Macroeconomic objectives: public finances in, income distribution out?

Macroeconomic objectives can seem like the contents of the basket of goods used to measure inflation – subject to changes of content and weighting

Take for instance Geoff Riley’s excellent recent blog : Keeping Track of UK Macro Objectives with supporting Timetric graphs

Two things struck me:

what ever happened to securing an ‘acceptable distribution’ of income

the inclusion of manageable public sector finances – not mentioned in the AS textbooks used by my students

The fact is that economics is a dynamic subject and new governments bring with them their own set of objectives and priorities.

Further evidence of the central importance of achieving sustainable public finances are the four indicators selected by the OECD to front its

Economic Survey of the United Kingdom 2011

These graphs combine the two main purposes of performance data: they show how the UK is doing over time and in comparison with other countries. Excellent starter activity graphs.

The extended Overview of the Economic Survey of the United Kingdom 2011 makes excellent reading for aspirational student