RAPID RESPONSES
Debt is soaring
[Re: The real reasons why the UK is in trouble, Wednesday] Government spending has exceeded income for most years post WWII. There is a cycle which goes from growth, when tax receipts eventually catch up with spending, almost immediately followed by recession, when deficits return. The busts have been getting ever bigger and the brief periods of surplus income getting ever shorter. Our national debt has risen accordingly.
Until a politician manages to get elected on a platform of running surplus budgets for decades and actually reducing national debt, this will continue until we simply go bust altogether. Unfortunately, we seem perfectly happy with impoverishing our children and grandchildren so we can enjoy unsustainably high levels of public spending.
John Moss
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Greece is staying
[Re: Flawed euro is tearing Europe apart, yesterday], there is no “of course” about Greece leaving the euro. A flood of capital from the country prior to the currency switch date would damage the Greek economy beyond repair. The knock-on effects across the Eurozone would be far worse than the costs of a bailout. The current spat is not about Greece staying in the euro – that’s a done deal – but the means and the terms.
Paddy Briggs