Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea
by Mark Blyth · 24 Apr 2013 · 576pp · 105,655 words
. After briefly detailing some nineteenth- and early twentieth-century precursors, I examine the two key austerity doctrines formed in this period: “liquidationism”—sometimes called “the Banker’s doctrine” in the United States—and the “Treasury view” in the United Kingdom. These ideas were, I argue, the original neoliberal ideas in that they drew on the classical liberalism
…
were far from alone in expounding such ideas. Indeed, back in the 1920s such ideas had a pronounced British accent. Austerity with a British Accent: The Treasury View Despite the expansion of the British state into the realm of pensions and insurance and regulation under the influence of New Liberal ideas in the
…
-1920s, however, as the postwar slump had turned into a full-blown depression, and as these doctrines increasingly came under attack for worsening the situation, the Treasury view began to take form as a defense of the status quo. Its origins lie in the Treasury’s response to proposals to alleviate unemployment through
…
its ambitions and its actions. But over time the side of economic liberalism that saw a more positive role for the state began to influence the Treasury view. By 1935, although the Treasury was still arguing that although “public works as a remedy for unemployment were quite futile,” government nonetheless still had a
…
, we need only note that the US economy got worse each time austerity was applied—first in 1931 and again in 1937. Defending Sterling and the Treasury View: British Austerity 1921–1939 Britain, as noted in chapter 4, returned to the gold standard in 1925 after five years of austerity policies designed to
…
of GDP in 1930 to 190 percent of GDP in 1933.31 The currency depreciation that getting off gold facilitated helped restore exports, but with the Treasury view of the economy still dominant, Britain continued to stagnate with endemic high unemployment until rearmament, the crudest form of stimulus, created the conditions for recovery
…
1972): 2. 85. Stanley Baldwin, quoted in Keith Middlemas and John Barnes, Baldwin: A Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972) quoted in George C. Peden “The ‘Treasury View’ on Public Works and Employment in the Interwar Period,” The Economic History Review 37, 2 (May 1984): 169. 86. John Maynard Keynes, The Collected Writings
…
of John Maynard Keynes: Volume VIII (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 19–23, quoted in Peden, “The ‘Treasury View,’” 170. 87. John Quiggin, Zombie Economics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012). 88. Robinson, “Second Crisis,” 1. 89. Ibid., 4. In other words, if investors
…
, Zombie Economics, 213. 91. George. C. Peden “Keynes, The Treasury and Unemployment in the 1930s,” Oxford Economic Papers 32, 1 (March 1980): 6. 92. Peden, “The ‘Treasury View,’” 173. Interestingly, this is the same argument given today by conservative historian Niall Ferguson for why stimulus policies don’t work. See Niall Ferguson, “It
…
the Innovation Economy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 246–247. 94. Janeway, Doing Capitalism, 248. 95. See Hopkins’s view in Peden, “The ‘Treasury View,’” 175, 176. 96. Peden, “The ‘Treasury View,’” 176. 97. Ibid. 98. Ibid., 177. 99. Peden, “Keynes, The Treasury,” 9. 100. Eichengreen, Golden Fetters: The Gold Standard and the Great Depression
…
, 187–189 “Banker’s doctrine”, 101 banking system of, 6 cost of crisis, 45, 52 Bush administration economics policy, 5, 58–59 capital-flow cycle in, 11 Congressional Research Service (CRS), 213 debt-ceiling agreement, 3 depression in, 188 Federal Reserve, 6, 157 federal taxes, 242–243 liberalism in, 119–122 liquidationism in, 119
End This Depression Now!
