Should you cut Government deficits in a recession?
I thought that the contrast between Eire - which had take action to sort out it's deficit but was constrained by being in the Euro - and the UK - which could devalue its currency but had out of control public spending - would be interesting. In the event the situation reversed: the UK got a new Government which took firm action that increased its credibility allowing it to continue borrowing and at lower interest rates. Eire got in a mess because its banks were in a much worse state than people thought and the Government provided a guarantee for all their debts. This has seriously damaged their credit rating - initially, things were looking reasonable but as the full horror of their banks unfolded they needed help. I suspect they would have been better allowing the banks to default (although protecting depositors) rather than hurting taxpayers, but that would have badly hurt banks in other European countries - especially Germany. And that would not have been popular.
So the question is unresolved: I remain convinced that sometimes you should cut deficits, and both the UK and Eire were right to do so, and will benefit compared with other indebted European countries. 2011 should show the result.
Does the public sector serve us - or is it the other way round?
I suggested that the public sector - and I really mean the management of the public sector - had forgotten why it existed, which is to provide efficient public service. (See last year's post for links to examples). I hoped that 2010 would be a year when the public started to take back control., accepting that the culture of low productivity and indifference to the public had taken years to create and would take years to disappear. I'm not sure there has been much progress on this; the flurry of press interest in this topic has largely disappeared and there will be a major media push by public sector unions about the unfairness of expenditure cuts, which will probably become the new story.
However, there is hope: Eric Pickles, the "Communities Secretary", has pushed for much more openness about Local Authority spending and the coalition has reduced the number of quangos if not had a bonfire of them. The philosophy of most of the coalition is to support localism, the Big Society, community involvement. Little things like giving local areas the power to determine housing needs rather than having them set by distant regional development agencies all help the trend towards reducing the power of the public sector. And a lack of money helps. So although there's been little progress the change of Government has kept the pressure on.
Is global cooling the new global warming?
I wondered if 2010 would become a year when it became respectable to be a climate change denier. I think it did: there has been an increasing realisation that the statistics and climate readings have been over-exaggerated by those with an interest in promoting expenditure on yet more research or in developing businesses on the back of fear of temperature increases. (Micheal Crichton wrote an interesting book "State of Fear" which suggest that Governments also wanted to promote the concept because by making people worried it allowed them to increase their control over the public. He also cautions about the politicisation of science - a timely caution many scientists ignored). As other topics which allow them to increase public worry - the economy, terrorism - come to the fore, Governments are less interested in climate change.)
I still think it sensible to invest in energy efficiency, and in the reduction of the use of coal, oil and gas, but for economic, environmental and energy security reasons. The hijacking of the debate by climate scientists has devalued these worthy objectives.
Labour or Tory?
I did make a prediction here: I thought there'd be a hung Parliament (because the swing to the Tories would have been to much to realistically expect) but I also thoiught the LibDems would support Labour. In fact, thanks to a focus on the importance of sorting out the UK economy by senior Tory and LibDem leaders, the coalition agreement was put in place and has lasted well so far. Selfish MPs on both the Tory and LibDem side like to rock the boat from time to time but absent a really serious disagreement on an unexpected item, the agreement looks likely to stick. Probably because the electorate would punish those who caused any break-up.
It's a relief to see a Government that cares about the economy in charge. Cameron has settled into the job - and where is Gordon Brown? It's interesting how quickly important people fade away if their bubble is burst (in all fields not just politics).
Internationally, I noted the importance of:
US Mid-Terms
I wondered whether Obama would have made progress in dealing with the mess Bush's team left behind, and whether that progress would be accepted by the US electorate. I think he did, but the electorate certainly didn't accept he had. However, I suspect he will do well over the next two years because the Republicans will either have to co-operate or be shown to be bankrupt of ideas. In either case, as the global economy picks up Obama will get the credit (probably unfairly, but that's fair as he's being unfairly blamed for things going wrong now).I also said: "It usually takes two or three years for a change of Government to have any impact – so the problems in the first two or three years of a Government are usually those of the last one." Still true.
Iran
I wondered if a new regime to emerge. It nearly did. But the old one relied on the armed forces and brute force to keep it in place. I still hope that this basically civilised country can re-emerge as a force for good in the region: rebellion remains in the air and needs to be softly encouraged by the West.
"AfPak"
My closing thought for 2010 was that it is hard to see a good outcome here. And that remains my thought: Pakistan continues to have deep divisions, an unsuitable Government, an intelligence service that faces two ways and an unnatural distrust of India fermenting its desire to see a destablised Afghanistan. Which in turn has a dodgy Government that doesn't control most of the country. The West has wasted billions here, has made itslef deeply unpopular and has no real plan for a constructive escape.
Thoughts for 2011 will follow shortly.
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