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Are the Cuts Fair?

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Submitted By harryoc
Words 12152
Pages 49
Coalition Cuts: “Tough But Fair”

Immediately as I write this essay Britain’s national debt stands at around £946,319, 240,034, 83.7% debt to GDP ratio whilst the US has a national debt of over $13,492,377,103,199. ‘Thanks to Mr Osborne, Britain now has the earliest, most aggressive programme to cut government borrowing in the G7, despite widespread fears about the strength of the UK and global recovery’ (Flanders, 2010). In this essay I will focus on Britain’s budget deficit, in particular the Emergency Budget, presenting various topics for debate in relation to different aspects of the budget. I will further expand into broader topics such as the recession as a whole, the previous Labour government, other countries situations and subsequent response and the theory behind the policies undertaken, whether driven by political or economic incentives for example. Throughout the essay I will attempt to present ideas in a balanced approach, clearly showing the difference between positive and normative statements.

An economies growth rate fluctuates over a period of time, known as the economic cycle. It shows the changes over time in the macro economy such as a recession where growth falls below the trend growth rate: a negative output gap. Such events are cyclical and the general period of time between one boom and another is usually five to eight years (Peter Cramp, Informe).

Gordon Brown was keen to avoid successive budget deficits to fund government spending for the expansion of the economy, when New Labour came to power in 1997. As Chancellor he used two fiscal rules to manage the government’s finances, the Golden Rule and the Sustainable Investment Rule. The Golden Rule was a rule contained in The Code for Fiscal Stability introduced by the former Labour government. It stated that over an economic cycle, net government

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