Comments on: Rudd’s stimulus furphy won’t create jobs

By: Victoria Collins

Victoria Collins — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:40:37 +0000

Sinclair davidson should get with the modern conservative economic program and take a trip to France and see what Nicolas Sarkozy is doing. His economic advisor has worked with Sarkozy to incorporate a Happiness Index into GDP, which allows leisure time and time with family to be a function of the nation’s productivity calculation.
Davidson, Kates and their ilk are anachronistic economic dinosaurs.

By: Tom McLoughlin

Tom McLoughlin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:53:42 +0000

Okay after a quick scan - this picks up Mr Gallop (from memory eg with Fran Kelly abc rn some weeks ago) about tracking reduced hours worked. “A tragedy” but is it? Actually what does society really need, rather than bosses want? (You know the bosses with faith in the market which saw $20 trillion in value piss into the ocean.)

With high mechanisation and hunger for a richer democracy people should work LESS hours. They should work more productively, and participate more in social life including their democracy which is different to work hours.

The protestant work ethic and the populate or perish crowd will find this anathema but that’s so 19th century let alone 20th. And given the GFC and sustainable ecology limits to growth, less is more with a premium on equity - while always allowing for individual expression and aspiration.

By: Tom McLoughlin

Tom McLoughlin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:31:15 +0000

Not even a scan for me, but one item I hope Sinclair Davidson does write about in Crikey: I heard on abc that 20 trillion has been paid by the developed economies since that investment house went down 12 months ago.

More than the cost of ANYTHING ever before - WW1 and 2, Vietnam, moon shot, and so on. Except perhaps eco system services which are externalised anyway so economists can apply their self indulgent assumptions.

20 trillion dollars. Now that’s what I call a credibility gap for a unfettered market based system.

By: Mr. Goodtrips

Mr. Goodtrips — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:27:02 +0000

Heh, I started reading this and I was thinking, “Wow, this RMIT guy sounds just like an IPA guy…” Then I got to the end of the article.

By: Gavin Moodie

Gavin Moodie — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:49:02 +0000

Crikey, this really is simplistic stuff to justify a predetermined position. Sure, it is possible that Australia maintained its long term trend of hours work despite the biggest financial crisis since the great depression because of the ‘labour market flexibility’ so beloved by capitalists. But Australia has had ‘labour market flexibility’ for at least 5 years: why has Australia kept on trend while unemployment has skyrocketed in most other OECD countries since the financial crisis? And Australia’s labour market ‘flexibility’ is far less than that of the US, which is continuing to suffer increased unemployment, altho the rate of increase is slowing.

Presumbaly there are several factors explaining Australia’s relatively favourable position. But there is 1 new factor which coincides with the impact of the financial crisis. Umm, what could that be, I wonder?

By: AR

AR — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:47:47 +0000

Never mind paying economists, why are they even fed?

By: jossy

jossy — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:30:26 +0000

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah

… a senior fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs.

By: Mr Denmore

Mr Denmore — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:14:26 +0000

Mr Davidson is a stooge of the scorched earth division of the Liberal Party. His fundamentalist economic views have been shredded by the global financial crisis. Everything he says is compromised by his blinkered ideology. Why do you bother giving him a soap box??

By: BH

BH — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:23:36 +0000

We’ve had Sinclair Davidson’s type of economics - they failed. Taxpayers should insist on a good dose of unemployment at RMIT beginning with Davidson and Kates.

By: Ben Callinan

Ben Callinan — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:21:20 +0000

Blah blah blah — an economist’s predictions are as useful as a horoscope these days. Only serves to affirm what we already think.

You’re sounding like a broken record IPA man.

By: Victoria Collins

Victoria Collins — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 04:58:14 +0000

Do we have to put up with this man’s self-serving tripe in Crikey? He’s a fully paid-up member of the Conservatariat and will use any means at his disposal to seek to discredit the Rudd government’s economic policies.
Shame, Crikey, shame. This stuff isn’t even justified in the name of ‘balance’.
So he’s a Professor of Economics. They, as a group, haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory of late. So that makes what he says highly questionable and suspicious, and not worth serious consideration.

By: Victoria Collins

Victoria Collins — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 04:55:30 +0000

Do we have to put up with this man’s self-serving tripe in Crikey? He’s a fully paid-up member of the Conservatariat and will use any eans at his disposal to seek to discredit the Rudd government’s economic policies.
Shame, Crikey, shame. This stuff isn’t even justified in the name of ‘balance’.