So what happens when the deficit is paid off?

[SpawnChorus]

Do you think any of the cuts (e.g. Child Benefit) will be reversed when the economy's out of crisis?

What about a microtax on MN posts? Say 0.5p per post?

With our taxes we could make Britain a better place! Def a tax on all dogs with bandy legs and studded collars.

eeeek at MN tax!

No takver. I don't want to be bankrupted - what a silly idea. Pscha.

Now, a txtspk tax - £1 for every letter you miss off
[single-handedly brings down twitter and the "youth of today"]

I agree - it's such an amazing book, so well written (despite all the statistics that made me look a bit like this while looking at it), EVERYONE should read it. I was glad to see that one of the authors is advising the US government.

So Abs, given that I'm reading a whodunnit at the moment (ahem) can you summarise it at all? And explain its relevance to current situation?
(I would like an 'end of' tax please)

Now, I am really warming to the idea of a MN tax - just think how much productivity levels would be improved amongst the women of Britain . . .

Now interestingly, I didn't think This Time is Different was actually that well written (and I thought that they really needed to get someone different to do their charts) - but I am a total numbers geek, so love having all those tables to pore over .

Basically, economic crises happen all the time, even though governments think they're WAY cleverer than their forefathers. For the most recent crisis, all the indicators were there, just everyone ignored them (apart from a select few - who were told they were being muppets). As happened every other time there's been a major economic crisis.

Hmmmm and other stuff about some countries defaulting a lot of the time (Greece has been in default 50% of the time since 1800).

and there were lots of graphs. And tables.

I think I might need to re-read it, as not everything went in the first time.

One other important point that they made is that the UK has not defaulted on its external debt for a very long time, and thus has a greater reserve of credibility than other countries who have superficially similar current positions.

I did also think that you could come to substantially different conclusions than the authors on suitable current policy from the figures presented (hence why I like having them to pore over).

I did think that there wasn't enough analysis (former history student here - that's why I read it; needed geeky economic history fix). More "here's the tables. Tah dah! that's why we think x" and I'm going "but why?! WHY are you thinking x?"

Yes yes - the UK hasn't, whereas countries like:

• Portugal
• Ireland
• Greece and
• Spain

have. And then - tah dah! economic crisis and these are the European countries most at risk of defaulting.

The problem is that even if you KNOW there is going to be a bust, unless you know when you will always make more money betting on the boom continuing. Until it bursts.