Gordon’s economic history lesson

It cannot have been easy or much fun for the man. Gordon Brown’s appearance on the Andrew Marr show this morning was supposed to have been the start of the big fight-back after the appalling drubbing that he suffered at the polls on Thursday and Friday. But the garbled mixture of reassurance and platitudes about the government ‘feeling our pain’ was distinctly underwhelming. I winced ahfl way through the interview when Brown claimed that the last Labour government inherited high inflation from the Conservatives. This is simply not true. I applaud his decision to give independence to the Bank of England in May 1997, but low and (relatively) stable inflation did not appear miraculously when Blair walked into Number 10 that year - consumer price inflation (the government’s chosen emasure, but not one that most of us now look at with much credence) was already low for some years before 1997 as our chart shows. Inflation targets (introduced in the UK in 1992 after our departure from the ERM) and a favourable mix of disinflationary economic shocks, globalisation and the strong exchange rate combined to give Brown and his Treasury team an inheritance of low inflation when they came to power. Perhaps it was the stress that caused Brown to make such a shocking mistake in his attempt to teach us all a little economic history?

Unit 2 Macro: Evaluation on Supply-Side Policies [21 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The Current Account of the Balance of Payments [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Migration and the UK Economy [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Measuring Inflation in the UK [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Real Interest Rates [20 May 2012]
Q&A: What do we need to know about output gaps? [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The Output Gap [20 May 2012]
Revision notes on unemployment [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Bank Cuts UK growth Forecast for 2012 [16 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision Notes on Supply-side Policies [10 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Model answer for revision data question [9 May 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: The Dawn of a Shareholder Spring? [8 May 2012]
Made in China - but not quite so cheaply…... [7 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Monetary Policy and Inflation Glossary [5 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Trade and Balance of Payments Glossary [5 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Aggregate Demand Glossary [5 May 2012]
Macro Revision - Key Statistics on the UK Economy [4 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Using the Cost-Benefit Principle [30 Apr 2012]
Macro Revision: Putting Things in Context [29 Apr 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Globalisation Revision Quiz [14 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Inflation and the Business Environment [6 Apr 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Productivity Improvements in China [3 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision on Real Economic Data [2 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision on Real Disposable Income [2 Apr 2012]
Posen on slower growth in the UK compared to the USA [30 Mar 2012]
Life in the Slow Lane - UK Growth in 2011 Lags the Euro Area [28 Mar 2012]
Beyond the Bike - Monetary Policy in Africa [28 Mar 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Evaluating 3 Years of Quantitative Easing [27 Mar 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Video Resources on the Euro Crisis [10 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Policies to Drive Economic Recovery [9 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Might Oil Prices Bring another Recession? [4 Mar 2012]
Economies hooked on central bank stimulants? [4 Mar 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: King on the UK Economy [15 Feb 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Signs of Progress for Zimbabwe [29 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on China - Inflation [26 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Russia Joins the WTO [22 Jan 2012]
Inflation - what’s up, what’s down and what’s going to happen next [17 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Quantitative Easing in the UK [8 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Brazil Overtakes UK in Economic Size [26 Dec 2011]
Great Economics Blog to Follow - Danny Quah [15 Dec 2011]
Rising prices and falling real incomes [13 Dec 2011]
Jim O’Neill - The Growth Map: Economic Opportunity in the BRICs and Beyond [22 Nov 2011]
Beyond the Bike - The Value of Money [19 Nov 2011]
Economics Resources - Week Ended 6 November 2011 [6 Nov 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: China and India - Notes from Martin Wolf [6 Nov 2011]
Australia lowers interest rate to 4.5% [1 Nov 2011]
Tour of the US income distribution – “The L Curve” [25 Oct 2011]
Can the “invisible hand” solve Africa’s poverty? [13 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Unit Labour Costs and Inflation [12 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: UK Inflation Charts [12 Oct 2011]
University Challenged [11 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: When China Met Africa [1 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: EU proposes a “Tobin Tax” [28 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: IMF Flags up Risks of Double Dip [20 Sep 2011]
Inflation in India [18 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Interest Rates and Income Inequality [16 Sep 2011]
Study Note - Macroeconomic policy objectives [16 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Progress towards Millennium Goals [12 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Inequality and Development [12 Sep 2011]
Starter Video: The Slums of Manilla [11 Sep 2011]
Slicing up the Apple - globalisation graphic [22 Aug 2011]
Monetary Policy Roundtable [25 Jul 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Dangers of High Inflation [11 Jul 2011]
Six Global Trends Shaping Business Strategy [15 Jun 2011]
Not so much food inflation, but food hyperinflation! [30 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Supply-Side Policies [25 May 2011]
AQA Macro: Remember to revise inflation [25 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Demand Pull Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Deflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Cost Push Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Inflation [24 May 2011]
UK Economy Update: What Mervyn Said [11 May 2011]
Interest Rates Held at 0.5% once again [5 May 2011]
AS Micro: Rising Global Food Prices [2 May 2011]
Video Clips on the Chinese Economy [1 May 2011]
AS and A2 Macro Revision: Keynesian Economics [28 Apr 2011]
UK Economy at a Glance April 2011 [17 Apr 2011]
China set to become exporter of inflation [14 Apr 2011]
A2 Macro: Back to Roubini - a Year On! [11 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Real Disposable Income [11 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Monetary Policy Tightening [11 Apr 2011]
UK Minimum Wage rises by 2.5% in October 2011 [8 Apr 2011]
ECB breaks rank and raises interest rates [7 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Fiscal Austerity [6 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Aggregate Supply Shock [6 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Inflationary Pressure [5 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Relative deflation [2 Apr 2011]
OCR F585 June 2011: Data Charts [30 Mar 2011]
The New North - Population Shift [23 Mar 2011]
Keeping Track of UK Macro Objectives [18 Mar 2011]
Focus on Spain [16 Mar 2011]
Global supply chain threatened by Japanese disaster [16 Mar 2011]
Dambisa Moyo - How the West was Lost [11 Mar 2011]
the latest data from the MPC [8 Mar 2011]
EU Economics: Germany leads Euro Zone revival [25 Feb 2011]
Worst Cases of Hyperinflation [16 Feb 2011]
Combining monetary and fiscal policy to curb inflation in China [16 Feb 2011]
Inflation Stats - Look no Further! [14 Feb 2011]
The US-China Trade Deficit [14 Feb 2011]
China and Africa - Resources on their relationship [14 Feb 2011]

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