There is a growing apprehension among Britain’s financial pundits that Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is not nearly as determined to cut public spending as he pretends to be. He sets himself deadlines to balance the books, but when the date arrives, with the books still unbalanced, he simply sets another. Consider some fiscal arithmetic. When Osborne became Chancellor in 2010, the budget deficit – spending minus revenue – was £153 billion ($239 billion), or 10.2% of GDP. He promised that by 2015 the deficit would stand at only £37 billion, or 2.1% of GDP – equivalent to balancing current spending and ... (full story)