In the opening sequence of the HBO series, Newsroom, the anchor is participating in a public forum at an East coast US university (in Boston). During the Q&A, he is asked by a student (“a sorority girl”) in the audience, who is suitably bright-eyed and full of American blather, “Is America the greatest country in the world?” He initially blusters but the convener of the forum pushes him for a “human moment” and what follows is 3 classic minutes of TV, starting with “its not the greatest country in the World, Professor, that’s my answer” and concluding with “So when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the World, I don’t know what the fuck you are talking about. Yosemite?”. He then said among other things that “We used to be …”, “we stood up for what was right”, “we waged wars on poverty, not poor people”, “we aspired to intelligence, we didn’t belittle it” and more. The latest shenanigans in the US Congress where the GOP representatives have become a mindless rabble is certainly testimony to the sort of things the mythical Newsroom anchor was talking about in the series. The Sydney Morning Herald article (October 16, 2013) – US shutdown stalemate enters realm of the absurd – reports on how the GOP reps do not “agree either on tactics or strategy” and Boehner announced to the press that there had been “no decisions about what exactly we will do”. This is one day before the lunatic right-fringe of their party is intent on causing mayhem. My prediction – some ridiculous deal will be done and the US government will not default. We will see. But today I am providing a little glimpse into examination processes by using what might have been a first-year answer to an examination question to highlight some important points. I hope you enjoy the little window into life at a university.

You won’t see much debate or coverage of the desirability of making full employment the central goal of economic policy these days. The politicians, infested with neo-liberalism, do not admit they have abandoned full employment as a policy goal. Instead, they lie and wheel out various flawed analyses that try to make out that full employment now occurs at much higher rates of labour underutilisation in the past. Norway tells us that that proposition is a lie. In Australia, the government still tries to suggest that a state where more than 14 per cent of available labour is idle in one way or another represents close to full employment and a justification for fiscal austerity. We believe them because we have been seduced by the lies and our educational systems have downplayed critical scrutiny. But until we cut through the swathe of lies and misinformation we won’t get back to the bountiful state of full employment where not only workers enjoy higher incomes but dignity becomes a priority. Whatever else the liars say, full employment is still a state of very low unemployment and zero underemployment.

Its an amazing world where the neo-liberals go from one ridiculous economic policy failure (plan) to another as if we are totally without any understanding of what they are up to. The latest examples include the German talk about how growth oriented they are and their sudden concern for the youth unemployment emergency that they now say needs immediate attention. Of-course, this “emergency” has been staring them in the face for nigh on five years and is the creation of their policies. Now they cry crocodile tears and promise a few measly billion in structural assistance, which won’t even scratch the surface of the problem they created. And they have the audacity to think they have credibility. Another example, is the decision by the ruling elites in Brussels to give France, Spain, Poland and Slovenia a further two years to kill their economy and this is being constructed as lenience. So bash your economy to hell slighly more slowly than before and everyone is meant to think that is credible. Why do we tolerate these morons? Then we have the OECD who waste trees by producing their Economic Outlook, which came out yesterday.

Remember, earlier this year, when the IMF admitted they had made errors in their modelling of expenditure multipliers. They had been tramping into countries with their jackboots telling all and sundry that fiscal austerity would promote growth because their multiplier estimates told them so. Millions of job losses later, they came clean. It turns out that when they revised their multiplier estimates exactly the opposite was the case. Now they acknowledge that spending multipliers are in range of 1.5 1.75, meaning that increasing government spending adds at least 150 cents in the dollar spent extra to the economy. Now, the darlings of the austerity cultists – Rogoff and Reinhart – has been exposed for poor research standards – to wit, errors in spreadsheet coding. Meanwhile, Cyprus is being driven into oblivion. Who is ever going to take responsibility for these travesties?