Comments on: The politics of austerity http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/ Life, Culture and Politics from BrisVegas Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:06:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Adrien http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/#comment-152640 Adrien Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:28:23 +0000 http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/#comment-152640 Andos - <i>Adrien: they called it Workchoices.</i> . Indeed. I musta been very tired to leave that elephant out 'ey. . Kingsley - <i>I guess I compare the avergae Joe Blows attitude to Howard versus Keating at the end. Yes a lot of you on the Left may well have hated Howard but the average bloke wasn’t anywhere near as passionate in his feelings for Howard as he was Keating. </i> . Yeah. Keating made the gaff of running on about his excellent leadership. Like Kennett. That's a cardinal sin in this country. By all means dress up as a pig and have sex with animals. We don;t mind as long as you can do the job. But don't tell us how good you are. That's our call. Do that and we boot you. For good reason. . Keating presided over Neoliberalism's renovation of our economy. That wasn't popular. And then he goes forth culturally and a-ha the Libs have finally got something to kick against. . But when Keating went up against Hewson we were cheering for him at the end. I mean we <i>hated</i> the guy. And he was doomed. But he never said die: "I'm wanna do you slowly mate". What chutzpah! Andos – Adrien: they called it Workchoices.
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Indeed. I musta been very tired to leave that elephant out ‘ey.
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Kingsley – I guess I compare the avergae Joe Blows attitude to Howard versus Keating at the end. Yes a lot of you on the Left may well have hated Howard but the average bloke wasn’t anywhere near as passionate in his feelings for Howard as he was Keating.
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Yeah. Keating made the gaff of running on about his excellent leadership. Like Kennett. That’s a cardinal sin in this country. By all means dress up as a pig and have sex with animals. We don;t mind as long as you can do the job. But don’t tell us how good you are. That’s our call. Do that and we boot you. For good reason.
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Keating presided over Neoliberalism’s renovation of our economy. That wasn’t popular. And then he goes forth culturally and a-ha the Libs have finally got something to kick against.
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But when Keating went up against Hewson we were cheering for him at the end. I mean we hated the guy. And he was doomed. But he never said die: “I’m wanna do you slowly mate”. What chutzpah!

]]> By: kingsley http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/#comment-152639 kingsley Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:54:27 +0000 http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/#comment-152639 Andos - I am happy to agree politically that workschoices was a big negative although curiously I am not s sure it was over here in WA. Adrien - I guess I compare the avergae Joe Blows attitude to Howard versus Keating at the end. Yes a lot of you on the Left may well have hated Howard but the average bloke wasn't anywhere near as passionate in his feelings for Howard as he was keating. I particularly note the people who went up to Howard in the shopping centres who politely shook his hand thanked him for his service and said "but I won't be voting for you this time, we need a change". Versus Keating who they seemed to despise by the end. Andos – I am happy to agree politically that workschoices was a big negative although curiously I am not s sure it was over here in WA.

Adrien – I guess I compare the avergae Joe Blows attitude to Howard versus Keating at the end. Yes a lot of you on the Left may well have hated Howard but the average bloke wasn’t anywhere near as passionate in his feelings for Howard as he was keating. I particularly note the people who went up to Howard in the shopping centres who politely shook his hand thanked him for his service and said “but I won’t be voting for you this time, we need a change”. Versus Keating who they seemed to despise by the end.

