- US jobs flat;
- BRICS slow;
- German trade & indust flat;
- EZ flat/down;
- UK trade down, industry flat.
Could add wages falling, zero hours contracts taking over real jobs, chronic underemployment, static 7.8% unemployment. Residential rents, food and energy are all rising faster than average inflation. Savings are falling.
But worst of all UK private debt is rising:
Graph by 3spoken: UK Sectoral Balances and Private Debt Levels - Q1 2013. All credit to the author Neil Wilson. As he says "The UK is back on the borrowing drug."
This is not a recipe for economic success. If this is a recovery then it is very narrowly based on rising house prices. So yeah, rising GDP is a good thing (while we rely on an infinitely expanding economy to sustain our standards of living) but its not accompanied by other more encouraging signs.
At the moment there is an European Initiative for Basic Income trying to get 1 million signatures to force the European Parliament to study this proposal but no one is talking about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zru79jcVTt4
ReplyDeletePerhaps you would consider doing a post about this economic alternative that aims at minimizing the economic disparity and simultaneous eradicating poverty.