LOOSEN UP
Time to get ready 
Tommorow A federal election probably will be called so some
Will be a happening.. There will be plenty of
Along with some
Should be a
of a time. Lets hope the Coalition go
And Labor .
The born to rule ,out of touch elites in parliment and the media.
THE PUB 
Well my goodness – Waffles’ wine choices for The Lodge are cheaper than Abbott’s wines and have been described as ‘boring and embarrassing’. Just like Waffles himself.
$1000+ a week for wine and beer, just for The Lodge – that seems just a bit excessive. And we have no idea how much was spent on alcohol for Kirribilli House.
Bureaucrats finally spill the secrets of Tony Abbott’s wine list
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/bureaucrats-finally-spill-the-secrets-of-tony-abbotts-wine-list-20160505-gon7r1.html#ixzz47uzFZuKk
I was disappointed; my guess re: the curiously uncensored “Margaret” was wrong. (Not named “Margaret”, just another Margaret River wine.)
While I may post portions of articles and their links to “alternative sources” to those in our MSM, I don’t have the time or means of confirming the accuracy of the content and they don’t necessarily represent my POV. I read these as a balance to the articles forced on us by the MSM.
It’s good to get non-mainstream articles, they give a better idea of what’s going on than the standard follow-a-government-line stuff the usual suspects churn out. I think you get a feel for what is accurate comment and what is not.
Laffer invented his curve over lunch in 1974 in the US where there are 4 levels of government each raising tax. The levels are federal, state, county and district. To translate to Australian equivalent the levels would be, Australia, Victoria, County of Prahran, then City of Stonnington. [yes counties still overlay the Victoria and New South Wales maps] Police, fire brigade, schools are provided by the lowest level
Reagan ‘voodoo economics’ at the heart of Scott Morrison’s budget
Mike Seccombe
summary
…..
Laffer[1974] suggested that by cutting tax rates, government would stimulate economic activity and ultimately benefit from higher revenue. And the whole economy would benefit from – and this phrase might sound recently familiar – a boom in jobs and growth.
…..
the biggest impact of those Reagan tax breaks was to double the US deficit to $155 billion and triple government debt to more than $2 trillion.
……
Before Australia caught the Laffer bug in the late 1980s, they [corporate taxes] averaged well above 40 per cent. Then they came down in a series of steps to 30 per cent. But there was no more investment as a result.
….
Stiglitz’s answer[2014]: “An increase in government spending matched by increased taxes stimulates the economy.”
…..
And it is Laffer’s prescription, rather than Stiglitz’s, that Turnbull and Morrison have offered in their budget.
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/economy/2016/05/07/reagan-voodoo-economics-the-heart-scott-morrisons-budget/14625432003219
How Pulling Weeds Can Save Australia’s Seabirds
https://www.audubon.org/news/how-pulling-weeds-can-save-australias-seabirds
Will Michaelia Cash be demoted to fifth place on the WA senate ticket?
I am all for more women in parliament, but not just any women. If the better candidate for any position is a man then he should get the spot. (Of course, there are also a lot of Liberal chaps who need rewarding with a cushy senate spot and someone has to make room …..)
Cash is a disgrace. Her ability to totally ignore her own government’s polices and just make up any old lies in interviews, lies that then have to be corrected by the PM or other ministers, might be the reason for this demotion. Being a motor-mouth won’t go down well with the chaps in charge, being a female motor-mouth doesn’t make it any more forgivable.
Then again – it might just be her fondness for black and white gaol-bird outfits and those awful thick black stockings what done her in.Or the Effie voice. Or the bleeding obvious – she’s incompetent.
Fears women are being sidelined in the Liberal Party preselections
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/fears-women-are-being-sidelined-in-the-liberal-party-preselections-20160506-goom2g.html#ixzz47vC8rEWX
“Her ability to totally ignore her own government’s polices and just make up any old lies in interviews, lies that then have to be corrected by the PM or other ministers, ”
.
But isn’t that Coalition SOP these days ?
Pretty much.
“Will Michaelia Cash be demoted to fifth place on the WA senate ticket?”
Please, please, please…
Wee Johnny Howard was the gold standard when it came to booze expenses .
I want to see the booze expenses for the Speaker’s suite when Bronnie was in residence.
Cool
Laurie Oakes, worrying Turnbull will blow his election chances.
WHY do they keep on dragging up that Rhodes scholarship rubbish? It does not mean someone is/was an intellectual giant, it just means they had made the right connections with influential people on the selection panel. We saw that with Abbott. They might as well say ‘Turnbull, who came third in spelling in Grade 2 …… It would be just as irrelevant.
