Australian government now engaged in psychological torture of its citizens

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the US legislation – Economic Opportunity Act – introduced by Democrat president Lyndon B. Johnson. The law created the so-called local Community Action Agencies, which were directly regulated by the US Federal government. The aims of that legislation were relatively straightforward – “eliminate poverty, expand educational opportunities, increase the safety net for the poor and unemployed, and tend to health and financial needs of the elderly”. The legislation came out of the President’s – State of the Union Address – delivered on January 1964, where he made the famous statement “This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America. I urge this Congress and all Americans to join with me in that effort”. The Economic Opportunity Act became known as the – War on Poverty. Times have changed. 50 years later, federal administrations around the World have declared a new type of War! The War on Poverty has become the War on the Poor. In Australia, this has manifested in recent weeks as an outright attack on the victims of mass unemployment – the unemployed. The Australian government has introduced what I have described in a number of press interviews with the national media as advanced psychological torture.

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Britain has not recovered the losses caused by the GFC

As a followup to Monday’s blog – UK growth not all that it seems – there was an additional issue that is worth exploring about the ONS data publication, given that the financial and economics commentators seem to mislead their readers, through ignorance or choice. Representative of the issue was the statement in last Friday’s UK Guardian article (July 25, 2014) –
Fresh boost for George Osborne as economy recovers banking crisis losses – which built on that title with the opening line “Britain’s economy has finally recovered the losses caused by the financial crisis, passing its pre-recession peak in the second quarter of the year …”. This conclusion was reiterated by many other commentators in different publications as a source of celebration. The only problem with it is that it plain wrong and to suggest that Britain has now made up the losses is deeply misleading.

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No fundamental shift of policy at the Bundesbank

Last week, the Chief economist at the Deutsche Bundesbank, Dr. Jens Ulbrich gave a rather extraordinary interview to the German Magazine Der Spiegel. The interview was recorded in the article – Breaking a German Taboo: Bundesbank Prepared to Accept Higher Inflation. The sub-heading said that this marks a “major shift away from the Bundesbank’s hardline approach on price stability” and my profession apparently “hailed the decision as a ‘breakthrough'”. I wouldn’t be so sure. The Bank has a long track record of ignoring the plight of German workers and the workers elsewhere in Europe. The imposition of its ‘culture’ with its disdainful disregard for responsible economic policy on Eurozone political elites has created so much slack in Europe that even it cannot deny the mounting evidence that there is a deflationary problem. But this support for workers’ wage rises won’t last. As soon as the inflation rate exhibits the first uptick – the Bundesbank will be out there berating all and sundry about the dangers of profligacy! Leopards don’t change their spots.

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UK growth not all that it seems

The British Office of National Statistics published the – Gross Domestic Product Preliminary Estimate, Q2 2014 – last Friday (July 25, 2014), which showed that real GDP growth was 0.8 per cent in the second-quarter building on the same result in the first-quarter. It is also the first quarter than the British economy has reached the peak value in March 2008 some 6 years and 1 quarter to get back to square one. On the surface it is a reasonable result but focusing on the headline figure misses some of the salient points that the British government certainly doesn’t want to advertise. The following blog provides some other perspectives some pointing out the deficiencies in just focusing on the headline GDP figure and others looking at other measures. Overall, what growth there is in the UK appears on the surface to being hijacked by high income earners and corporations.

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Saturday Quiz – July 26, 2014 – answers and discussion

Here are the answers with discussion for yesterday’s quiz. The information provided should help you understand the reasoning behind the answers. If you haven’t already done the Quiz from yesterday then have a go at it before you read the answers. I hope this helps you develop an understanding of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and its application to macroeconomic thinking. Comments as usual welcome, especially if I have made an error.

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Friday lay day

Its my Friday blog lay day which today means a short blog day. I am finalising the manuscript for my Europe book. I have a complete edited version now (348 pages) and am now checking all referencing etc. It will be sent to the publisher next week and I will breath a sigh of relief. Anyway, as a followup to yesterday’s blog – When you’ve got friends like this – Part 11 – the Guardian carried an article written by the Shadow UK Chancellor Ed Balls today (July 25, 2014) – Conservative complacency won’t help working people. It outlines a radical economic plan. Anticipation nearly got the better of me …

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When you’ve got friends like this – Part 11

I received two E-mails yesterday informing me that at the upcoming NSW State Labor Conference (this weekend) the delegates would be asked to vote for the inclusion of a Federal Job Guarantee, along the lines that I have been working on since 1978 (more or less), in Labor Party policy. For readers abroad, the Labor Party is the major federal opposition party at present having lost government in 2013. It began life as the political arm of the trade union movement. Anyway, that was a pleasing development I thought. A little later, I received an E-mail and a follow up telephone call telling me that the same conference, the delegates would be asked to vote on a motion put forward by the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, which is the strongest ‘left-wing’ union in Australia, that says that the ALP “should be focused on maintaining government solvency” and maintaining “low and stable Deficit to GDP ratios” and ensure the “tax base is adequate to fund Labor’s priorities”. Then I read a news report from the UK from earlier in the year about the Labour Party’s commitment in the upcoming election to shore up its “fiscal credibility” by eliminating the fiscal deficit with the leader Ed Miliband claiming that “When we come to office … there won’t be lots of real money to spend, things will be difficult”. Bloody hell! This is progressive politics – neo-liberal Groupthink style. At least there are a few truly progressive people who see that a federal Job Guarantee is the way forward as a first step.

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Inflation rises on back of health fund price hikes – generally benign

The Australian Bureau of Statistics released the Consumer Price Index, Australia data for the June-2014 quarter today. The quarterly inflation rate was 0.6 per cent and this translated into an annual rate of 3 per cent, up on 2.9 per cent in the March-quarter 2014. The Reserve Bank of Australia’s preferred core inflation measures – the Weighted Median and Trimmed Mean – are still well within the inflation targetting range and are not trending up. Various measures of inflationary expectations is also flat, including the longer-term, market-based forecasts. This suggests that the RBA will probably consider the inflation outlook to be benign and they will probably hold interest rates at their current low level. The evidence is suggesting that the economy is still very sluggish. The benign inflation outlook provides plenty of room for further fiscal stimulus.

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Decomposing the decline in the US participation rate for ageing

Labour force participation rates are falling around the world signalling the slack employment growth that has accompanied the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis. It is clear that many workers are opting to stop searching for work while there are not enough jobs to go around. As a result, national statistics offices considered these workers to have stopped ‘participating’ and classified them as being ‘not in the labour force’, which had had the effect of attenuating the official estimates of unemployment and unemployment rates. These discouraged workers are considered to be in hidden unemployment. But the participation rates are also influenced by compositional shifts (changing shares) of the different demographic age groups in the working age population. In most nations, the population is shifting towards older workers who have lower participation rates. Thus some of the decline in the total participation rate could simply be an averaging issue. This blog investigates that issue for the US after noting yesterday that there has been a massive decline in the participation over the course of the downturn in that country. But we also note that the aggregate participation rate has been in decline since the beginning of this century so there is probably more than cyclical events implicated.

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