Happy new year to everyone! It is starting out pretty poorly despite the nice weather and personal fun. On the last day of last year, the British Government released its Giving Green Paper, which apparently provides some detail about how it sees its Big Society concept working. As one commentator said it reads like it was written by a bunch of amateurs. But what it tells me is that the conservatives haven’t really evolved much since Maggie Thatcher declared there was no such thing as society. The Big Society is just a reprise of that concept with some mention of mobile phone apps and ATMs to match the historical period of technology that the latest attack on the welfare of the citizens is occurring. The Big Society is a blatant relinquishment of essential government roles and in that sense is a politically cynical attempt to cover up the impossibility of individual action relaxing systemic spending gaps. My training as a macroeconomists tells me that individuals cannot ease such macroeconomic constraints. Only the national government via appropriately sized budget deficits can do that. Which is exactly the responsibility the British government is recoiling from. The Big Society aka BS. More the fool anyone who believes in it.