Tim Watkins

Austerity: Will Kill the Economy Tim Watkins

Publisher Marketing: "We must pay off the debt" "We have to balance the books" "We should have fixed the roof when the sun was shining" The same message has been trotted out time and again by economists and politicians from all parties: Only by cutting public spending can we hope to return to economic growth. But what is clear from the experience of 2010-15 is that austerity has failed to deliver. In 2010, the coalition government inherited a public debt of 0.76 trillion. By 2015, despite savage austerity cuts and an assault on social security, they managed to raise the public debt to 1.36 trillion. The new Tory government will argue that the failure is because we did not have enough austerity. We did not have enough public spending cuts. We shall soon find out what full blown austerity cuts can do to an economy! What if they are wrong? What if austerity causes recession? The early cuts triggered a recession, and economic growth has been anaemic ever since. What if these are the direct consequence of a misguided policy of austerity? In this essential guide to Austerity, Tim Watkins explains how politicians' fundamental misunderstanding of the way money is created has brought about the conditions for the biggest economic crash in human history... and why we should all be worried." Contributor Bio:  Watkins, Tim Tim Watkins is a life coach, trainer and a founder-director of Life Surfing, a Cardiff-based community interest company established to help prevent mental illness and to promote wellbeing. Tim Watkins graduated from the University of Wales College Cardiff with a first class honours economics degree in 1990. Between 1990 and 1997 he worked as a policy research officer for the Welsh Consumer Council where he researched and wrote a range of policy reports including In Deep Water, an investigation into problems in the aftermath of the North Wales ("Towyn") floods of 1990, and Quality of Life and Quality of Service, an investigation into the promotion of quality of life in residential homes for older people. Following a severe and enduring episode of depression between 1997 and 2000, Tim Watkins began working for the charity Depression Alliance, running its Wales office, and steering it to becoming an independent charity in its own right in 2005. He continued to run the charity (which re-launched as Journeys in 2007) until 2010. During that time, the Welsh Government appointed him to sit on the Health & Wellbeing Council for Wales and the Burrows-Greenwell Review of Mental Health in Wales. He also played a key role in developing the Healthy Minds at Work project, during which he wrote Taking Control, an audio self-help book for people affected by depression, and oversaw the development of the award-winning Depression Busting self-management programme for people affected by depression. In October 2010, along with Julia Kaye and Paul Clarke, Tim Watkins formed Life Surfing CIC as a vehicle to address public wellbeing in people experiencing stress or whose life circumstances put them at risk of developing mental illness, and in people experiencing mild/moderate common mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression.