Tag Archives | Economics
All That's Left

Book Review: “All That’s Left: What Labor Should Stand For”

At the same time that I got my hands on Confessions of a Faceless Man, I also got a copy of the latest soul-searching Labor “where are we heading” book, called “All That’s Left: What Labor Should Stand For” edited by Tim Soutphommasane and Nick Dyrenfurth. This book deserves somewhat more than the quick and [...]

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youwillpay

Exchange rate movements had bigger impact than a carbon price

The rising Australian dollar has had a bigger impact on our economy than an $85 per tonne carbon price. A new Access Economics report says: Exchange rate movements and the introduction of a carbon price are similar to the extent that both have comparable economic impacts and firms are able to adapt to the new [...]

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debt-posters

Economic fallacies: debt

Following from the recent election, and all of the Tory hyperventilating about public debt, I thought I’d revisit an old post from another place that debunks some economic fallacies. The University of Newcastle has the excellent Centre of Full Employment and Equity, where William Vickery has an article called “Fifteen Fatal Fallacies Of Financial Fundamentalism” [...]

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economy

Great news for Tony Abbott: Liberals’ economic credibility trashed

The Newspoll before the election has great news for Tony Abbott: the Liberals’ lead in polling on the economy has been trashed by Abbott’s economic innumeracy. For the last three weeks, Tony Abbott has refused to accept a debate with Julia Gillard on the economy (or any other issue). Labor has responded by running ads [...]

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Great News for Tony Abbott: Tony Abbott is not a tech head, doesn’t understand economics either

There was a lot of reporting about Tony Abbott’s interview on 7:30 Report last night about the Liberal’s risible broadband policy. Tony Abbott repeatedly said “I don’t claim to be any kind of tech head in all of this”, basically admitting he didn’t have the faintest clue about his own policy. After all, no one [...]

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r569200_3501785

Joe Hockey doesn’t understand productivity: Great news for Tony Abbott

Joe Hockey’s budget reply speech yesterday to the National Press Club, universally described as a “shemozzle”, has revealed that the Shadow Treasurer doesn’t understand what productivity is. This is, of course, good news for Tony Abbott. Productivity is considered amongst neo-liberal economists as the key driver of economic growth and health. It is the key [...]

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Why the conservatives are wrong on the economy

UK Labour media master Alastair Campbell has an excellent post on his blog today about how the Tories consistently fail on strategy, even if they excel on tactics. He basically makes the point that even though the media is on their side, and they are able to get their line in the paper each day, [...]

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Some key message ideas for #NoCleanFeed

Some key message ideas for #NoCleanFeed

The No Clean Feed campaign has exploded on Twitter, received extensive coverage on the tech blogs, several independent campaign sites, and has spawned its own “Glenn Beck” style domain registry controversy. Unfortunately, much of the commentary, especially from “Pirate Party” officials, is shrill and near-hysterical in its pitch. Simply put, the majority of Australians, even [...]

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The economics of climate change

The economics of climate change, like the science of climate change, is becoming clearer. The scientific evidence is saying that unless we rapidly and significantly reduce our carbon emissions, we face a climate catastrophe. The economic evidence is also showing that the cost of inaction will far out-weigh the economic costs of action, and more [...]

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Was Work Choices a Roadblock to Productivity?

Was Work Choices a Roadblock to Productivity?

A critical assessment of the Work Choices laws in addressing its stated aims and objectives The 2005 legislation, Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Act represented one of the most fundamental shifts in industrial relations laws and Commonwealth-State relations since Federation. With the principle aim of Work Choices to “unleash a new burst of productivity growth”, [...]

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Labor must assert its economic credentials

The recent spate of reporting of polls demonstrates that Labor must continue to assert its strong nation building narrative and economic credentials. Labor and Kevin Rudd correctly judged the public’s mood by decrying the excesses of extreme capitalism and neoliberalism, and forging a renewed social-democratic path. Despite the baying of the press gallery and conservative [...]

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Willful ignorance or straw man

Alex Robson from Concept Economics has not bothered to read the Australia Institute paper into the CPRS emissions floor (pdf link). Amazingly, his uninformed and un-researched tirade against environmentalists was published in The Australian today. Mr Robson writes: Clearly, if the number of permits in circulation could never fall, then the Australia Institute view would [...]

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