Get set for the other election tactic against Shorten. Whenever the Liberal party makes a series of spectacular gaffes and the press corps studiously look the other way, or downplay them, or counter them with “oh yeah, well what about when Labor did this in 1997?” – as is starting to happen now – you always get a bunch of idiots complaining about Labor not doing enough to make these gaffes known. “Why isn’t Shorten talking about it? Where are the ALP while all this is happening? They should be shouting it from the rooftops! They have to DO SOMETHING!”
It’s the old story. The press dictate the flow of news, what makes the headlines and what doesn’t. ALP figures could talk about this stuff until their faces turn blue and it won’t get reported. Or it will, but with the caveat that there was some counterclaim made against the ALP.
Or a week later, the cry of, “Corruption? Budget figures all wrong? Jobs disappearing? Ah, that’s last week’s news, are the ALP still going on about it? Get with the program, Malcolm’s kissing babies this week.”
The 24 hour news cycle works both ways. Scare campaigns don’t have the bite they used to have, but bad news gets washed away in the tide as well. All that’s left are impressions.
Bill’s run it pretty flawlessly to date. Won’t stop them, of course. The type of pieces run usually excite a response along the lines of “Do something! Now! Demand Dutton’s resignation and closing of Nauru!”
It usually comes from what are assumed to be excitable Greens and Leftists, but quite possibly from social media trolls set up by LNP. Might go some way to explaining Bill’s very low level of personal public support. That perception is slowly changing as events show him and his team as considerably more competent than the government.
USA Wages’ Share Of GDP Has Fallen for 46 Years:
http://www.zerohedge.com/?page=1&%3Bamp%3Bdestination=articles&%3Bamp%3Bname=ynwwqwypn&%3Bamp%3Bfeed_me=rlafxotk46&name=lgeuyfhi&form_build_id=form-bdrl3copeyqd2cjw0u6n4gac570osfl7lu5cilnclh0&for___=
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-07/panama-papers-source-breaks-his-silence/7391036
https://panamapapers.icij.org/20160506-john-doe-statement.html
http://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2016/05/make-no-mistake-zac-was-crushed-because-he-followed-the-crosby-playbook-which-failed-lamentably.html worth reading this Tory criticism of a Crosby campaign
Since 2014 The US Has Added 450,000 Waiters And Bartenders, And No Manufacturing Workers
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-06/2014-us-has-added-450000-waiters-and-bartenders-and-no-manufacturing-workers
Welcome to Australia’s future under Truffles.
Don’t give up the fight yet Keef.
The costs of privatised water:
Detroit Begins Water Shutoffs for 20,000 Residents
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=16274</url.
Cameroon midfielder Patrick Ekeng dies after collapsing on pitch
Dinamo Bucharest and Cameroon midfielder Patrick Ekeng died on Friday after collapsing on the pitch during a match for his club.
Ekeng, 26, fell to the ground shortly after coming on as a 62nd-minute substitute during a league match against Viitorul Constanta, his club said in a statement on their website.
Media reports said he suffered a suspected heart attack and was pronounced dead in hospital two hours later.
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/cameroon-midfielder-patrick-ekeng-dies-after-collapsing-on-pitch-20160506-gooove.html
This government has done a lot to destroy our industries and to push down wages and has plans to do much more. They are also hacking away at welfare payments and have a cunning plan to replace paid workers with government-subsidised slaves.
They tell us giving billion-dollar companies tax cuts will make us all better off. Pig’s arse it will.
Do they know what they are doing, or are they just faffing around, hoping, like Mr Micawber, that something (maybe a new mining boom, or perhaps Sco-Mo’s fairy godmother) will turn up and solve their problems.
From a link last night on the interest rate cut –
http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/rba-lowers-inflation-forecasts-ready-to-cut-rates-again-20160505-gonp7b.html#ixzz47vJPMk2a
Or maybe average earnings per hour are declining because too many Australians are now without a job, thanks to this government’s polices. Maybe those ‘new staff on lower salaries’ are 457 workers brought in because they will work for peanuts. Have these banker types thought about that?
I wrote the other day that HI’s Mum’s gentleman friend, Mike, passed away last Wednesday. After her husband, HI’s Dad, died in 1989, HI’s Mum was at a loose end and started volunteering for various things about Sydney’s Northern Beaches. It was at one of these volunteer jobs that she met Mike, who gave her a new lease of life and love. She was with him until the very end.
