Comments on: The coalition got it really, really wrong on the financial crisis

By: AG-AP

AG-AP — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

If it all falls apart then Kev can say - “yep, worse then expected so thank Christ for the help we gave”.

If it doesn’t get too nasty then he can say, “see, cushioned the bad bit and now we’ll pay it off faster then expected?

By: Andrew P

Andrew P — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

The commentary on the stimulus has almost entirely been about who wins the political points and, in this, you are probably right that the coalition got it wrong. Meanwhile, back in reality, the question remains as to whether it was actually a good idea in the usual pragmatic sense of acheiving its desired goals and not been a waste of time and money. The labour government seems to have moved to a stance of “no one will be able to tell until after the next election”, which is not promising. Most economists polled, including on this, site, appeared to think it was a hail-mary move at best and probably pointless. I am amazed that no-one seems to thing p-ssing $42 billion dollars up against the proverbial wall is neither worthy of rational justification nor outrage.

By: Dr Harvey M Tarvydas

Dr Harvey M Tarvydas — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Excellent Possum
dWhat kind of mindset do intelligent international bankers have to adopt/develop to watch the GFC happen under their command and expert guidance and not notice it. Pretty awesome, demonstrating the incredible nature of human psychology.
Well such powerful mindsets are likely to tax your therapist even if he’s the best in town so you may well be stuck with the consequence of the mindset becoming habitual or more seriously now claiming ownership of you.

By: M. James

M. James — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

How can the Coalition continue to get things so wrong? Because, just like with the Republicans in the US, the party is in thrall to an outdated widely-discredited philosophy and needs dragging kicking and screaming towards the centre. Turnbull may already be there but that is part of the problem; he is the leader under sufferance not by overwhelming choice. And it turns out he is not much of a TV performer so even if this strategy has a chance of working in the long, as they say, in the long run we are all dead. In the short run he, and Julie Bishop, have been unconvincing and they are knocking on heaven’s door.
As Crikey has pointed out elsewhere, with 13 lawyers in their front bench and only one economist, Turnbull and the party continue to make the incredible error of leaving the sole competent economist and articulate moderate, Andrew Robb, on ice. Given Joe Hockey’s bluster in the 24 hours since assuming Shadow Treasurer, one wonders if he will last as long as Julie Bishop, and for that matter, the cringe-making performances of Costello. To have a hope, the Rudd stimulus has to fail by a large margin because it seems modest failure (mild recession) will not cause most people to blame the incumbent government.

By: AG-AP

AG-AP — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Excellent piece, what the hell is it doing all the way down here?

By: Dr Harvey M Tarvydas #2

Dr Harvey M Tarvydas #2 — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Psychology, psychology, psychology is everything

By: MichaelT

MichaelT — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I guess Malcolm must be taking the long view and calculating that his stand will look better when we get further down the track than it does now. That's what it sounds like from his public comments. Presumably he thinks either (a) the economic crisis will get worse and the package will be ineffective; or (b) the crisis wlll not turn out to be so bad after all, and the government will be seen to have over-reacted, plunging the government deep into debt unecessarily.

Hard to see how he would win ouf the first scenario, which currently looks the most likely one. The government would be able to flay him as the opposition leader who misread the crisis and didn't realise how bad it was, how many Australians were going to lose their jobs. He could certainly win from the second scenario, but this is looking increasingly unlikely to come to pass, as the entire world slides further into the abyss.

Then again, it's had to see what else he could do either.

By: Dr Harvey M Tarvydas

Dr Harvey M Tarvydas — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

fehowarth
You are upset and angry.
They don't see people as you describe at all.
Even a psychopath sees others as useful even if only because he needs them to abuse. He may not love them.
Every politician in a democracy knows he needs the people some respect their duty to serve the people and others are very sure that they will always be able to manipulate them, God love ‘em (the people).
Psychology, psychology, psychology is everything

By: Col Fryman

Col Fryman — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Don’t try and get in the way of handouts and the electorate. It will be interesting to see how the electorate see’s the government if the situation gets worse. I don’t like the idea of getting into debt during a time when we should be looking to stay out of debt, both at a national level and an individual level. In this respect I am pretty unhappy at both the Governments stimulus package and the coallitions proposal. Keynesian economics is just a way for governments to centre the attention on themselves, whereas it has been private enterprise that has generated tax revenue for the state. Oh well, at the end of the day the only opinion poll that matters is the one that is counted by the electoral commission!

By: JamesK

JamesK — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Gee Whizz! Can you believe how stupid the Coalition are?

If only there were smart like the Labor Party.

Act as if the electorate are gullible and unintelligent and you are intelligent. Act as if the electorate are intelligent and you are stupid.

The character of the Labor Party in a nutshell.

Gee..... thanks Comitatus.

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

> Labor, on their worst day, on their ‘worst’ issue are still winning the political contest — daylight is second.

Beautiful!

By: fehowarth

fehowarth — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Like all people who believe they are born to rule and that everyone else is stupid, brainless and have their own hidden agenda, they are unable to hear that the a greater number of people does not believe them.

The problem is that they are so blind and wrapped up in their own importance, they believe their own hype and spin.

The see the public as brainless and all they have to do is to use scare tactics to prove they are right. I say after years of being exposed to the master of scared tactics, Mr Howard, we have become immuned and do not scare so easy.

We are not so easy taken in.

The Labor government is not perfect but appears to be working hard and addressing the problems that we face today.