Not a good argument in favour of the magic money tree

Frances Ryan talks of how Labour should embrace that magic money tree economics. How the use of it as a sneer by the Tories should be turned. Then she bemoans current economic difficulties and:

The public’s concern about debt and borrowing was always era-specific to the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash, and the pandemic has well and truly eradicated it. From the furlough scheme to the vaccination programme, coronavirus killed the myth that large-scale government spending was not necessary, responsible or possible. The cost of living crisis, on top of crumbling NHS services, only shows that smart government investment is not something to be feared – it is to be welcomed.

But it is all that spending which is the very cause of the current travails. The magic money tree is what has led to our current pretty pass.

Whether the fiscal toot should have been undertaken is another argument entirely but the hangover is what is happening now. As the old saw goes, hair of the dog that bit you is the route to full blown alcoholism. So too money tree spending to cope with the effects of magic money spending.

That we’ve an inflation driven cost of living crisis is one thing, arguing that we should be printing more money to solve it is ludicrous.