Post-G20 Public Summit: Battle for the Economy - www.battleofideas.org.uk

Is state intervention the solution, or will it create new problems? The scale of the increase in public-sector debt could well be a heavy burden that drags on future growth. The FT’s Martin Wolf warns, ‘escaping from huge and prolonged deficits will be very hard’. Ross Walker of the Royal Bank of Scotland is concerned that the private sector’s contraction in contrast to the public realm means ‘we are likely to end up losing entrepreneurial spirit’. Are we really seeing a permanent shift to greater state control, or are these merely temporary measures? How new is today’s state intervention? Is it a new version of Roosevelt’s visionary New Deal, or is Keynes’ name invoked to give a veneer of economic respectability to panicky state interference?

Speakers:
Frank Furedi, University of Kent
Erik Reinert, Tallinn University of Technology/The Other Canon Foundation
Dan Lewis, Economic Research Council
Simon Nixon, Wall Street Journal

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