I knew Mike only through his occasional visits to Chateau Bushfire and the odd dinner here and there with HI’s family (some of them quite odd, but that’s another story).
I was aware of his many achievements – or thought I was. I realise now that one of his greatest qualities was modesty. He was proud of everything he’d done in life, but you had to pry it out of him with a crowbar. For him to win a bravery medal – for actual physical bravery – at the age of 71, was something I never knew about. Why didn’t Mike tell me? Well, I never asked him. That’s why.
This is a biography of Mike that Pubsters might be like to read. It’s an interesting read, from the death of his father fighting against the Vichy French in Syria, through his business career, and to his later years. And the old photographs, even family ones, are evocative.
A lot of it is verbatim quotes – oral history – straight from Mike’s mouth. I can just hear him talking to me now in his soft voice, telling his stories and giving me advice (most of which I did not take, to my disadvantage).
http://www.pittwateronlinenews.com/john-michael-armstrong-stringer-am-esm-jp-profile.php
His motto was from the Quakers:
Vale Mike Stringer.
What an amazing life. Thank you for sharing Mike’s story.
That was my primary school motto. I have remembered it all my life.
http://theconversation.com/do-you-even-lift-why-lifting-weights-is-more-important-for-your-health-than-you-think-58635
Bushfire Bill,
Thank you for sharing that biography.
BB,
Sounds like a good guy, so Vale from me too.
One of the good guys BB, sympathies condolences to HI’s mum and any surviving family.
I cannot see how anyone can claim certain percentages this way or that for an election result in 2 months’ time, when the campaign has not even started.
Polls are quoted as showing the parties neck-and-neck. Instantly a hung parliament is brought up, when just a half-dozen years ago, in 2010, this prospect was regarded as so aberrant that only lunatics and day dreamers could conceive of it.
Polls were quoted back in September 2015, too. Turnbull was so far ahead that nothing – repeat nothing – could stop him and his party from being elected in a canter, a doddle, a crawl. Shorten was finished. The nation was saved. Labor was back to where it had been in June 2013: defeated, demoralized, distraught and disconnected from the Australian people.
Extrapolating polls so far out into the future is fraught with danger. They are not predictive of anything very much except what might – I emphasize might – happen on the next weekend, or the one after next, if there was an election – which there was not. Extending a tangential line from a poll, or even a series of them, out into a future of inevitability is not good science or statistics, especially where human behaviour and emotion is concerned and where – literally – anything can happen in the meantime.
We can refer to previous extrapolations, carried out in previous eras, as showing that if such-and-such a party is this far ahead so many months before an election, then such-and-such a party has won that election n times in the past. While there might be some use for that approach, from an indicative basis, it didn’t predict the boilovers in Victoria, and most emphatically in Queensland, did it? First term handovers don’t happen, do they? Except when they do. Consider 1993, where every senior journalist, even in the last week of the campaign, wrote up the inevitability of a Hewson victory, with no exceptions. Consider the defeat of the Kennett government in 1999. The polls said it’d be a walkover. It wasn’t. It was a hung parliament, and then the member for Frankston died. The punters went back to the polls determined to get rid of the hated Premier and did so.
Trying to put precise estimates on election results, or even odds of election results, based on poll results way in advance of the actual election, is an overly deterministic method that takes little or no account of realities on the ground, and the possibilities of misadventure or even death (political or otherwise) during the campaign. We’d like to think we can predict the future by using form guides like polls, or by “chartist” approaches to statistical analysis, or even by seeing how the betting markets are going (another way of looking characterizing the use of betting markets as a reliable indicator is “checking the vibe”). But if those were 100% valid approaches, then we’d make a killing on the Melbourne Cup every year, our shares would always go up in value, we wouldn’t have regular queues of “market analysts” with egg on their faces just about every time unemployment goes up when they all said it would go down, and election campaigns would be regarded as surplus to requirements, expensive but futile exercises in cockeyed optimism.
The polling today says the two parties are neck and neck. The polling a year ago said Labor was ahead by a country mile. The polling last September said that Turnbull was an electoral juggernaut. Up, down, up, and down again. Nobody in the psephology business predicted any of it. They monitored it, they commented on it, but they didn’t forsee it with any greater accuracy than tossing a coin would produce.
What we have seen for the past 8 months has been what I regard as an artificially inflated estimation of Turnbull’s prospects at an election, mostly based on polls used as props to justify the various political and fanboy positions of individual commentators.