]]> By: John D http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/#comment-152638 John D Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:20:40 +0000 http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/#comment-152638 A significant contributor to the GFC was there years where the capacity to produce outran the capacity of potential consumers to buy. Countries and business's got around this problem by lending to their customers in order to keep their business growing. We saw the Chinese using their trade surplus to finance loans that allowed the US to continue buying Chinese products. We saw retailers and lenders in Australia offering great deals that tempted with low starting repayment rates. In the case of the Chinese <strong>the irony was that the citizens of both China and the US would have been better off</strong> if China had used its trade surplus to import more goods and grow their internal economy. The additional irony is that there is a real risk that the US will devalue Chinese US$ holdings by printing more money. Not sure what Harvey Norman should have done but, collectively, Australian business would have been better of if the real value of their employees earnings had risen in line with business capcity to produce. Unfortunately, at the critical time, we had a prime minister who was unwilling to admit that Hawke and Keating had solved the stagflation problem that made Howards time as treasurer hell. Howard appeared to be obsessed with driving real wages down when it would have been smarter to have increased wages while making consumer borrowing less attractive. Free market ideology contributed to both these problems. The GFC may have been avoided if the WTO had encouraged countries with chronic trade deficits to take direct action to restore their trade balance before it had became a crisis. (I am talking about gradual changes to imports, not dramatic actions that destabilize economies. It may have also have helped if the WTO had put pressure on countries such as China to do something about their trade surplus. Similar comments apply to wage/tax policies in countries such as Australia. We need policies that link the capcity to produce with customer buying power. We certainly don't need free market policies that tend to drive wages up and down at the wrong parts of the economic cycle. If anything, the tax cuts during the Howard and Rudd years have tended to increase the percentage of resources going to the lending pool. Perhaps we should look at extending the stimulus package approach by giving regular payments to those more likely to spend than lend. A significant contributor to the GFC was there years where the capacity to produce outran the capacity of potential consumers to buy. Countries and business’s got around this problem by lending to their customers in order to keep their business growing. We saw the Chinese using their trade surplus to finance loans that allowed the US to continue buying Chinese products. We saw retailers and lenders in Australia offering great deals that tempted with low starting repayment rates.

In the case of the Chinese the irony was that the citizens of both China and the US would have been better off if China had used its trade surplus to import more goods and grow their internal economy. The additional irony is that there is a real risk that the US will devalue Chinese US$ holdings by printing more money.

Not sure what Harvey Norman should have done but, collectively, Australian business would have been better of if the real value of their employees earnings had risen in line with business capcity to produce. Unfortunately, at the critical time, we had a prime minister who was unwilling to admit that Hawke and Keating had solved the stagflation problem that made Howards time as treasurer hell. Howard appeared to be obsessed with driving real wages down when it would have been smarter to have increased wages while making consumer borrowing less attractive.

Free market ideology contributed to both these problems. The GFC may have been avoided if the WTO had encouraged countries with chronic trade deficits to take direct action to restore their trade balance before it had became a crisis. (I am talking about gradual changes to imports, not dramatic actions that destabilize economies. It may have also have helped if the WTO had put pressure on countries such as China to do something about their trade surplus.

Similar comments apply to wage/tax policies in countries such as Australia. We need policies that link the capcity to produce with customer buying power. We certainly don’t need free market policies that tend to drive wages up and down at the wrong parts of the economic cycle.

If anything, the tax cuts during the Howard and Rudd years have tended to increase the percentage of resources going to the lending pool. Perhaps we should look at extending the stimulus package approach by giving regular payments to those more likely to spend than lend.

]]> By: Andos http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/#comment-152637 Andos Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:23:55 +0000 http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/#comment-152637 Kingsley, Adrien: they called it Workchoices. Kingsley, Adrien: they called it Workchoices.

]]> By: Adrien http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/#comment-152636 Adrien Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:53:53 +0000 http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/#comment-152636 <i>There was literally no more real science to it than that. You could quiz them and they could not articulate it any better than that. Rudd’s timing was superb.</i> . I think you'd find that some could articulate reasons for the change. And there's records of public opinion that show disillusionment with the war, with the United States and other aspects of Howard's policies. He'd also been in power a long time. He was tired, it showed. Health and education were substandard. The ALP had its shit together and Rudd outmanouevred Howard every step of the way. . It's wise to change governments. It's not wise to let one government rule for too long. . The Libs need to trash their approach, regroup meaning sorting out the dog politics and wait for the Rudd govt to run out of steam or nto a wall. Takes time. Some disaster for him notwithstanding, Rudd'll have at least five years. There was literally no more real science to it than that. You could quiz them and they could not articulate it any better than that. Rudd’s timing was superb.
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I think you’d find that some could articulate reasons for the change. And there’s records of public opinion that show disillusionment with the war, with the United States and other aspects of Howard’s policies. He’d also been in power a long time. He was tired, it showed. Health and education were substandard. The ALP had its shit together and Rudd outmanouevred Howard every step of the way.
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It’s wise to change governments. It’s not wise to let one government rule for too long.
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The Libs need to trash their approach, regroup meaning sorting out the dog politics and wait for the Rudd govt to run out of steam or nto a wall. Takes time. Some disaster for him notwithstanding, Rudd’ll have at least five years.

