Learning to live with the demon debt
Article
Cullinane suggests that Keynesianism has won the academic debate but struggles to resonate with the public. 'Businesses of all sizes need to raise debt to finance expansion,' he says. 'People borrow money to become home owners, and the three main parties now promote it to finance university education. But when it comes to escaping from recession, the talk is of "burdening our children", as if they have no interest in economic recovery.
'And in the present, one person's spending is another person's income - so cutting public spending in a recession pretty much means cutting private income. In just the same way, one person's (or government's) debt liability is another person's (or pension fund's) financial asset - and it may well be the safest asset in the fund. It is time to look at the other face of debt.'
Related items
Forging ahead: Deciding the direction of IPPR's Migration Policy Unit
In our last blog post for the Migration Policy Unit we shared our new way of working as we endeavour to be inclusive and transparent in our policymaking process. In this blog we set out what our first and flagship project is for the policy…Who gets a good deal? Revealing public attitudes to transport in Great Britain
Transport isn’t working. That’s the message from the British public. This is especially true if you’re on a low income, disabled or living in the countryside. The cost of living crisis has exposed the shortcomings of our transport system,…Bhargav Srinivasa Desikan on TalkTV discussing AI
IPPR's Bhargav Srinivasa Desikan on TalkTV discussing his new report on the impact of generative AI on the UK labour market.