by Paul Krugman · 30 Apr 2012 · 267pp · 71,123 words
? Because, they claim, people have to spend their income on something. This is the fallacy Keynes called “Say’s Law”; it’s also sometimes called the “Treasury view,” a reference not to our Treasury but to His Majesty’s Treasury in the 1930s, an institution that insisted that any government spending would always
Failed State: The Sunday Times Bestselling Investigation Into Why Britain Is Struggling
by Sam Freedman · 10 Jul 2024 · 368pp · 101,133 words
-permanent-secretary-to-the-treasury-sir-nicholas-macpherson-the-origins-of-treasury-control 30 Quoted in Brown, p. 134. 31 See Robert Skidelsky, ‘Keynes and the Treasury View: The Case for and against an Active Unemployment Policy 1920–1939’, in The Emergence of the Welfare State in England and Germany, edited by W
…
.J. Mommsen (Routledge, 1981). 32 https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/speech-by-the-permanent-secretary-to-the-treasury-the-treasury-view-a-testament-of-experience 33 Quoted in MacPherson, ‘The origins of Treasury control’. 34 Aeron Davis, Bankruptcy, Bubbles and Bailouts: The Inside History of the
Left Behind
by Paul Collier · 6 Aug 2024 · 299pp · 92,766 words
in raising national awareness of the brutal consequences of past Treasury policies. But as a strategy for achieving change in Whitehall, the new initiative failed. The Treasury viewed the new department as another instance of local and regional interference. The Treasury’s ultimate trump card was that it controlled the budget for the
Money and Government: The Past and Future of Economics
by Robert Skidelsky · 13 Nov 2018
s e , T r i u m p h a n d Fa l l of K e y n e s improvident plans that the ‘Treasury View’ defined itself. In a note to Lloyd George’s Committee, Sir Otto Niemeyer, Controller of Finance at the Treasury, explained that unemployment was not due
…
fiscal policy. But fiscal policy to fight the slump offered its own obstacle in the form of the Treasury View, presented at the Macmillan Committee by the formidable Sir Richard Hopkins. Keynes thought he knew what the Treasury View was, and that he was in a position to refute it. The Treasury had claimed that loan
…
agents with true beliefs – true models of the economy – to help them make the best of their situation. Keynes wrote the General Theory to refute the Treasury View; Friedman restated the Quantity Theory of Money to falsify the Keynesian view. Both ‘models’ of reality were intended to change people’s beliefs about how
…
f t e r , 2 0 0 7 – fiscal stimulus can’t help us to build more of both.’28 This was the replay of the Treasury View of the 1920s. In his first budget, George Osborne talked about an overblown state ‘crowding out private endeavour’. Thus closely did policymaking track academic simplicities
…
depended. The Treasury’s arguments were different ways of saying there was no output gap and therefore no positive multiplier. They are contemporary versions of the Treasury View which Keynes fought against in 1929–31, and which he wrote the General Theory to refute; modern restatements of Say’s Law. Economics had come
…
implication of hysteresis is that any policy which minimizes the period of recession minimizes the loss of potential output. It is a modern answer to the Treasury View. 240 t h e di s a bl e m e n t of f i s c a l p ol ic y Figure
…
1932, quoted in Skidelsky (1992), p. 441. See Skidelsky (1992), pp. 356–62 for further details of these encounters and quotation sources. For debates on the Treasury View, see also Clarke (1988), ch. 3. Krugman (2010). In a letter to Alick de Jeune, 22 November 1934. Quoted in Skidelsky (1992), p. 511. Keynes
…
. (1983), Sir Richard Hopkins and the ‘Keynesian Revolution’ in employment policy, 1929–1945. Economic History Review, 36 (2), pp. 281–96. Peden, G. C. (1984), The ‘Treasury View’ on public works and employment in the interwar period. Economic History Review, 37 (2), pp. 167–81. 450 Bi bl io g r a p
…
h y Peden, G. C. (1993), The road to and from Gairloch: Lloyd George, unemployment, inflation, and the ‘Treasury View’ in 1921. Twentieth Century British History, 4 (3), pp. 224–49. Peden, G. C. (2000), The Treasury and British Public Policy, 1906–1959. Oxford: Oxford
…
