Gordon Brown and Spending

If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you know that Nicole and I like to watch Prime Minister's Questions on CSPAN. If you are not familiar, it's a half hour show where members of Parliament get to pepper the Prime Minister with questions. Lately, I've found it amusing how braggadocios Brown is when it comes to spending.

I found this interchange between Brown and Conservative Party leader, David Cameron, particularly amusing:

Cameron: Will the Prime Minister accept that his own figures show that once the Treasury's own forecast for inflation is considered, that total spending will be cut after 2011?

Brown: No, Mr. Speaker, total spending will continue to rise and it will be at a zero percent rise in 2013-14.

Parliament:

I can't get enough of the laughter. Great stuff.

Gordon Brown is an absolute neo-Keynesian fool. Paul Krugman must be so proud of him. Britain's budget is in worse shape than ours. The deficit is now forecasted to be 12% of GDP (current official estimate in the U.S. is about 9%) and public debt may grow to over 80% of GDP of the coming years. The U.K. does not have the benefit of having its currency as the world's reserve currency either. In other words, printing money is much more dangerous than it is here. Government debt (or the printing of pounds) will only serve to steal potential capital which could be used for investment and stave off long-term fiscal and employment issues.

Brown has also lambasted Cameron and the Conservatives on the basis that they want to cut spending since they believe that unemployment will grow until 2014. He calls them the "party of unemployment" - funny stuff. Ridiculous, of course... but funny. A new report quotes Gordon Brown in advance of the G8 summit saying,

If we do not take the necessary action now to strengthen the world economy and put in place the conditions for sustainable world growth, we will be confronted with avoidable unemployment for years to come.

Now, Brown doesn't state that unemployment will grow until 2014, but he clearly believes that only the government, via massive spending, can take the action to avoid such a calamity. This does sound to me that he does not believe that his own plans for Keynesian stimulus will be enough - he needs coordinated spending efforts from his G8 partners.