1. This week the OECD revised its real GDP growth forecasts for the Euro area and now expects it to grow by 0.8 per cent in 2014 and 1.1 per cent in 2015. They also predicted that the Euro area unemployment rate would fall from 11.7 per cent in 2014 to 11.4 per cent in 2015. Additionally, they suggested that average annual growth in labour productivity was running at just over 1 per cent per annum (GDP per hours worked). If average weekly hours worked remains constant over 2015, then the implication of the OECD forecasts is that they think the Euro area labour force will:

2. If the stock of aggregate demand growth outstrips the capacity of the productive sector to respond by producing extra real goods and services then inflation is inevitable.

3. National accounting shows us that a government surplus equals a non-government deficit. If a government is successful in achieving a fiscal surplus then the private domestic sector will become more indebted as a consequence which means that austerity amounts to swapping public for private debt.