Brown gets a lesson in economics

It's come to something when even teenage economists think go-for-broke Government spending might not be the cleverest way of returning Britain's battered finances to good health.
Let's be fair to the four lads at Nottingham High School who I spoke to yesterday: they were not invited to have a pop at Gordon Brown and nor did they.
But their sober and intelligent assessment of the economy mirrored that of Mervyn King, the man who earlier this week went live in front of the cameras at a Parliamentary Committee and effectively told Gordon Brown where to put his plans for a Budget spend-fest.
This was a remarkable intervention by the Bank of England Governor, coming as it did when the Prime Minister was about to go in front of the cameras in New York and argue for just that.
But the consensus in the Bank of England, the City and even next door to Gordon Brown in 11 Downing Street is that putting yet more billions on to the Government credit card would be a remarkably daft thing to do.
Why? Well, a Budget splurge aimed at stimulating the economy might provide a short-term fix but is certain to add to the deadweight drag on the economy in coming years as taxes soar to pay all the borrowed money back.
Only a cynic would draw a link between the contents of this year's Budget and next year's general election.
It isn't just the rising debt that, frankly, horrifies some people in the know. It is, as Chancellor Alistair Darling was making clear in the House of Commons again today, the fact that neutralising the banks' toxic debts still holds the key to restoring normal lending conditions, not increasing Government borrowing.
The idea that there should be a Budget spend-fest also masks one other important issue: a fortune beyond the dreams of avarice has already been thrown at the UK economy.
As the 18 year-old economists from Nottingham High School pointed out yesterday, we have yet to see the effects of all these initiatives, with interest rate cuts, quantitative easing and bank debt insurance feeding into the economy as the year progresses.
In other words, it's far too soon to conclude that we haven't done enough already.
It is basic economics that big changes like these take months to have an impact. May be Gordon Brown should follow in the footsteps of Ken Clarke and Ed Balls and beat a path to Nottingham High School.