National Debt and the Misleading Family Metaphor: A Message to the Economic Managers and Journalists

• Main Author: Felipe, Jesus
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2023
• Subjects: Philippines; National Debt; Economy; Economic History; Income Distribution; Political Economy
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/res_aki/94; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/res_aki/article/1084/viewcontent/DLSU_AKI_Policy_Brief_2023_06_001.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

A recent article in the prestigious British newspaper, The Guardian (“Bad economics at the BBC enabled Tory austerity and its aftermath — and it knows as much,” James Meadway, January 31, 2023), claimed that bad economics by the British Broadcasting Co. (BBC), the reputable British television company, enabled Tory austerity and its aftermath. A BBC internal review noted that too many journalists don’t get “basic economics,” with a negative effect on U.K. politics. The review refers to taxation, public spending, government borrowing, and debt output. Poor information is particularly serious when it comes to reporting on the central political issue of government debt, with some journalists apparently instinctively believing that all debt to be inherently bad. The result is that journalists very often frame policy choices, such as making cuts to spending, as if they were decisions of necessity.