Japan’s new proposed national strategy has to overcome the domination of imported neoliberalism – Part 1

My colleagues and I at Kyoto University met the night before I flew back to Australia this year to discuss the on-going research collaboration, which will define part of my work over the next few years. I hope we can announce a major event in Kyoto or Tokyo in October or November 2025 to disseminate the first stage of the research results. The topic is broadly characterised by the working title – The Future of Japan – Challenges and Opportunities – and aims to articulate the contemporary challenges facing Japan – juxtaposing the mainstream framing (with associated economic narratives) with a framing based on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). It is a very broad project and we will have to work over the next few months to make it tractable. The Project aims to develop an alternative blueprint for economic development, one that is centred on advancing the needs and aspirations of the people and moving away from a compliance to the corporate needs. My contribution will draw on the current work I am doing on degrowth and delinking (breaking the yoke of Colonialism in poorer nations) and explore the notion that Japan can actually take ‘advantage’ of its shrinking population to demonstrate how key degrowth strategies can actually be implemented. We will also be running at odds to the Japanese government’s recently announced (October 2024) – JIIA platform – which is the government’s major national strategy statement. The fact that the current government thinking is a reflection of its neoliberal leanings, which have not served the nation well, stands in contrast to the ‘opportunities’ we identify once we adopt an MMT lens. Here is a bit about that thinking and, of course, over the next year (at least), I will periodically update readers with the progress of our work.

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Australian inflation episode well and truly over – please tell the RBA to stop trying to push unemployment up further

Today (November 27, 2024), the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the latest – Monthly Consumer Price Index Indicator – for October 2024, which showed that the annual inflation rate was steady at 2.1 per cent and is now at the lower end of the RBA’s inflation targetting range (2 to 3 per cent). It is clear that the residual inflationary drivers are not the result of excess demand but rather reflect transitory factors like weather events and abuse of anti-competitive, corporate power (travel fares etc). The general conclusion is that the global factors that drove the inflationary pressures have largely resolved and that the outlook for inflation is for continued decline. There is also evidence that the RBA has caused some of the persistence in the inflation rate through the impact of the interest rate hikes on business costs and rental accommodation.

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COP29 another Cop Out by the world’s richest nations

Over the past week, I have already indicated that a major climate activist event was going on in Newcastle, Australia, which is the largest coal export port in the world. The event – The People’s Blockade – run by the activist group – Rising Tide, which involved thousands of people concerned about climate change gathering near the harbour and engaging. But it also involved protest flotilla’s launching into the shipping channel of the Port in an attempt to block the coal shipments. The cops were everywhere and were heavy handed acting under the imprimatur of the State government which tried to ban the festival but lost courtesy of a last minute Supreme Court ruling that declared the State’s attempt was illegal. At the same time as this grassroots event was unfolding, the elites of the world gathered in Baku (Azerbaijan) under the banner of the – UN Climate Change Conference (a.k.a. COP29) – which is the main global forum for addressing coordinated strategies for the resolution of climate change. The problem is that the talkfest is really just another cop out. Nothing much was achieved and the mainstream economics fictions were at the centre of this inaction – ‘fiscal space is limited’, ‘debt unsustainable’ and all the rest of the bunk, were rehearsed. And accepting the fiction that most nations can run out of their own currency, then steered the discussions to how private finance can be facilitated by government to stump up financial support for green transitions. And at that point, we know nothing much other than more profit seeking will eventuate.

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A 78 per cent tax on fossil fuel companies in Australia is not required to fund a Just Transition away from carbon

As I noted yesterday, last evening I accepted an invitation to speak on a panel at a – Rising Tide – event, which is part of the massive – People’s Blockade – of the port of Newcastle that is running from November 19-24, 2024. The Blockade is a threat to the mining corporations and the NSW State Government has introduced pernicious regulative structures in the last week to make it illegal to venture in into the shipping channel to block the coal ships. Heavy fines and an aggressive police force are waiting for any activist who tries. It is an extraordinary overreach by government, who are clearly siding with these corporations. The discussion last night was interesting if only to confirm that this important group of activists have been channelled by poor advice into adopting mainstream macroeconomic frames, which make it very hard for it to broaden its appeal to the rest of the population. Here is my advice to them which will allow them to break out of that straitjacket and become an important educative vehicle for the climate movement.

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Kyoto Report 2024 – 7

This Tuesday report will provide some insights into life for a westerner (me) who is working for an extended period at Kyoto University in Japan. This is my final report for 2024 as my working time at the university is completed for another year and we will resume these reports in 2025 when I return.

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The dislocation between the PMC and the rest of the working class – Part 2

I mentioned last week in this blog post – The dislocation between the PMC and the rest of the working class – Part 1 (November 11, 2024) – that I had been reading the 2021 book – Virtue Hoarders: The Case Against the Professional Managerial Class (published by Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press) – written by US cultural theorist – Catherine Liu It is now an open access document. It provides a brutal critique of the professional-managerial class, which she thinks has become so associated with the aspirations of the capital class’ that it has lost any progressive force in society. Here is Part 2 of that discussion.

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Australian labour market – weaker and may now be falling in line with the weaker spending and GDP growth

Today (November 14, 2024), the Australian Bureau of Statistics released the latest – Labour Force, Australia – for October 2024, which shows that employment growth was very weak and may signal that the labour market is finally slowing in line with overall spending and GDP growth. Employment growth failed to keep pace with the underlying population growth and the only reason the unemployment rate remained ‘stable’ was because participation fell, in line with the weaker jobs outlook. We should not disregard the fact that there is now 10.4 per cent of the working age population (over 1.6 million people) who are available and willing but cannot find enough work – either unemployed or underemployed and that proportion is increasing. Australia is not near full employment despite the claims by the mainstream commentators and it is hard to characterise this as a ‘tight’ labour market.

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Australia – latest wage data shows real wages continue to decline

Today (November 13, 2024), the Australian Bureau of Statistics released the latest – Wage Price Index, Australia – for the September-quarter 2024, which shows that the aggregate wage index rose by 3.5 per cent over the 12 months (down 0.6 points on the last quarter). In relation to the September-quarter CPI change (2.8 per cent), this result suggests that workers achieved modest real wage gains. However, if we use the more appropriate Employee Selected Living Cost Index as our measure of the change in purchasing power then the September-quarter result of 4.7 per cent means that real wages fell by 1.2 points. Even the ABS notes the SLCI is a more accurate measure of cost-of-living increases for specific groups of interest in the economy. However, most commentators will focus on the nominal wages growth relative to CPI movements, which in my view provides a misleading estimate of the situation workers are in. Further, while productivity growth is weak, the movement in real wages is such that real unit labour costs are still declining, which is equivalent to an ongoing attrition of the wages share in national income. So corporations are failing to invest the massive profits they have been earning and are also taking advantage of the current situation to push up profit mark-ups. A system that then forces tens of thousands of workers out of employment to deal with that problem – that is, the reliance on RBA interest rate hikes – is void of any decency or rationale. That is modern day Australia.

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