Unemployment matters more than GDP or inflation

Mehdi Hasan in The Guardian:

Poll after poll shows voters across the EU care much more about the jobs deficit than they do about the budget deficit. Nonetheless, the proverbial Martian, landing in Brussels last week, would have been stunned to witness the complacency and indifference of the continent’s political elites to the crisis of spiralling joblessness. EU leaders continue to fiddle – over borrowing limits, fiscal compacts, treaty changes – as their economies crash and burn. The austerity gamble hasn’t paid off. Fiscal consolidation has failed to spur growth or boost employment.

I still broadly speaking support the approach to dealing with the deficit that the UK government is taking. This is a good counter-argument though. It’s a shame about the needless reference to the Nazi’s, but other than that, a good read.