]]> By: kingsley http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/#comment-152635 kingsley Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:50:14 +0000 http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/#comment-152635 Broadly speaking in terms of having a coherent set of policies unfortunately I have to concede Mark is right, the Libs don't have one. I think they rushed too fast over the entire policy range to ditch everything Howard stood for taking the election result to be some massive repudiation of that, whilst I think there was a large enough chunk of the swing voters who just 'wanted a change". There was literally no more real science to it than that. You could quiz them and they could not articulate it any better than that. Rudd's timing was superb. I'm ambivalent on the Family Tax benefits etc. It effectively lowered people's taxes and it was targeted at families but I think suffers from being construed not as a tax cut but a hand out and creates that sort of mentality. Essentially though on the politics Mark is right the Libs aren't doing a great job and need to get on the same page as each other quick smart. A common problem with oppositions I'm afraid. Broadly speaking in terms of having a coherent set of policies unfortunately I have to concede Mark is right, the Libs don’t have one. I think they rushed too fast over the entire policy range to ditch everything Howard stood for taking the election result to be some massive repudiation of that, whilst I think there was a large enough chunk of the swing voters who just ‘wanted a change”. There was literally no more real science to it than that. You could quiz them and they could not articulate it any better than that. Rudd’s timing was superb.

I’m ambivalent on the Family Tax benefits etc. It effectively lowered people’s taxes and it was targeted at families but I think suffers from being construed not as a tax cut but a hand out and creates that sort of mentality.

Essentially though on the politics Mark is right the Libs aren’t doing a great job and need to get on the same page as each other quick smart. A common problem with oppositions I’m afraid.

]]> By: Andos http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/#comment-152634 Andos Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:42:37 +0000 http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/#comment-152634 It was great listening to the Opposition today, bringing back the debt and deficit diatribe in an MPI... Some of the worst I've heard from Hockey. They really have nothing left. It was great listening to the Opposition today, bringing back the debt and deficit diatribe in an MPI…

Some of the worst I’ve heard from Hockey. They really have nothing left.

]]> By: Ginja http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/#comment-152633 Ginja Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:37:02 +0000 http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/#comment-152633 Jack, Libs seem to have a short memory: they can remember the 1990-91 recession like it was yesterday, but have no memory whatsover of the very serious recession under Fraser and Howard. It's interesting that the Coalition is now making a lot of noise about changes to payments for uni students, tightening eligibility for some students but also freeing money to go towards truly disadavantaged students. The Coalition suddenly cares about the welfare state - well, for kids from upper-middle class backgrounds, at least. Surprise, surprise. Jack, Libs seem to have a short memory: they can remember the 1990-91 recession like it was yesterday, but have no memory whatsover of the very serious recession under Fraser and Howard.

It’s interesting that the Coalition is now making a lot of noise about changes to payments for uni students, tightening eligibility for some students but also freeing money to go towards truly disadavantaged students. The Coalition suddenly cares about the welfare state – well, for kids from upper-middle class backgrounds, at least. Surprise, surprise.

]]> By: Adrien http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/#comment-152632 Adrien Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:18:48 +0000 http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/#comment-152632 <i>therein lies the rub’</i> . But therein lies the rub. What better way to say therein lies the rub? That's the problem. :) . Will is not redundant his sales have never been stronger and he's been dead for four centuries. In your face JK Rowling. therein lies the rub’
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But therein lies the rub. What better way to say therein lies the rub? That’s the problem. :)
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Will is not redundant his sales have never been stronger and he’s been dead for four centuries. In your face JK Rowling.

]]> By: kymbos http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/#comment-152631 kymbos Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:54:00 +0000 http://larvatusprodeo.net/2009/06/24/the-politics-of-austerity/#comment-152631 Ok, I need to say this: I hate the term 'therein lies the rub'. I find it contrived and redundant. I also hate it when people type 'bwahahahaha'. It really sticks in my craw. Ok, I need to say this: I hate the term ‘therein lies the rub’. I find it contrived and redundant. I also hate it when people type ‘bwahahahaha’.

It really sticks in my craw.

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