Why does Mrs May say that austerity is over? Clearly it isn't because our national overdraft has doubled since austerity began. It isn't because things are going to get worse economically (as all parties agree) - normally if your income goes down you tighten your belt, you don't go on a spending spree.
Clearly there must be strong reasons to spend rather than to save. To splash out on HS2 (£40 billion - costing ten times what it would in France), pour another billion into benefits, and another billion into roads while freezing fuel duty.
After five years the electorate has become sick of austerity. So it could simply be a way to keep us happy. With a wafer-thin majority, shored up by the DUP (bought at the cost of a further £1 billion), why not offer bread and circuses to keep the masses quiet.
It could be an attempt to jump-start the economy, to try to lift our abysmal national productivity, though with near full employment and the prospect of exports crashing as we painstakingly renegotiate all our trade deals, this seems unlikely.
Maybe it is a punt on the likely future of inflation. It has been very low for a long time, but it is already creeping up - price inflation is now above wage inflation, which is why that pound in your pocket seems to buy you less every month. If the government borrows now and repays the debt some years in the future then they will be paying back less than they borrowed. The worse inflation is the more they save. Right now is a good time to borrow - once inflation really ramps up then lenders will want more interest to keep up with it.
Of course, that strategy only makes sense if the government spends the money sensibly. Spend it on glitz and baubles and they still have to pay it off, with nothing to show for it.
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