In a recession, it's government's job to lean against market logic

Lord Myners's criticism of Labour's deficit legacy ignores Keynesian economics in favour of rightwing thinking

Bryan Gould
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 16 June 2010 16.38 BST

When Lord Myners proclaimed this month that "there is nothing progressive about a government that consistently spends more than it can raise in taxation" he gave support and comfort to one side of an argument that is at the heart of the new government's agenda – what to do about the government deficit.

Lord Myners's intervention was all the more significant because it came from someone who, just a few weeks ago, was a minister in the Labour government. He weighed in on the side of those who seem to assert that the first priority of the new government must be to get the deficit down; but he may have also given us a clue as to why Labour's position on this issue during the election campaign was so confused.