Guido’s not the only one fed up of hearing the constant cry of the so-called ‘black hole’ from Labour. Former Chief Economist at the Bank of England Andy Haldane warned Reeves’ ominous black hole chat generates “fear” amongst businesses, investors and consumers. He told Sky News last night:
“That’s generated fear and foreboding, an uncertainty among consumers among businesses among investors…which is unfortunate because just after the election there was a sense of refresh, a sense of renewal a confidence about the UK both domestically and internationally.”
For a party claiming to be one of business and growth, Reeves should know that showing weakness and uncertainty doesn’t exactly fuel a position of strength…
Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane on the crisis of economic forecasts:
“If you look at how the consumer performed during the course of the last year it’s almost as though the referendum had not taken place. In terms of the real things like pay and jobs not very much happened during the course of last year. It’s pretty much business as usual. The spending power in people’s pockets was not materially dented… Maybe some of the scarier stories politically will be seen to be just that – scare stories.”
Savour this mea culpa from Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane, when asked why experts had got the aftermath of a Leave vote so badly wrong:
“It’s true, and again fair cop…If you look at how the consumer performed during the course of the last year it’s almost as though the referendum had not taken place. In terms of the real things like pay and jobs not very much happened during the course of last year. It’s pretty much business as usual. The spending power in people’s pockets was not materially dented… Maybe some of the scarier stories politically will be seen to be just that – scare stories.”
Haldane calls “the crisis in economic forecasting” its “Michael Fish moment”. At least Michael Fish genuinely misread the data unlike the Bank of England which under Carney chose to join the Osborne’s Project Fear…