Turnbull had a history of brilliant success, we were told. This would be yet another. But what was the quality of his success? When you drilled down, he started off young and relatively wealthy, and then used chapter-and-verse investment techniques, plus wealthy and politically influential connections to add incrementally to his solid base of prosperity. Ozemail was an exception. It was a brilliant investment that paid off handsomely. But we never hear about the duds, do we? All investors have them. What Turnbull did was to wisely salt away enough money from the successes to protect him when the failures inevitably came on. But that’s hardly rocket science.
We heard he was a leader. But what has Turnbull led that ever succeeded? He certainly didn’t win over the Godwin Grech scandal. That was a big time disaster. Oops! I forgot about the Republic campaign. My bad.
We heard he was the Liberal Messiah. But he is barely tolerated in the Liberal Party. He is regarded as an outsider, a rich, but amateur politician, dabbling in the dark arts that so many of them have crafted into a bloody science, through long years of back-room dedication to ruthlessness.
Compared to Shorten who has risen from the boiling depths of the Union crucible, with all that entails – the factions, the back stabbing, the betrayals and the double-dealing (as well as doing some good for the members) – Turnbull is a fresh-faced newbie, a flashy, urbane, but hopeless waffler who’s got by so far with influence, luck, the prestige and the falsity of wealth as an indicator of human character and leadership capacity.
Each time there is a dramatic change in the polls, it is followed by a period of calm in which we continue to experience aftershocks. Shorten has been jolting the Australian public with aftershocks, into taking him seriously for the first time, not as a Leader Of The Opposition, but as a potential Prime Minister. Even the polls, for what they are worth, tell us that: Shorten Labor is gaining. And we’re due for another major temblor as the campaign gets underway.
However, the polls cannot tell us what the result will be on July 2, not in any statistical or predictive sense. They reflect only the public opinion of today, a “vibe” made up of party partisanship, cross-referencing what other people reckon, herd instinct, the cult of celebrity, and outright indifference.
All that will change in the next couple of months. I wouldn’t be using today’s polls to predict any much more than the vaguest of directions in which we are travelling, a direction that takes no account of forks in the road, natural disasters and outright blundering by one side or the other. The polls are an indicator – but only an indicator – as to where we might end up.
I had the opportunity to see Mike in hospital last weekend, but declined.
For one thing I didn’t want to see him desperately ill from cancer, literally writhing in pain.
For another, I didn’t think he’d appreciate me – who he really hardly knew – trying to be chirpy in such dire straits. And we weren’t intimate enough for us to have an end-of-life chat about the Great Issues.
I’m in two minds as to whether I should have gone, but actually, as it turned out, on the day we had planned to visit him, they put him on a final, elevated morphine drip, the kind that destroys minds, but relieves pain. There was no hope. The end came sooner than anyone had expected. So the decision was taken out of my hands.
HI went, more to keep her Mum company, than to see Mike, who was by the time she got there, incoherent and pretty much unconscious.
So, although for all the wrong, bloody-minded reasons, HI’s work suspension has been a good thing. There have been other weeks where she was needed by her family since January, and courtesy of the NSW public service, she has had them on full pay.
Every cloud has a silver lining, I guess.
P.S. No news this week. We are once again in uncharted territory, procedure-wize.
You have my admiration, BB.
Five stars and three chef’s hats to you, Bushfire Bill.
Plus one of these:
Dismantling the Foolish Framework of Right-Wing Politics.
Right-wing politics in Australia has for most of it’s life depended on the imported “philosophies”, if one can prefer THAT designation over a more accurate ; “ Opportunisms” of the deluded ideology of Rand, Hayek and Friedman.
Deluded because of all their espousing of the right of “freedom” of the individual to rise both themselves and the society they live in above the “suffocating collectivism” of the “nanny state”. Ironically, all the while sheltering under the umbrella of that same “nanny state social contract” that gives them freedom , peace and stable institutions to collect their “thoughts” to write and publish their diatribes against the very comforts afforded to them by the protection of the state.
For any civilization to grow and flourish, it has to have an agreed social philosophy. That philosophy can vary, have it’s goals as different and conduct it’s cultural respects at a changed tempo than it’s neighbours. BUT..the ONE common foundation in EVERY successful, LONG LASTING society is it’s adherence to the collective concern of each and every one of it’s citizens. NOT a dividing and polarizing of different sections of that society , for the basic truth of ALL societies is : “A HOUSE DIVIDED CANNOT STAND”. That must stand as an inherent truth, demonstrated throughout history as rock solid 24 carat gold !
