Tag Archive for 'global economy'

Rundle on the recent history of the left

Published
by
Mark
5 months, 3 weeks ago
in Activism, Culture, Economics, History, International, Media, Policy, Politics and Sociology
. 38 Comments

As a sequel to my post on The Australian’s series on the left, where I highlighted Guy Rundle’s take, I’m reproducing from today’s Crikey (with permission) his longer sequel to his take beneath the fold. Meantime, the Oz series meanders on, with a contribution from David Hetherington of Per Capita, proposing “a fairer design for markets”.

Update: Quadrant piles on.

Continue reading ‘Rundle on the recent history of the left’

The Costa Diaries

Published
by
Kim
1 year, 5 months ago
in Books, Writers & Writing, Economics, Media and NSW Government
. 41 Comments

Michael Costa has taken a leaf out of Mark Latham’s book… Forced out of office and Parliament? Write op/eds attacking your former party!

LISTENING to Kevin Rudd at Council of Australian Governments meetings as he tried to connect the global economic situation to the more mundane items on the national reform agenda was often excruciating.

Anybody with a rudimentary understanding of economics would have quickly concluded, as I did, that the Prime Minister didn’t have a good understanding of these issues.

Can a tell all book be far behind? Would it need to be a three volume set to contain slurs on all the people Michael Costa doesn’t like?

Here’s a suggestion for the under-employed former pollie – why not join the Liberal Party? You’ve already got News Limited Columnists eating out of your hand (you actually are one too!)… And your right-wing views should see you fit in nicely. Perhaps with your added ruthlessness, you could spark endless speculation about Malcolm Turnbull’s polling and leadership and unlike the Great Pretender seize the top job by the power of the Word!

TARP watch: bailout FAILOUT

Published
by
tigtog
1 year, 5 months ago
in Disasters, Law, Markets and USA
. 108 Comments

Vote count:

Democrats: 141 Yea, 94 Nay
Republican: 66 Yea, 132 Nay

The Times – Analysis: bailout vote calls Hank Paulson’s bluff

Negotiators had worked all weekend to accommodate some of the doubts of conservative Republicans who objected to such a massive outlay of taxpayer funds on the financial sector. But in the end the largely superficial changes made to the original plan were not enough and more than three-quarters of Republicans voted against. Worse, perhaps, more than a third of Democrats also opposed the measure, which they saw as a handout to rich bankers on Wall Street.

Now, in effect, the politicians have called the bluff of Hank Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary. Since he first proposed the plan ten days ago he has repeatedly warned that its passage was absolutely essential to avoid a complete freezing-up of the US financial system.

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Enough Canberra circus, on with the Wall Street crisis

Published
by
tigtog
1 year, 6 months ago
in Disasters, Markets and USA
. 6 Comments

Brendan and Malcolm have provided a nice little distraction, but it’s time to look at other world news: to wit, another US financial giant has hit the deck (two, if you count the takeover of Merrill Lynch as well as Lehman Brothers filing for Chapter 11). Is the rest of the world going to catch a cold from America sneezing, or will the strength of the BRIC economies keep the global economy relatively robust while only the US coughs its lungs out?

So many pollies and financial wonks with vested interests are telling us all not to panic (and that now is such a good time to place a buy order on the stock market now that everything’s heading for bargain prices, dontcha know) that the very uniformity is more than a little alarming. What insights do the eco-wonks have for the rest of us? Which pundits have the good oil and who are just mouthing platitudes? What the f*ck is going on?