Once we reach a reckoning on our past, we can rebuild trust and develop a Labour alternative to Osborne's brutal deficit-reduction plan.
Every cent of tax revenue disappeared down a black hole of debt; a ballooning budget deficit demanded brutal austerity measures – public sector cuts, tax rises – which drained any remaining cash out of the economy and prolonged recession.
In a drastic effort to reduce public spending and eliminate the deficit the most brutal since the "zero deficit" campaign of the late 1990s, led by the PQ after the failed referendum of 1995 the government is slashing education, health, and social services budgets and has even ordered a recruitment ban in the public sector.
For that reason, Labour's last budget in office anticipated a brutal curtailment of spending, halving the deficit over four years.
It assumes that Greece could sustain a brutal reduction in its primary budget deficit (ie, excluding interest costs) of 12 percentage points.
But, John Lanchester says on this week's Political Scene podcast, there is one thing they're not sharing: the burden of imposing "brutal cuts" to reduce the country's deficit, which is eleven per cent of the G.D.P. and rising.
Either way, the president and his aides know that they are facing the brutal mathematics of troop deployments and budget deficits -- and the allies know it, too.
But the true test will most likely come in the months ahead, when nations like Portugal, Ireland and Spain, which are struggling to impose unpopular austerity measures on their people, confront the difficulty of cutting budget deficits in the face of brutal recessions.
The brutal reality is that, with a current-account deficit of around $500 billion a year, America needs to continue to attract huge quantities of foreign money.
"Is it up to the rest of the world to resolve the issue of the United States' trade deficit because there might have been brutal threats of protectionism?" Michel asked.
The first quarter 10-Q told a brutal tale of cash outflow and a working capital deficit the likes I had never seen in 26 years of analyzing auto company financials.
