Jeff Sachs in the FT on how OECD countries could finally get their acts together:
An improved fiscal policy in the transatlantic economies would therefore be based on three realities. First, it would expand investments in human and infrastructure capital [especially, Sachs makes clear elsewhere in the article, low carbon energy]. Second, it would cut wasteful spending, for instance in misguided military engagements in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen. Third, it would balance budgets in the medium term, in no small part through tax increases on high personal incomes and international corporate profits that are shielded by loopholes and overseas tax havens.
All sounds good and sensible to me. Now read it again and reflect on the fact that Britain’s coalition flunks on all three counts. Hope Ed Miliband subscribes to the FT.
