jobs and growth and on deficit reduction too – and the British people are paying the price for this failure.'

Today I note that that left wing economic commentator Paul Mason in The Guardian writes:

'The argument that fiscal austerity would lead to deep recession or permanent stagnation has proved false. In part, this is because the austerity is back-loaded, with the heaviest cuts starting now. But the economy has also refused to behave as the doomiest predicted. People have clung to jobs, even at the cost of tolerating zero-hours contracts, wage cuts, pension raids and unpaid overtime.

It is true that GDP per head is stagnating. It is also true that if you measure GDP against the retail price index, instead of the government-preferred CPI, it is flat. It's also true that growth is patchy regionally – not just between regions but even within small towns, as Rochdale shows. However, the headline GDP figure is important. If, in the next few quarters, its growth is sustained, the narrative of the government's critics on the left will have to change.

But sustaining the recovery is where the second political problem begins. Our last mini-recovery was choked off by inflation: real spending power shrank and growth went into reverse. This time there is more government money flowing through the credit system, through Help To Buy, and the funding for lending scheme – where the government underwrites bank lending risks. So this time the recovery may be able survive renewed inflation.'

 Maybe the headline is the best summary:

The economic recovery may be patchy, but the left is wrong to ignore it

It's not the same across the country, but there are signs of growth. The challenge for Labour is how to make the most of the new reality

Ed Balls and reality, now those are strange bedfellows.

How long are their holidays?

The BBC's Newsnight Economics Editor, Paul Mason, usually updates his blog very regularly, however he seems to have gone off the boil recently. Here's a list of the dates of the last 20 updates to his BBC blog:
26 April
30 April
30 April
3 May
9 May
14 May
16 May
23 May
6 June
12 June
13 June
14 June
15 June
18 June
28 June
29 June
2 July
3 July
4 July
27 July - A brief musing seemingly sparked by landing at Heathrow

Since then not a word. Could it be that Paul Mason has been away on holiday for a month? Lucky him, nothing too good for the BBC's in-house 'ex-Trotskist' - 'up the workers'.

I suppose that the longer he's away and silent, the less chance he has to poison people's minds.

'Solidarity brother, solidarity'

I have long pointed out the anti-Conservative bias spewed out by the BBC's Michael Crick, a man who is never happier as a journalist than when 'investigating' a Tory but who shows very little interest in investigating the left of British politics. So I was not surprised to read his views about the BBC 'journalist' strike - "I haven’t listened to the Today programme. I regard listening to or watching the BBC as strike breaking."

With such as Michael Crick and James "If we win the election"Naughtie in front of the microphone and such as Paul Mason in the control room, is it any wonder the BBC is as politically biased as it is?

That might help to explain Newsnight's political stance

Harry's Place about the BBC journalists strike reminded me of something that I had forgtten about Newsnight's economics editor, Paul Mason; something that Harry's Place reported just over two years ago. Go and read for yourselves...

'I do not think that a BBC journalist would participate in three events organised by the BNP or BNP front organisations. I am suprised that Newsnight’s Economic editor – of all things! – feels comfortable participating in SWP events.

...

... the Socialist Workers’ Party: which in the past ten years has devoted its energies to promoting speakers from Hamas and Hezbollah, lying about their genocidal racism, and promoting the viciously antisemitic Gilad Atzmon.'