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Matilda

(6,384 posts)
Tue Jul 22, 2014, 10:28 PM Jul 2014

Tony Abbott achieves the impossible: unity among economists

There’s a joke about economists: if you ask five economists the same question you’ll get six different answers. Granted, it's not a very good joke, but it’s a fair call. Ours is a complex field, and a growing number of economists are acknowledging that the theory sitting behind mainstream economics is mostly rubbish. As a result, it’s very difficult to find consensus on real world events.

But that's where Abbott and Hockey have achieved what many thought impossible: a true consensus. Unfortunately for the coalition government, the consensus is entirely against them. The Abbott government’s agenda has been driven by three major claims, all of them economic in nature. Let’s see how economists view these three themes:

1) There is a budget emergency

Number of economists who agree: zero

2) The federal government has a debt crisis

Number of economists who agree: zero

3) Carbon pricing is an economic wrecking ball

Number of economists who agree: zero

(snip)

Saul Eslake, chief economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said that to call the Australian debt situation a crisis was “to abuse the English language.”

Similarly, Nobel prize winning US economist Joseph Stiglitz used terms such as “absurd”, “crazy” and “a crime” to describe some of Hockey’s budget measures, and dismissed the perceived debt and deficit problems, noting that any Australian who worries about debt “must be out of their mind.” Richard Holden, professor of economics at the Australian School of Business, put it this way: “First, Australia does not have a debt crisis. Or, to put it another way, Australia does not have a debt crisis.”

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/23/tony-abbott-achieves-the-impossible-unity-among-economists


Funny thing is, try telling that to any Lib-voting friends, and they change the subject. Strange how some people want the economic news to be bad. (Not that I have many Lib friends - I find it too hard to be polite to them these days.)

5 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Tony Abbott achieves the impossible: unity among economists (Original Post) Matilda Jul 2014 OP
I take it "Lib" in Australia has a slightly different meaning than it has in the US. SunSeeker Jul 2014 #1
Yes, here "Liberal" is synonymous with "Tory". Matilda Jul 2014 #2
Correct. The Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln was a completely different animal. SunSeeker Jul 2014 #4
Or to put it another way, Australia doesn't have a debt crisis Fairgo Jul 2014 #3
Apparently Sloppy Joe Hockey Tanelorn Jul 2014 #5

SunSeeker

(51,378 posts)
1. I take it "Lib" in Australia has a slightly different meaning than it has in the US.
Wed Jul 23, 2014, 01:39 AM
Jul 2014

My liberal-voting friends here in the US are quite easy to be polite to. I am a liberal and I vote accordingly, like my friends.

Matilda

(6,384 posts)
2. Yes, here "Liberal" is synonymous with "Tory".
Wed Jul 23, 2014, 04:29 AM
Jul 2014

To be accurate, the Liberal Party as founded in 1944 by Robert Menzies, was a very different beast. I doubt he'd be very happy with the Tea Party style of Liberals today. Former Lib PM Malcolm Fraser resigned from the party in disgust some years ago, and now almost qualifies as a Leftie, yet really, he is a Liberal in the sense that Menzies was.

There is possibly some similarity between the evolution of the GOP of yesterday and the party of today - I believe the Republicans weren't always as nutty as they are now?

SunSeeker

(51,378 posts)
4. Correct. The Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln was a completely different animal.
Wed Jul 23, 2014, 02:01 PM
Jul 2014

Yet today's Republicans disingenuously claim it is the same old party (nicknamed the "Grand Old Party" or "GOP&quot when in fact today's GOP is a fetid coalition of America's moneyed elite, and their misguided working class supporters conned into voting against their own interests. Today's GOP is largely comprised of Southern whites whose forefathers took up arms against Lincoln and in support of slavery.

By the way, I was in Australia in 2003. Beautiful, immense country. And I really enjoyed all the friendly people...once I got over being called a "Yank." LOL

Fairgo

(1,571 posts)
3. Or to put it another way, Australia doesn't have a debt crisis
Wed Jul 23, 2014, 09:11 AM
Jul 2014

I am just gob-smacked sometimes. I do not know what these guys are thinking. Tony is often just plain incoherent. Hockey looks like a mob boss from central casting. Then just when you thought it couldn't get stupider...it's Clive Palmer and his looney band of merry pranksters.

Tanelorn

(359 posts)
5. Apparently Sloppy Joe Hockey
Mon Jul 28, 2014, 07:13 AM
Jul 2014

Admitted to New Zealand business people that there is no budget emergency and there is nothing wrong with the Australan Economy. He didnt figure that we would hear about it.

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