Gerard Jackson
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.
The deflation myth and why Americans should welcome falling prices
Gerard Jackson Monday 4 October 2010
Some economic pundits are warning — again — that deflation poses a severe threat to the US economy, despite the fact that Bernanke is desperately trying to create an inflationary-driven recovery. Now back in November 2001 the same siren voices were singing the same seductive tune, even though the Fed was rapidly expanding the money supply.
Another member of our right stuffs it up on spending, jobs and recessions
Gerard Jackson Monday 4 October 2010
Dr Steven Kates rightly took issue with the Labor Government’s spending policy to counter the recession. This was too much for James Guest, who piously calls himself a “dry” (a self-styled “economic rationalist” who, to my knowledge, has contributed absolutely nothing to the advancement of the free market).
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.
Land ownership and the greens’ socialist propaganda
Gerard Jackson Monday 4 October 2010
The Labor Government’s contemptuous attitude towards the property rights of farmers and miners should surprise no one given its readiness to collaborate with the malevolent greens whose pathological hatred of economic growth would have been fully exposed years ago if our rightwing had have had the gumption and the imagination to confront them directly. Now we are all going to pay a price.
The mining industry and the rent resource tax: The Institute of Public Affairs gets it wrong
Gerard Jackson Monday 24 May 2010
There have been complaints that my attack on Ken Henry’s destructive resource rent tax was dishonest because “… you know that strictly speaking these are profits and not economic rents”. But my point is that there is no such thing as an economic rent and hence Henry’s rent tax can be logically extended to the profits of any enterprise. Moreover, I explained in detail why the doctrine of economic rent is utterly fallacious, a fact that most of Ricardo’s contemporaries readily exposed.
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.
Rudd’s disastrous resource rent tax: how the right let the country down again
Gerard Jackson Monday 14 June 2010
A short time ago Gina Rinehart — Australia’s richest woman — helped lead a protest in Perth against Prime Minister Rudd’s destructive resource rent tax. The striking thing about this event is that no one who addressed the crowd, including Rinehart, indicated even a passing acquaintance with the true nature of the tax. If they had done so perhaps they would have realised that the reasoning upon which the tax is based is totally fallacious.
The Greens’ policies would destroy the Australian economy
Gerard Jackson Monday 16 August 2010
Senator Bob Brown has emerged as a destructive parasite. A green fanatic living at the public trough whose economic wish list would destroy the Australian standard of living, which is exactly what it is intended to do. Not only has the media overlooked just how elitist and loony Brown’s green economics really are so have our rightwing.
Exports cannot save the Obama economy
Gerard Jackson Monday 16 August 2010
No matter how grim the economic situation some Pollyanna will find a silver lining that indicates a mother lode. And as night surely follows day we find that said silver lining was only tinsel. The current silver lining is the old fallacy of export-led growth. Some commentators are arguing that recovery in Europe will spur the demand for US exports which in turn will generate sufficient economic growth to restore full employment. I guess one needs a PhD from an accredited university to come up with this nonsense.
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The Government’s ‘alternative energy’ policies will be a disaster for the economy
Gerard Jackson Monday 26 July 2010
The Liberal Party’s proposed $3.2 billion solar fraud is just another demonstration of its leaders cowardice and wanton disregard for future living standards. Regardless of what Greg Hunt asserts there is no “real choice” between the Labour Government’s destructive energy policy and the Liberal Party’s green pandering. They are both based on outrageous distortions and outright lies.
Will the Reserve’s tight monetary policy drive the Australian economy off a cliff?
Gerard Jackson Monday 26 July 2010
For 2009 M1 rose by 4.5 per cent, though it needs to be stated that the expansion was an erratic. However, monetary growth stopped last January, fell the following month and then remained flat until March after which it contracted in April and May at an average annual rate of 7 per cent. This is what is called a deflation. Now I don’t believe for a moment that the Reserve is going to allow the money supply to deflate by a significant amount. But these figures do reveal how tight monetary policy has become.
The US economy is Obama’s mess and Democrats are panicking
Gerard Jackson Monday 26 July 2010
If I were not such an admirer of the United States I should be inclined to say that in electing the rabid leftwing Obama to the presidency Americans deserve everything they are getting — and good and hard. But America is a generous and unique country and deserves much better than this. Regardless of what Obama and fellow leftists assert America is special. The first country in history to be founded directly on the principle of liberty and the “inalienable rights of Man”. That Obama and his merry band of bitter leftists mock this fact reveals their not-so underlying contempt for ‘their’ country’s traditions, history and citizens.
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Why capital gains taxes retard economic growth
Gerard Jackson Monday 19 July 2010
Obama’s impending tidal wave of taxes raises the question of how capital gains taxes affect economic growth. What most people do not understand, including those clamouring for tax reform, is that capital gains are economic profits and not accounting profits, and this is where capital gains taxes do the most damage. This has the effect of reducing the number of transactions because that is one of the ways of avoiding the tax. In other words, capital gains taxes are also transaction taxes where they are levied on realised gains.