Australian economy
A carbon tax will devastate Australian manufacturing
Gerard Jackson Monday 28 March 2011
Mark Dreyfus, Federal Labor Member for Isaacs, is another lying Labor Politician who cannot get his story straight. A recent article of his (Shades of Goebbels in ‘truth campaign’, The Age, March 11, 2011) was riddled with so many lies and distortions in defence of the Government’s destructive carbon tax that it would take a very long article to refute them all. I’ll therefore focus on the one lie the refutation of which explains why the carbon tax would savage the standard of living. Read the rest of this entry »
Garnaut and Gillard’s carbon tax plan is an impending disaster
Gerard Jackson Monday 21 March 2011
Professor Ross Garnaut’s call to cut income taxes by $5.75 billion for low and middle income earners is an indirect admission of the ghastly costs of Julia Gillard’s destructive carbon tax. It is also an admission of Garnaut’s commitment to the tax that should raise serious questions about his economic competence. Read the rest of this entry »
Green economic policies would devastate living standards
Gerard Jackson Monday 21 March 2011
The theory of a steady state economy (stationary economy) is not only central to green thinking, something that Senator Bob Brown admitted, it is in fact the green fanatics’ ultimate goal. It would also be a totalitarian nightmare. I think it best to begin with description of a steady state economy followed by the greens’ main criticisms of economic growth and ending with an explanation of why their green utopia would be a vicious tyranny. Read the rest of this entry »
A good looking economy is not always a good economy
Gerard Jackson Monday 14 March 2011
It is said that many look enviously upon the Australian economy’s success in not only weathering the global financial crisis but to continue to prosper. Of course, there is no gainsaying the role that the resources sector played in providing the country with a vital economic buffer. But is everything as rosy as many seem to think, including some of our Treasury boffins? Read the rest of this entry »
Why Gillard and Combet’s carbon tax will be a disaster
Gerard Jackson Monday 14 March 2011
A carbon tax is an insidious and destructive tax the aim of which is to slash the standard of living. Those who sincerely believe otherwise have been gravely misled. Fortunately the mass of Australians smell a rat. Irrespective of what greens and Labor politicians assert, you do not raise the standard of living by reducing real incomes, which is exactly what a carbon tax is supposed to do. Read the rest of this entry »
We will pay a heavy price for Julia Gillard’s technology fantasy
Gerard Jackson 14 March 2011
Listening to Julia Gillard and Greg Combet talk promote a carbon tax while lecturing us on the nature of technical progress reveals just how much Australian have to fear from the Labour Government and their green collaborators. Gillard is not only delusional she is — along with Combet — an arrogant ignoramus. Only someone totally ignorant of economic history and the history technology could utter their drivel. Read the rest of this entry »
Are we facing an inflationary surge and higher rates?
Gerard Jackson Monday 1 November 2010
When the CPI for the third quarter came in at 0.7 per cent many opined that this means that the Reserve would hold the line on rates. However, others argued that the 1.3 per cent rise in the producer price index indicated inflationary pressure was emerging and that this would force the Reserve to raise rates. So what is the real situation?
How the rising dollar could hollow out the Australian economy
Gerard Jackson Monday 18 October 2010
The Australian dollar’s parity with the US dollar is causing considerable concern. Andrew Robb, Liberal Party shadow treasurer, is arguing that the rising dollar could hollow out the economy. (Dollar’s rise makes mini-budget essential, Andrew Robb, The Australian 15 October 2010).
The Reserve Bank puts a hold on rates as manufacturing declines
Gerard Jackson Monday 11 October 2010
While a number of commentators thought it likely that the mining boom would force Glenn Stevens, governor of the Reserve Bank of Australian, to raise interest rates I took the opposite view. So far I have been proved right. I reasoned that one would have to be an idiot to focus entirely on the mining boom at the expense of other factors. And Glenn Stevens is no idiot, even though his economic reasoning is deeply flawed.
Wages, inflation and the Great Depression: The Reserve still does not get it
Gerard Jackson Monday 4 October 2010
The mining boom is making it very clear that the Reserve Bank and our commentariat are unlikely to ever grasp the relationship between inflation and wages. Whenever it appears that wages are rising ‘too’ fast and that a shortage of skilled labour is emerging we are invariably warned that the RBA could be forced to raise interest rates to counter the inflationary effects of wages increases. This is nonsense. The view that rising wages in themselves can have an inflationary impact seems to have its roots in the discredited cost-of-production theory of prices.
Greens v. the car and people’s wants
Gerard Jackson Monday 4 October 2010
Now that the fanatical green Senator Senator Bob Brown is in a position to influence government decision-making perhaps we should take another look at the greens’ hatred of the humble car and ask ourselves why this boon causes social engineers, would-planners and environmentalist fanatics such anguish? After all, the car has been a great liberator for the masses, giving them the kind of freedom that was once the exclusive preserve of the wealthier classes.
Is the Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens about to sink the Australian economy?
Gerard Jackson 27 Sept. – 3 Oct. 2010
One could not be blamed for concluding that Glenn Stevens is an excellent reason why the Reserve Bank of Australia should be abolished. Like all the bank’s bureaucrats (the Australian Treasury is every bit as bad) he has no genuine grasp of monetary theory and is utterly ignorant of the vital importance of capital theory. To be fair, Australia’s economic commentariat are not any better. And that includes the denizens of our so-called think tanks, particularly those who think insults and smart-aleck comments are preferable to a genuine economic debate.
Australia’s GDP figures hiding a dangerous trend
Gerard Jackson 27 Sept. – 3 Oct. 2010
For sometime I have been warning that the Australian economy is far from healthy. Now the Bureau of Statistics reported early this month that the economy expanded by 1.2 per cent in the June quarter with household spending jumping by 1.6 per cent and personal saving falling from 3.4 per cent to 1.5 per cent. Naturally, this led members of the economic commentariat to announce a strengthening in consumer confidence which in turn will encourage further growth.
Posted in Australia, Australian economy, Australian manufacturing, Economic growth, Housing, Investment, RBA
The Treasury wants to impose the fallacious rental resource tax on mining companies
Gerard Jackson Monday 16 November 2009
The concept of economic rent is an absolutely dreadful fallacy that has been a permanent part of economic theory since John Stuart Mill published his Principles of Political Economy in 1848. Fortunately it has been largely ignored with respect to economic policy. Enter Treasury boss Ken Henry who in his wisdom has decided that a resource tax based on this long-refuted fallacy is an absolutely spiffing idea. According to this genius a tax on what most economists call economic rent could yield $20 billion to $25 billion over the next ten years. And guess what? It will be absolutely costless. Why? Because economic rent is an unnecessary surplus the taxation of which has no effect whatsoever on investment and output.