Yet…The Right-wing of politics STILL maintains that one section of society can be held up as a standard for aspiration toward, all the while throwing barricades against those who try to even ascend the ladder of medium income and or social stability. The Right-wing of politics holds such deluded spielers as Ayn Rand, Theodor Hayek and Milton Friedman as philosophical examples to emulate and proselytize.
First to the “Elder Statesman” ; Rand.
“ Ayn Rand asserted that capitalism – which she defined as the complete separation of economics from the activities of the state – was the only social system compatible with freedom. Capitalism, she explained, recognizes and defends reason as man’s sole means of survival. In a capitalist society, goods and services are distributed by consensual trade, not by physical coercion. Being a system in which coercive physical force is used only to defend each person’s life, liberty and property, capitalism is the only system compatible with human life.” (copied and pasted from a site sympathetic to Rand.)
Until an opposition puts a “contract” out on you!..surely ; capitalism at it’s zenith!
The underpinning puerile presumption of this fools errand is that one has all the time, means and splendid isolation from personal injury to go about one’s pursuit of capital accumulation. As if history is not rife with accounts of jealousy, robbery, force of arms and plain mischief that interferes with, corrupts, shifts goal posts and just plain murders with impunity one’s envied competition…ALL in the name of greed!
Reason being HER explanation of “as man’s sole means of survival” yet she failed to reason that her “iron-will” of the objectivism of the individual over the social contract that one makes with one’s neighbours to facilitate the best chances of mutual protection in times of duress led this gormless dupe to have to accept social welfare in her frail old age under her partner’s name and seek medical assistance to her life’s end. As a condemnation of her philosophy, there can be no other adjective best suited than : FOOL!
“Evva Joan Pryor, who had been a social worker in New York in the 1970s, was interviewed in 1998 by Scott McConnell, who was then the director of communications for the Ayn Rand Institute. In his book, 100 Voices: An Oral History of Ayn Rand, McConnell basically portrays Rand as first standing on principle, but then being mugged by reality. Stephens points to this exchange between McConnell and Pryor.
“She was coming to a point in her life where she was going to receive the very thing she didn’t like, which was Medicare and Social Security,” Pryor told McConnell. “I remember telling her that this was going to be difficult. For me to do my job she had to recognize that there were exceptions to her theory. So that started our political discussions. From there on – with gusto – we argued all the time.
The initial argument was on greed,” Pryor continued. “She had to see that there was such a thing as greed in this world. Doctors could cost an awful lot more money than books earn, and she could be totally wiped out by medical bills if she didn’t watch it. Since she had worked her entire life, and had paid into Social Security, she had a right to it. She didn’t feel that an individual should take help.”
Rand had paid into the system, so why not take the benefits? It’s true, but according to Stephens, some of Rand’s fellow travelers remained true to their principles.
Rand is one of three women the Cato Institute calls founders of American libertarianism. The other two, Rose Wilder Lane and Isabel “Pat” Paterson, both rejected Social Security benefits on principle. Lane, with whom Rand corresponded for several years, once quit an editorial job in order to avoid paying Social Security taxes. The Cato Institute says Lane considered Social Security a “Ponzi fraud” and “told friends that it would be immoral of her to take part in a system that would predictably collapse so catastrophically.” Lane died in 1968.
Paterson would end up dying a pauper. Rand went a different way.”
Friedrich Hayek.
“ Justice as Impartiality, Politics As Entrepreneurship Without Restraint
Hayek was a consequentialist of sorts, as was Adam Smith, and yet Hayek’s defense of economic freedom, like Smith’s, hints at a contractarian or deontological (and also, in Smith’s case, virtue-theoretic) moral sensibility that regards the separateness of persons as morally fundamental. Thus, for example, Hayek says, “the test of the justice of a rule is usually (since Kant) described as that of its universalizability” (Hayek 1969, 168). As John Gray sees it, Hayek commended the laws of justice “as being the indispensable condition for the promotion of the general welfare” but Hayek held, at the same time, that “an impartial concern for the general welfare is itself one of the demands of universalizability” (Gray 1984, 65).
I
n service of the overall project of fostering the general welfare, the point of law and legislation is to craft a framework such that a market order consists of a history of pareto-improving trades.[5] A primary role of law and (when necessary) legislation is to narrow people’s options so as to limit opportunities to get rich at other people’s expense.[6] So long as the rule of law can internalize external cost and thereby steer innovation in mutually beneficial rather than parasitic directions, an evolving order will be an order of rising prosperity.
