Austerity - 'worse than a crime, it is a blunder'

'Austerity has failed. It turned a nascent recovery into stagnation. That imposes huge and unnecessary costs, not just in the short run, but also in the long term: the costs of investments unmade, of businesses not started, of skills atrophied, and of hopes destroyed,' writes Martin Wolf in a scathing critique of the fiscal and political policies which have led to economic retrenchment across Europe:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/jul/11/how-austerity-has-failed/?pagination=false&printpage=true

The game is up: the age of neo-liberal finance is over. But Where is the Left's Plan B?

As the economic crisis precipitated by the 2008 banking collapse intensifies as a crisis of the whole of our debt based money system where are the left's alternatives? Neither the Labour Party or the Trade Unions were able to articulate a solution to solve our major economic and social problems, outside of berating bankers bonuses and calling for more tax collection.

The wrong type of recession

Last weekends’ papers were awash with some welcome dissent on Osbornes’ economic performance as calls for a ‘plan B’ strategy came from some of his previous backers: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/04/uk-new-economic-approach

Pay restraint is holding back economic recovery

Chris Wright, writing on the TUC’s Touchstone blog, argues for an economic strategy based on increasing wages to help stimulate demand: http://www.touchstoneblog.org.uk/2011/05/collective-bargaining-and-wage-driven-growth/