ATTACK THE ECONOMICS, NOT THE ECONOMISTS:

Brown insists IMF sums wrong after claim of budget black hole (FRASER NELSON AND GERRI PEEV, 4/18/05, The Scotsman)

GORDON Brown has launched an extraordinary attack on the International Monetary Fund, rubbishing its claim that he has a black hole in his budget and dismissing its British data as unreliable.

The Chancellor was in Washington sitting next to the IMF managing director when he said the global economic watchdog was incorrect in its prediction that he will either have to cut spending or raise taxes by £12billion.

His comments were even more remarkable as Mr Brown holds the rotating chairmanship of the IMF policy committee - and his remarks cast doubt on the accuracy of the entire range of data that it produces.

If you want to deficit spend just say so--don't blame the number crunchers.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 18, 2005 12:00 AM