By contrast, in a planned order, even astute and conscientious decisions by men of system are damaging in a particular way. Namely, as they become micro-managers, they become players rather than umpires. If bureaucrats start playing the game—responding to ephemeral events with centralized fine tuning—then even if they play as cleverly as bureaucrats could possibly play, the fact remains that in consequence, the dispersed and tacit knowledge of ordinary buyers and sellers ends up on the sidelines watching. People who would have been job creators become mere spectators, shackled by uncertainty, waiting to see what the plan is going to be. Until they know the plan, they have no way of knowing, or even intelligently guessing, something as simple as whether their staff is too small or too large.”…(Again ; copy and paste from a website).
Aside from the convoluted language waffle, the glaring fault-line in his reasoning is the same as Rand’s ..ie; that the main “players” of the economic systems should be allowed all the time and freedom of market manipulative movement in the world to use and abuse the collective peoples to forward their enriching agendas THAT , we are supposed to believe will be for the better of all as those moguls throw their accumulated largesse about to employ the masses and do them a favour!
The trickle-down effect.
FUUUCK OFF!! Dickhead!..Double dickhead!!…Hayek may have had all the right academic ticks after his name..ALL the jargon language at his fingertips, but as far as a realistic innovator of life-choices for the great majority goes…in straight forward language ; he was a fuckwit!..NO..no excuses, he promoted his bent economics based on a personal delusion that what could be applied to one as an example could be applied to the many..any trainer of sport-speople could’ve set him right on that simplistic presumption..and to believe that once a person gained great wealth (by what means HAS to be overlooked!) , the honourable intent was to distribute it as beneficial employment amongst his fellow citizens with neither regulation nor interference…
Just like Alan Bond…or the owner of the 7 Eleven brand or that behemoth of universal goodwill and kindness ; Rupert Murdoch.
Get fucked Hayek!…One famous ruler who dealt with such a purveyor of those philosophies was Mithradates..: “Aquillius was eventually executed by Mithradates by having molten gold poured down his throat.“
As a tradesman, I cannot BELIEVE that anyone could take such philosophic reasoning seriously…There are procedures inherent in EVERY structure of life, be they physical . spiritual or economic that DEMAND solid foundations..the foundations that Hayek has constructed his theories upon are of clay.
Another absolute fool!
Speaking of such ;
Milton Friedman.
“Writing in the early 1960s, Friedman accurately described the danger of collectivism. In 1962, he published Capitalism and Freedom, ultimately his most famous book, partly as a response to the growing scope of the U.S. federal government under Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. Here is how he responded to the rhetoric of Kennedy’s inaugural address:
“The free man will ask neither what his country can do for him, nor what he for his country. He will ask rather “What can I and my compatriots do through government” to help us discharge our individual responsibilities to achieve our several goals and purposes, and above all, to protect our freedom? And he will accompany this question with another: “How can we keep the government from becoming a Frankenstein that will destroy the very freedom we establish it to protect?” Freedom is a rare and delicate plant. Our minds tell us, and history confirms, that the great threat to freedom is concentration of power.”
Friedman’s greatest legacy may be his demonstration that good economic policy strengthens democracy and, thereby, freedom. For instance, a monetary policy that creates inflationary pressure and high interest rates can lead to the breakdown of democracy, as factions battle for government relief.
Friedman sensibly argued that economic policy should create a level playing field. In the area of monetary management, the Federal Reserve should attempt to maintain a stable price level, rather than fine-tune the economy to achieve certain output and employment results.
Friedman’s work was heretical, and not just among economists. In the 1950s and early 1960s, the Great Depression was too recent, and fear of a recurrence quite real. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a popular hero because his interventionist New Deal was believed to have pulled America out of the hopeless economic mire created by his predecessor, the laissez-faire Herbert Hoover. Interventionist economics-popularized by the New Deal and formalized by economists like John Maynard Keynes-was the only game in town. Yet Friedman had an edge over his opponents-university professors, the mainstream media, both superpowers, and most of the rest of the world-because in the end, Friedman was right.
Friedman’s bold prediction that monetary policy would become the dominant economic tool of the modern age proved prescient. Today, few, if any, government officials have more economic influence than the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. The cult of Alan Greenspan that grew over the last 20 years owes more to Milton Friedman than it does-with all due respect-to Alan Greenspan. And modern U.S. economic policy, despite all the predictions of the 1950s, is based on limited government interference, monetarism, and the free market-Friedman’s then-heretical ideas.” (copy and paste from a web site).
Gawd ‘elp us!
