Not Working: Where Have All the Good Jobs Gone?

by David G. Blanchflower

Economics Nobel Laureate Joe Stiglitz has noted, “Take the central issue of austerity: it has never worked. Herbert Hoover tried it and converted the 1929 stock market into the Great Depression. I saw it tried in East Asia, when I was the World Bank’s chief economist: downturns became recessions, recessions depressions. The austerity medicine weakened aggregate demand, lowering growth; it reduced demand for labour, lowering wages and pushing up inequality; and it damaged public services on which ordinary citizens depend. In the UK, sharp cuts to public investment do not merely weaken the country today, but also ensure it will be weaker in the future.”