{"id":2886,"date":"2015-01-28T16:02:11","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T16:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=2886"},"modified":"2015-01-28T16:24:57","modified_gmt":"2015-01-28T16:24:57","slug":"bogus-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=2886","title":{"rendered":"Bogus recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Chancellor George Osborne repeated himself like a broken record yesterday<\/a> (January 28), saying the \u00e2\u20ac\u015brecovery was on track,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 after new figures released showing growth last year had been the fastest since 2007.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut he glossed over several inconvenient truths \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that, for example, growth slowed more than anyone expected in the last quarter of 2014 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from 0.7 per cent to 0.5. He also failed to mention that growth was propelled by a bulging service sector, which, as it stands now, is a ghetto of low-wage, low-skill labour stretched to breaking point. Or that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a surge in debt-fuelled consumer spending, another factor that points to the recovery being nothing more than a mirage.<\/p>\n

 
\nAdd to this a drop in oil prices, which likely won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t recover much ground in the next year, and a delay in the Bank of England raising interest rates, and you have an economy that appears healthy but is anything but.<\/p>\n

 
\nAs Guardian economics correspondent Phillip Inman noted in his analysis<\/a> yesterday:<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe problem with the argument [that the economy this year will be relatively stable] is that it shows how dependent growth is on all these extraordinary factors. What happens when Bank policymakers tighten the credit screw, desperate for a return to something approaching normality?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nMarch of makers?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nOsborne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s amnesia is endless, as we here at UniteLIVE remind him of his 2011 call for a so-called \u00e2\u20ac\u015bmarch of makers<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c his cutesy alliteration for supporting manufacturing.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut the latest figures show that, as our economy is propped up by services, manufacturing has chillingly flat lined, growing by only 0.1 per cent over the last quarter in 2014, the worst rate in more than a year. Construction shrivelled, declining by 1.8 per cent in the same quarter, representing the largest decline in two years.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite assistant general secretary Tony Burke argued that the economic recovery will continue being a tenuous one if an explicit manufacturing strategy is not put forward by the government.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOsborne promised he would rebalance the economy when he talked about the ‘march of makers’. But several years on, manufacturing is barely staying afloat, and what growth does exist is coming almost entirely from the automotive sector,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Burke said.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe situation is this \u00e2\u20ac\u201c over this government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s term, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve taken one step forward with manufacturing and five steps back,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWith this economy being propped up by personal debt and growth in services, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going indisputably backwards. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re heading in the same direction that put us in such a mess when the recession hit in 2008.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nBurke pointed to Germany, whose economy fared much better during the recession, specifically because investment in manufacturing was so strong. In Germany, manufacturing makes up 21 per cent of its economy, whereas in the UK, it accounts for only 12 per cent.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat we need is a government, such as Germany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, which will take on an interventionist manufacturing strategy that actually supports manufacturing instead of merely spewing empty rhetoric,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

 
\nBurke pointed to Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s manufacturing strategy, Made in Britain<\/a>, which calls for a well-funded strategic investment bank, an interventionist public procurement policy and a new eco-skills system providing quality apprenticeships and more.<\/p>\n

 
\nMr. Micawber economics<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nWhile Osborne may myopically cry \u00e2\u20ac\u015bgrowth\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 after the release of last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s overall GDP figures, TUC senior economist Geoff Tilly puts the recovery into historical perspective.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn Tilly\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s analysis, he notes that, when compared to recoveries of previous recessions, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re experiencing the slowest recovery in modern history. <\/a><\/p>\n

 
\nAnd such a slow recovery will be barely perceptible to millions of working families who are held ransom by cash-hoarding corporations.<\/p>\n

 
\nIndeed, cash hoarding \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the practice of businesses holding on to profits without re-investing \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is major reason UK productivity is so low.<\/p>\n

 
\nInman argues that the alternative to investing, which cash-hoarding corporations have embraced, is to \u00e2\u20ac\u015bhire cheap new employees\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bJudging by the jobs figures, this is the chosen path for most UK businesses,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he notes.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite assistant general secretary Steve Turner likewise argued that poor wages and terms and conditions are a choice made by big business, and not a necessity.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAn economy propped up by the service sector\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhere wages are low, work is precarious and profit-flush corporations fleece taxpayers through a system of corporate welfare hand-outs subsidising low pay, short hours and insecure work\u00e2\u20ac\u201dis not an economy that can be sustained for long.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat is, unless our idea of economic progress is a return to feudalism, where \u00e2\u20ac\u0098overlords\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 control all that we do and where power, both economic and political, is held in the hands of a small group of corporations and an obscenely wealthy parasitic class,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner said.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAn economic recovery felt by all can only be achieved by a radical programme of social, economic and political change — a move away from ideological austerity economics and investment in people, communities and businesses producing highly skilled, well-paid, safe, secure and unionised jobs,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

 
\nBurke agreed.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe economics of big business, supported by the current government, is the economics of Mr. Micawber,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bHe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always out of money because he sees only short-term solutions.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHighly skilled, well-paid jobs with strong employment protections are long-term solutions that will lead to long-term economic growth \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the sort of growth that is felt by all.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chancellor George Osborne repeated himself like a broken record yesterday (January 28), saying the \u00e2\u20ac\u015brecovery was on track,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 after new figures released showing growth last year had been the fastest since 2007.   But he glossed over several inconvenient truths \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that, for example, growth slowed more than anyone expected in the last quarter of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[196,55],"wps_subtitle":" Economic growth slows as manufacturing flat lines and construction shrinks","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2886"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2887,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2886\/revisions\/2887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}