With any luck, the crisis will reverse these inane trends – and now the time has come for Rudd to dump the CGT discount (or give 50% discount on term deposit interest). Put investing in banks on a level playing field.

I swear, the time is already here to revise the record. They were BLOODY AWFUL economic managers.

For a start, there were two New Deals.

The First New Deal (1933-1936) was an abortive attempt to inject corporatism into the US economy. It didn’t have a chance to work the way it was intended to work because large parts of the program were declared unconstitutional. (It is doubtful that it would have worked even if it had been introduced untrammelled by fears of unconstitutionality).

The Second New Deal, introduced after the 1936 election, was aimed more at mitigating the effects of Depression on selected interest groups rather than attempting to maximise economic output. FDR understood the distinction quite clearly.

There is also an abiding myth that before 1940 and US preparations for war, the Federal government indulged in large-scale deficit fiscal policy along Keynesian lines. This did not happen.

But Republican talking points have been assiduous in propagating myths about FDR and the New Deal. It is a tribute to their success that their lies seem to be accepted as the truth even on a leftie blog.

It appears that our neoliberal erstwhile heroes of private enterprise are so terrified by the looming prospect of systemic collapse that they are all chanting “We’re all corporatists now. We’re all corporatists now. We had to kill capitalism in order to save it.”

That’s just the normal flow of things, the righties bugger things up, and get tossed out. The problem at the moment, though, is that the parliamentary wing of the ALP are righties as well, despite what they call themselves, and despite what the wingnuts call them. They don’t have any ideas about what they should do to make things better, and don’t seem to be even asking for them. Remember the 2020 Summit? Nothing like that happening now.

Ah yes the Jabberfest of the Chosen Kilo. Wonderful testimony to the political arts that. Let’s solve global warming by producing immense amounts of brainfarts.
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This is not really about neo-liberalism v Keynsianism or whatever. The ideas of Keynes, the ideas of Friedman have never been applied except selectively. They have to go thru the filter of the machinations of corporatocratic vested interest first. Lots of people are to blame here. We shouldn’t forget that if one is functionally numerate one can tell that ye cannae pay off this loan with that income so dinnae take it.
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And dinnae sell it etc.
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If you live on money you don’t have, supplied on tic by people who don’t have that money either it will crash eventually. Every time these things happen there’s a lot of hair-tearing mea culpa cries harking back to the good old days of thrift and common sense. And when things warm up again we always forget.
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I went out with someone, university educated, who took out a loan on a house and had never heard of a recession. Something remiss there. I wonder if that’s on the agenda of Kevvie Ejukayshun Revolt? Somehow I doubt it. The last thing politicans and CEO’s want is a population that is economically and politically numerate.
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A lot of economists are working for people who want them to conduct research with the end result in mind before work commences. So we’ve got outright lies like, for example, that, because we in the West want access to the markets of the developing world, they should open up their markets and remove protective barriers for their infant industries. After all, says they, that’s how we did it in the West.
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Trouble is that’s bullshit.
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More bullshit includes the myth that the New Deal fixed the Depression. At best the verdict is mixed. Ideology here is a smoke screen. Witness all the Friedmanite Wall St types who started cryin’ out for public cash immediately. According to their principles we should let ‘em sink. But if they sink so do we. The so-called free market theories of the last 30 years are nothing of the kind. Often they’ve been used as justification for corporations and governments to get together and hand publicly funded utilities over to commercial interests. How a subsidized gifted monopoly is an example of market forces is beyond me.
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But the free-marketers have been too busy arguing against the dole and minimum wages to notice that elephant.
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I’d argue for a little common sense. First if there isn’t any competition it ain’t a market. It doesn’t matter what the press releases say or how groovy the logo is. Secondly government regulation is necessary for the very simple reason that people behave badly. If ye dinnae misbehave laddie they wouldn’t need the law would they? Thirdly it’s time to make tattoos compulsory amongst the Financial Elites, on the forehead: What goes up comes down: Dickhead!
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The whole socialist v liberal thing is a mound of poo. We live in a corporate technocracy. What we need is a resurgence of democracy: openness, responsibility, civil ethics and the separation of govt and commercial interests.
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I’ve got low hopes.

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd today announced the government will guarantee all deposits held in Australian financial institutions till the next election for the next three years.

every one of us has had one of those ‘mad’ moments, grasping at a toy like a 4 year old. Just so long as we understand our foolishness later. Your wife may have a story or two about your strange spending events….
Mine certainly does!

The wind still sighs through the trees, the sun still shines, freshly mown lawns still smell sweet, the waves still roill in on the shore; cheers

Golden opportunity for you to take up the billycart franchise; SCAM plans to be all things to all entrepreneurs

BBB