I don’t think I need say more than three little words to describe how Friedman got it so bloody wrong..: “Global Financial Crisis”. And even Alan Greenspan has since apologized for that little “oversight” of Right-wing economics. Of course, those in the LNP. HAVE to believe that it never really happened, because to do so would negate the entire frame work of the above Philosophies completely.
Capitalism does not work!
So they go into denial…denial that a relationship has to be framed to allow the individual entrepreneur to operate in a safe , secure environment, with the free use of a sovereign currency whose value is agreed upon by collective negotiation in a social contact with the people, the financial institutions, the nation’s collective productive base and a global assessment ..Last and certainly not least :
The universal acceptance that despite an allotted freedom for the individual to operate and use their creative capabilities to enrich themselves above their neighbour’s station.. They will respect that their citizen brethren have given them both space and security to achieve their status without violent interference to either their wealth or person.
The rights of the individual IS paramount, but only WITHIN a sphere of collective , mutual responsibility to the majority.
We all “owe” to each other.
Though I suspect there are those in the LNP. who feel that they are “owed” so much more!
Rand was a complete fruitcake and the others are not far behind
Bill (my mate) is out and about this morning with Tanya speaking to the monthly council of the NSW Teachers’ Federation where 300 delegates from across the state meet to thrash out policy campaign focus. Here is what he had to say…
Great speech from your mate Bill.
Whenever I am asked what the big election issue is for me I always tick ‘education’. Without decent education for our kids and young adults we are not going to progress.
Haven’t been to council for a few years now but HI is our current representative. She was quite excited to see them there today. A good reception from the chalkies. Mind you, Adrian Piccoli did a good job when he spoke to us some years back, still has a lot of teacher support.
Australia quietly adds 49 species to threatened and endangered lists
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/07/australia-quietly-adds-49-species-to-threatened-and-endangered-lists
Let’s add Liberal and National politicians to the list.
Very sad.
It’s horrific that species that I have seen may not be around long enough to share with my wife, let alone the next generation.
http://www.afr.com/news/politics/world/the-panama-papers-behind-mossack-fonsecas-secret-new-zealand-deals-20160506-gonstp paywalled, so try opening from within teh tweet first, or googling teh title & clicking through
http://www.dpmc.gov.au/resource-centre/government/guidance-caretaker-conventions
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/technology/mobiles/mobile-phone-use-not-causing-brain-cancer-university-of-sydney-study-claims-20160506-gonzmm.html
http://www.cancerepidemiology.net/article/S1877-7821%2816%2930050-9/pdf
https://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/manafort-russia
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/fairfax-apology-as-businessman-accused-of-mafia-links-drops-case/news-story/f01cf7367405f6cc8774eb89d287f6d0
Fairfax apology as businessman accused of mafia links drops case
The Australian May 4, 2016 12:00AM
Chip Le Grand Victorian Chief Reporter Melbourne
Calabrian-born Antonio Madafferi has abandoned legal action against Fairfax Media over a series of articles describing him as a mafia boss involved in murder, extortion and drug trafficking.
The settlement means Mr Madafferi will avoid a potentially bruising courtroom showdown with journalists who have spent years investigating his business and alleged criminal activities.
The high-stakes defamation trial, provisionally listed to run for four weeks this year, would have played out against the backdrop of the murder of Joseph Acquaro, a solicitor shot dead by an unknown assailant as he was leaving his Melbourne gelati bar and cafe.
Court documents reveal Mr Madafferi suspected Mr Acquaro, a former friend and family lawyer, of providing information to one of The Age journalists he was suing, Nick McKenzie.
According to an affidavit prepared by Paolo Tatti, Mr Madafferi’s lawyer in the defamation case, police told Mr Madafferi in June last year that they had information a $200,000 contract had been placed on Mr Acquaro’s head, and if something happened to him “they would know where to start looking’’.
Mr Madafferi denies any knowledge or involvement in Mr Acquaro’s murder, which remains unsolved. The Australian understands settlement was reached after a lengthy mediation on Friday attended by Mr Madafferi, The Age’s new editor-in-chief Mark Forbes and their lawyers. The Age yesterday published a page two apology to Mr Madafferi that “acknowledges that Mr Madafferi is a hard-working family man who has never been charged by the police with any criminal offence’’.
The apology does not retract The Age’s most damaging claim: that he is the head of the Calabrian mafia in Melbourne and involved in serious organised crime.
The paper’s previous stories detailing decades of alleged criminal activity by Mr Madafferi remain online. The apology has been added to the stories.
It is understood no payment was made from Fairfax Media to Mr Madafferi. Mr Tatti confirmed the defamation case would not proceed. “All I can say is it has settled and the apology has been published, as you have seen.’’
