This speech by Ben Broadbent is quite insightful about the nature of construction activity – although the context is the UK experience, it is also quite relevant in understanding the Irish situation.
This speech by Ben Broadbent is quite insightful about the nature of construction activity – although the context is the UK experience, it is also quite relevant in understanding the Irish situation.
One reply on “Deconstruction”
Broadbent says that
“one thing that does not account for the scale of the slump since 2008 is public sector spending”.
It would be very surprising if anyone did argue that, since the period 2008 to May 2010 was characterised by an increase in government spending, including government investment under the much-criticised Brown premiership.
This increase in government spending caused the recovery which was recently replaced in Britain by a ‘double-dip’. The cause of the double-dip was entirely accounted for by the reduction in government investment. Since the coalition came to office and ‘austerity’ policies introduced, the fall in government investment has been double the total decline in GDP.
http://socialisteconomicbulletin.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-new-recession-is-directly-made-in.html