://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2012-08-21/how-volcker-created-a-gold-standard-without-gold [Accessed 3 July 2017]. Skidelsky, R. (1981), Keynes and the Treasury View: the case for and against an active unemployment policy, 1920–1929. In: W. J. Mommsen (ed.), The Emergence of the Welfare State in Britain and
The Tyranny of Nostalgia: Half a Century of British Economic Decline
by Russell Jones · 15 Jan 2023 · 463pp · 140,499 words
wedded to a Ricardian conception of society. Major sought refuge in offshore anchors; Brown in rules that he got to write. Osborne found guidance in the ‘Treasury view’ redux. Cameron gave everyone else Brexit. To her credit, Truss at least knew that growth and productivity were what really mattered. Unfortunately, the only map
…
, and Spain was likely to prove a particular stumbling block given its own issues with Catalonian and Basque self-determination. Where financial services were concerned, the Treasury view was similarly disobliging. The Scottish financial sector was important, accounting for some 7% of Scottish GDP and 8% of Scottish employment. However, the majority of
Wall Street: How It Works And for Whom
by Doug Henwood · 30 Aug 1998 · 586pp · 159,901 words
and Horn 1985). While Hilferding obviously can't be blamed for the collapse, his loyalty to capitalist financial orthodoxy — what Keynes derided in Britain as "the Treasury view" — is inexcusable in a socialist, and further proof that in practical matters, Marxians can be as blinkered as the most austere Chicagoan. money and power
Free Market Missionaries: The Corporate Manipulation of Community Values
by Sharon Beder · 30 Sep 2006 · 273pp · 34,920 words
was such that, although elected in 1983 on promises of an expanded budget ‘to increase demand and commence the arduous task of sustained economic recovery’, the Treasury view prevailed and by 1984 the prime minister was promising not to raise taxes nor increase the deficit as a proportion of GDP. In fact, over
The Death of Money: The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System
by James Rickards · 7 Apr 2014 · 466pp · 127,728 words
other major powers would never engage in it because it would produce massive losses on their own portfolios. This view reflects a dangerous official naïveté. The Treasury view supposes that the purpose of financial war is financial gain. It is not. The purpose of financial war is to degrade an enemy’s capabilities
Keeping at It: The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government
by Paul Volcker and Christine Harper · 30 Oct 2018 · 363pp · 98,024 words
longtime civil servant and practical economist Herman Liebling, I concluded we would narrowly avoid recession in 1962, contrary to the CEA’s concerns. That supported the Treasury view: don’t rush the tax bill; do it right. Slow and careful won the day. Happily for the country (and for me), we did avoid
Down the Tube: The Battle for London's Underground
by Christian Wolmar · 1 Jan 2002 · 723pp · 98,951 words
When the Money Runs Out: The End of Western Affluence
by Stephen D. King · 17 Jun 2013 · 324pp · 90,253 words
Keynes Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics
by Nicholas Wapshott · 10 Oct 2011 · 494pp · 132,975 words
Seven Crashes: The Economic Crises That Shaped Globalization
by Harold James · 15 Jan 2023 · 469pp · 137,880 words
The Defence of the Realm
by Christopher Andrew · 2 Aug 2010 · 1,744pp · 458,385 words
Not Working: Where Have All the Good Jobs Gone?
by David G. Blanchflower · 12 Apr 2021 · 566pp · 160,453 words
After the New Economy: The Binge . . . And the Hangover That Won't Go Away
by Doug Henwood · 9 May 2005 · 306pp · 78,893 words
The Panama Papers: Breaking the Story of How the Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money
by Frederik Obermaier · 17 Jun 2016 · 372pp · 109,536 words
Drink?: The New Science of Alcohol and Your Health
by David Nutt · 9 Jan 2020
The Shifts and the Shocks: What We've Learned--And Have Still to Learn--From the Financial Crisis
by Martin Wolf · 24 Nov 2015 · 524pp · 143,993 words
Does Capitalism Have a Future?
by Immanuel Wallerstein, Randall Collins, Michael Mann, Georgi Derluguian, Craig Calhoun, Stephen Hoye and Audible Studios · 15 Nov 2013 · 238pp · 73,121 words
No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy
by Linsey McGoey · 14 Apr 2015 · 324pp · 93,606 words