Lawyers for Fairfax declined to comment.
A ruling last year by Supreme Court Justice John Dixon upholding the right of Fairfax not to disclose the identity of confidential sources who had provided information about Mr Madafferi was welcomed by media groups as an important test of Victoria’s shield laws for journalists.
I would love to know the 103 new appointments that George Brandis has made but AFR link will not let me see them. Any real shockers?
On another topic as I am interested in ‘creativity’ did anyone notice the Productivity Commission’s’ assertion that writers write for love not money and their suggestion that copyright should only extend for 15 years.
Creativity tends to be devalued by many.
Well I have just spent a morning door-knocking in Liberal-land.
The bored husbands in the quiet back street advised me that the whole street voted Liberal. They were unhappy with the Liberal government’s performance – it has shattered their confidence – but they aren’t ready to jump ship – Y E T ! ! !
Next time you get one tell him that Chrissy Pyne was planning to contest for their electorate if he loses his Adelaide one…
Apologies for missing your excellent , now read, work,
A Seccombe article Bongo tweeted a recommendation to read.
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/economy/2016/05/07/reagan-voodoo-economics-the-heart-scott-morrisons-budget/14625432003219
Article was summarised at top of page by me
Good to see Bongo still remembers Economics 131 Macro
Apologies for missing your excellent , now read, work, .
🙂
I read that article this morning from BK’s links, KK. It is an outstanding one which spells out the fraud of trickle down and supply side economics. The leading political proponents, Reagan and Thatcher have long been discredited, but the banking and brokering corporations long learned its value to elite interests and have continued forcing conservative governments to follow it.
It is clearly what Turnbull and Morrison have planned for their budget. Luckily they have been sidetracked by bank-finance industry scandals and then the Panama Tax Haven outrage. The attempt to bring on a D/D election here so far has been so riddled with government failures. Shorten-Bowen have made all the right moves so far in focusing on education, health and fairness. Voters have a choice which will become clearer.
BB it must have been a privilege to know Mike Stringer, he sounded like a great man
This will put you out of your comfort zone without getting out of your chair
From budget estimates.
Some of the smartest people in the country (including the Finance Minister) take almost a minute to count to ten… or is it eleven?
How sad!
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/blow-for-former-minister-david-johnston-after-getting-sixth-spot-on-wa-senate-ticket/news-story/9675f7e6b50c3a3dddfd21e092eff195
What else can ONE be expected to eat?
“Mr Turnbull’s office had no comment.”
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/malcolm-turnbulls-500000-chinese-lunch-20160505-gonrnk.html
As Lucy said – ‘Malcolm is completely infatuated with truffles’
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/11/canberra-truffles-camilla-duchess-turnbulls-royal-visit-australia
I would have had to ask for something else to eat. I hate lobster, I think truffles taste weird and Angus steak I can have any day, I don’t have to go to a $500,000 banquet for that.
What was wrong with a nice Aussie rack of lamb, anyway?
I hope Waffles didn’t choose these ‘expensive Australian wines’, not after an expert revealed Waffles’ choices for the cellars at The Lodger are ‘boring and embarrassing.
What was dessert? Waffles?
Chinese don’t like lamb, the flesh is too fatty and taste is to rich – I have been told
A good lobster from the cold waters of southern WA or Tasmania is sublime, an off lobster is awful
Truffles – well my sister and I are amongst that % of the population that can’t taste them
Sounds like the event managers did very well out of that event
It looks like there were a lot of people at that dinner [OK a ridiculous number of people]
The lists of those benefiting from the largesse of Brandis SC DH.
https://www.attorneygeneral.gov.au/Mediareleases/Pages/2016/2016MediaReleases.aspx#q22016
Maybe it’s just me, but whenever I see photos of Lucy Turnbull I can;’t help thinking of Dame Edna. Dame Edna without the rhinestone specs and the lurid eye shadow, but still Dame Edna. Something about the smile, maybe …..
http://www.urbis.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Lucy_Turnbull_2013.png.
Damn it
Ah, so Truffles adopted her style of glasses then. I wonder how many decades of pension payments would be covered by the cost of those pearls ?
Those pearls are worth more than my house
To answer the question you asked
that string of pearls would take 5 decades of pension payments
I used to have glasses like those. 20 years ago. They were free government issue ones, because I was on a single parent payment. My kids said they looked like welder’s goggles. Thank goodness I only needed them for reading and sewing. I moved on to better things.
Absolutely!
Life imitates art, again.
Absolutely Fab……..