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Broken leg or heart attack? Cable and Koo on the state of the economy

Vince Cable has often used the analogy of an economic heart attack to describe the problems of the UK economy since 2008.

I’ve just got back into reading economist Richard Koo’s excellent book “The Holy Grail of Macroeconomics where he offers another analogy: the broken leg:

During a balance sheet recession, the problems resulting from too little fiscal stimulus are far more serious than those caused by too much. The latter are similar to walking with a cane even after a broken leg has healed; the former to walking, or even running, when the bone has yet to mend.

Richard Koo, The Holy Grail of Macroeconomics: Lessons from Japan’s Great Recession, Wiley Singapore, 2009, p. 67

Given the lousy state of our economy, the analogy seems all too apposite. The case is getting ever stronger for Vince’s Plan A+.

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Could this sentence bring down Cameron?

Jaw-dropping sentence in Paul Stephenson’s resignation note:

Secondly, once Mr Wallis’s name did become associated with Operation Weeting, I did not want to compromise the Prime Minister in any way by revealing or discussing a potential suspect who clearly had a close relationship with Mr Coulson.

He goes on:

I am aware of the many political exchanges in relation to Mr Coulson’s previous employment – I believe it would have been extraordinarily clumsy of me to have exposed the Prime Minister, or by association the Home Secretary, to any accusation, however unfair, as a consequence of them being in possession of operational information in this regard.

This puts Cameron’s decision to pick Andy Coulson and bring him to the centre of Government back at the very heart of the story.

All this on the same day as the Mail on Sunday implied that Cameron’s decision to choose Andy Coulson over Guto Harry was taken on the instructions of Rebekah Brooks.