Brian Keegan: The Tax Take

Government spending has more to do with referenda than with budget deficits

Fine Gael Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Pasacal O Donohue TD, Minister For Finance Michael Noonan TD and Minister Eoghan Murphy TD presenting the Summer Economic Statement Pic: RollingNews.ie

Balancing the books and the ballot boxes

So it looks like the economists have been wrong all along. The amount a government has to spend has little enough to do with the size of the current budget deficit, or bond market yields, or the debt-to-GDP ratio. Instead it has to do with referendums and general elections. While we saw that in spades on Friday with the decision of Britain to leave the EU, ...