As Mises Canada's David Howden notes,
Christine Lagarde admits that the International Monetary Fund "got it wrong" when it chastised the British government's austerity plans. One year ago the IMF's chief economist Oliver Blanchard claimed the U.K. was "playing with fire" by cutting its budget.We could not agree more...
With the benefit of hindsight, the IMF has changed its stance. The U.K. economy is set to grow 2.9% this year, the fastest among the G7 nations. Furthermore, the growth is being driven by investment spending, not consumption as the IMF had long thought necessary.
Though she stopped short of apologizing for the Fund's poor recommendations in the past, Lagarde allude to begging for forgiveness. Rather than seeking forgiveness after the IMF makes a mistake, why doesn't it stop giving out bad advice so that it doesn't find itself in these embarrassing situations in the future.
Comment: Without doubt the average person living in Britain will say: "What growth?"
And in many other Western economies, the average person sees no growth, only shrinkage of scarce opportunities. The only thing that the common people see growing is bureaucratic expansion, elite salaries and economic decay.
i.e. - a gold-plated turd in the punchbowl.