UK News
Insights from the UK and beyond
from Felix Salmon:
Britain’s fiscal failure
Never mind Sachs vs Krugman: by far the most interesting and important fiscal-policy debate right now is Cameron vs Wolf.
David Cameron, of course, is the prime minister of the UK, and last week he gave a rambling 4,000-word speech on the national economy which is almost impossible to read. For some reason the speech appears online in what you might call teleprompter format, with a single sentence sometimes spanning three separate paragraphs. It's a clear indication that Cameron is more interested in rhetoric than he is in substance.
Meanwhile, Martin Wolf, who for many years has been the most respected and important economic commentator in Europe, has in recent weeks become much more accessible. Check out his column on bankers' bonuses, for instance: it's a smart and rollicking read, arguing persuasively that the UK government is being idiotic in its opposition to European bonus caps.
Wolf's immediate response to Cameron was solid, but his second go-round is just devastating: we're now officially in a world where the wonkiest columnist in the driest newspaper in Britain is stating his case far more simply and clearly than the populist PR man turned prime minister:
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The Wall
