BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Acute Deficit Disorder:  Cause\, Treatment and Cure - Professor Jo
 hn Weeks\, SOAS\, University of London
DTSTART:20150204T180000Z
DTEND:20150204T193000Z
UID:TALK57083@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Philippa Millerchip
DESCRIPTION:All but a few politicians and most of the media present as nee
 ding no defence that governments should continuously balance their budgets
  and not accumulate debt.  Lack of an economic or even accounting justific
 ation for balancing the budget has not stopped this fiscal foolishness fro
 m justifying appallingly anti-social policies under the umbrella of 'auste
 rity'. Part of this ideology is the fantasy that 'fiscal correction' will 
 have little or no impact on total output or growth because expansion of th
 e private sector automatically compensates for the contraction of the publ
 ic sector. This presentation addresses the common justifications for reduc
 ing deficits: the affordability fallacy\, the appeasing capital markets my
 th\, and the superficially plausible 'structural deficit' argument.\nIn ad
 dition to their logical inconsistencies\, all of these and others fail to 
 recognize a fundamental economic relationship: when recession hits\, fisca
 l deficits are not a problem\, they are part of the solution.\n
LOCATION:McGrath Centre\, St Catharine's College
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR