I have been following Krugman for years in the New York Times - long before he became a gleam in the eye of the Nobel Prize committee.
Krugman's columns have taken economic theory and practice to the every person in a way that can be understood, in language that is not the province of academe.
Here in Australia we don't like to be reminded of our insularity - but we are the far away island, the place of dreams and Dreaming. We don't give the significant respect that is due to our own nation, its people, its culture. We hanker after American movies and technology. What anyone somewhere else says is more important. We seem unable to measure ourselves by a singular ethical and knowledgeable yardstick.
That's why I would really love it, Networkers, if you could pop over here to read Krugman to-day. Then - and this is where the finger comes in wagging away - have a think of this Land of Oz with not only its Emerald City but the sapphire ones and the ruby ones. Our Kevin has been trying our patience. He has been getting things wrong. He has been the continu-er and promulgator of bad and poor public policy.
But in the lead up to what will happen at Ballot Box 2010, just spare a thought for what could be alternative national stories. Thinks give every appearance of going down the tubes in Europe. Economic nightmares might not have subsided as quickly as we had hoped and thought we might have secured. So what would Abbott & Co (minus the stello) have done this time last year. What might they do if in government if there is another round of world economic recession?
Rudd and Swann's actions in the economic crisis have been exactly what is required. And don't just believe Krugman. There is a shut everything down and save every penny school of economics. Australia saw it face to face when Sir Otto Niemeyer visited Australia in 1930 in the middle of The Great Depression. But the Classical School of Economics had nothing to offer the world - and its modern disciple, Free Market Economics is running out of steam at a great rate of knots.
Five years later on from Niemeyer's visit , in 1936, economic brilliance asserted itself in the form of John Maynard Keynes and The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. That, combined with World War Two, took Australia and the world out of depression. And then what happened.....
Over the relatively prosperous 50s and 60s, governments got complacent. They forgot, it seemed, the economic hell from which the world had emerged and thought Keynesian economics a bit of a doddle and things would continue like this forever and ever, Amen.
Life is never like that. One can never take rest and put life - and the economy - on auto-pilot. Government forgot to take heed Keynes' policy developments which might have kept things on an even keel. Instead, when things went awry, in stepped the monetarists, Friedman and the like bringing with them libertarian politics of various shades.
Networker, you perhaps like me, have felt an alien in this type of culture. Markets dominate. Individual freedoms market and consume anything and everything - whether good, bad or indifferent - and reign supreme. In fact, we are in a situation where money can cross borders and penetrate every corner of the world - but people can't. Money has a freedom that few individuals have.
So back to Kevin and Swannie and Abbot & Co (without the stello). Consider, this year, alternative narratives. What might have been and what might yet be. And please read and take notice of Krugman.
Related reading:
"Spend now, while the economy remains depressed; save later, once it has recovered.".
ReplyDeleteSeems ken Henry is familiar with Krugman.
And it appears to have worked.
The only trouble is an elderly Victorian Local Councillor once told me, "The road crews always knew to leave some potholes down the road a little way from the Mayor's farm gate. Otherwise, nobody knows you have done anything at all."
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Gerry Harvey's little outburst last week typifies that problem.
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He needs reminding just how well he did out of the "Incentive packages" (or whatever they were called. I didn't qualify, so I don't know what they were called.)
Cheers
Denis
Maybe I'm missing something here, but you seem to be suggesting that the best way for Australia to avoid becoming the next Greece (Spain, Portugal or U.K) is for the government to spend more?
ReplyDeleteHas it escaped your attention that Greece is in such a mess today as a result of progligate spending?
Rudd's economic stimulus measures have mostly been money down the drain (home insulation program, BER, stimulus cheques, fuel watch, grocery watch etc.) all of which will have to be paid back, with interest, in due course. There are a lot of factors contributing to Australia's being able to escape the worst of the GFC, and the Ruddd and Swan do not factor very highly amongst them. If at all.
Peta
I think you are missing something - and I think it is the General Theory by John Maynard Keynes and associated works. Would you like a little John Kenneth Galbraith with that followed by a dessert of Krugman, a soupcon of Quiggan, and added spice with Sen. I don't wish to speak at this stage to Rudd's administration of bad and poor public policy, a great deal of which was initiated by the Howard regime and foolishly continued by Rudd. Let's just stick to economics which are neither crypto fascist (Hayek derivatives via Friedman) or crypto socialist (from Marx via heaven knows whom!).
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