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Why is the IMF anti-austerity?
Why is the IMF, an organization hardly known for being left wing, critical of austerity measures?
"The IMF's chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, explained that recent efforts among wealthy countries to shrink their deficits — through tax hikes and spending cuts — have been causing far more economic damage than experts had assumed.
IMF forecasts have been consistently too optimistic for countries that pursued large austerity programs. This suggests that tax hikes and spending cuts have been doing more damage to those economies than policymakers expected. (Conversely, countries that engaged in stimulus, such as Germany and Austria, did better than expected.)"
Why does Osborne, with a degree in history, think he knows more about economics than the IMF?
"The IMF's chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, explained that recent efforts among wealthy countries to shrink their deficits — through tax hikes and spending cuts — have been causing far more economic damage than experts had assumed.
IMF forecasts have been consistently too optimistic for countries that pursued large austerity programs. This suggests that tax hikes and spending cuts have been doing more damage to those economies than policymakers expected. (Conversely, countries that engaged in stimulus, such as Germany and Austria, did better than expected.)"
Why does Osborne, with a degree in history, think he knows more about economics than the IMF?
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What are you on about? The IMF has been very supportive of Osborne recently.
Do you know anything other than blind partisan rhetoric.? Simply UK has not pursued large scale Austerity. You've no idea what thay actually means clearly. IMF have apologised to Osborne for Blanchard comments in 2013 saying they were wrong. UK remains fastest growing major western economy. It's why Tories won election.
And they achieved the fastest growing western economy without large scale austerity. So why is it wrong for them to be anti-austerity?
I think that you will find that the IMF is talking about Greek style austerity rather the far milder form carried out in the UK.