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40 years ago Milton Friedman was touring Australia and that was the beginning of the period of neoliberalism or "economic rationalism" as they called it. Now Krugman is here. What does this herald - a return to Keynesianism? It would be foolish to expect great things from Krugman's visit, but Nobel Prizes are now being given to soft lefties rather than the likes of Hayek and Friedman. Michalel Roberts' blog informs us that the chief economist of the IMF, Olivier Blanchard, has also just given a farewell interview and he talks there of the need to revive "old ideas" and mentions a left Keynesian-- Minsky. So there are crumbling cracks in the TINA edifice and the bits are falling on the heads of the idiots in Australia like Joe Hockey and Doug McTaggart who want to plague the people of this great country. Hockey is our Treasurer who tried to launch the "Age of Opportunity" in his first austerity budget. McTaggart is the economist who advised to the conservative government in Qld to sack 24 thousand public servants. I know the current Labor Party leader, Shorten, lacks a moral compass, but are his political antennae sensitive enough to pick up the change in the air. No one has commented here on how Greens leader Di Natale's economic illiteracy is preventing the Greens from becoming the party of opposition - the alternative government. They should look at Canada where a right wing cretinous mate of Abbott's, Harper, legislated to make budget surpluses compulsory and set a fixed time on elections only to have his economy move into recession as oil prices collapsed. What is significant is that the NDP (like our Labor Party) said they would not do a budget surplus and they are mired in the polls, The Liberals under Trudeau said they were relaxed about a surplus and now they are heading for an election win. If Di Natale came out like a sensible Keynesian, he would sweep through Labor Heartlands. If he positioned his party as the anti-austerity party then he would have a long shot of being the next Prime Minister. But we are left with the squeeze from a rabid Abbott and a right wing Labor stooge - Bill Shorten. comradely Gary _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
