#neoliberaleconomics — Public Fediverse posts

## Hate To Say It, But It’s All On Us Folks

Let me be quite frank about this. While the article identifies the causes of the general anger and frustration with our politicians seemingly doing nothing to help, it does not talk about the underlying economic reasons for our current malaise.

What must be realised is that govt (politicans of all persuasions but more direclty the incumbants) have 3 factions in their ears 24/7.
- The first is the businesses and corporations represented by lobbyists (both official and unofficial).
- The second is the *Bureaucracy* or the various govt deparments — but the more insistants are the PMO, Treasury and Foreign Affairs.
- The third is the *Electorate*, not so much the average punter as it is their votes.

The loudest of these is the first - thay have money to splash, the right connections, power to exert, and are soley focused on increasing profits for the #Rentiers and #Owners.

Next comes the advice that comes from govt deparments which is presumed to be unvarnished and without bias — which is a myth of course, but they sound very trustworthy and knowledgeable to our politicians (who are generally out of their depth).

And we folks, the voters, are only in the govt’s ear through their *political advisers* (with skin in the game) and only once every elections but only as far as our vote and preferences go. Politicians will do their utmost to get those from you, until they’ve got it. So we only matter for about one month every three years (save for the occasional by-election).

After that, we’re all yelling into the void folks because the first and second most important groups as far as polies are concerned are tragic #EconomicRetionalists wedded to the #NeoLiberalEconomics *trickel down effect* that has gotten us into this mess.

Until our economic systems change, or if that seems an impossible task, until our govt start to push back against the economic advice they receive and put the punters first no matter what (that is, what we elect them to do after all), not only can we look forward to **more of the same** no matter who governs, but it will also only **get worse**. So get ready for *more anger*, *more frustration*, and inevitably *more violence* until our voting selections become different. It’s on us in #2028Elections ( just as #Trump is on voting USAens).

Good luck, and good night folks.

https://thepoint.com.au/new/261021-cost-of-living-pressures-declining-trust-driving-public-anger

#AusPol #Economy #Politicians #PublicService #Lobbyists

The economist #RichardDenniss [The Australia Institute] speaking at the opening of the **Climate Integrity Summit** in Sydney, accused the Albanese government of accepting climate science while continuing to approve and subsidise new coal and gas projects. The #Albanese #labor govt has reneged on #ClimateAction initiatives it took to the electorate when it first won govt, has gagged #LaborPartyMembers calls for stronger environmental protection and climate action, and has done nothing but make it worse, calling into question whether Australia will meet its #NetZero targets. Meanwhile, the #planet heats up.

Short read here:
https://thepoint.com.au/new/260915-australia-is-in-climate-denial-and-has-missed-its-chance-for-a-smooth-transition-australia-institute

#EmmissionsTargets #ClimateCrisis #ClimateScience #FossilFuelLobby #NeoLiberalEconomics #Grifters #TaxGasNow

[edited for typos, etc.]

The answer to #CostOfLivingCrisis is, and always was, #HigherWages. #Corporation and #businesses will **always** equate *Productivity Increase* with workers working harder and will tie this to any wage increases. Because that is what #Grifters **Do**. They treat wage earners as *Commodities* and a *Cost* to doing business because **they can**. And workers have now heard that *narrative* so many times over the generations that they believe that **crap**.

Sourced from The Point Live
4 hours ago 11.08 AEST

Ross Gittins gives Greg Jericho a shout out
Posted by Matt Grudnoff - Senior Economist

Ross Gittins’ article in the SMH today thanks Greg Jericho for blowing the whistle on the real cause of the cost-of-living crisis, wages.

Greg has been pointing out that while prices and profits have been going up, wages have not been keeping up. The amount of stuff that workers can buy is going backwards.

Ross wrote:

So I’m indebted to the Australia Institute’s Greg Jericho for being the country’s first economist to blow the whistle. He’s actually looked up the numbers and seen that, though businesses kept increasing their prices in the first two years following the COVID pandemic – March 2021 to March 2023 – the workers weren’t game to ask for a pay rise.

Ross also points out that when bosses say give us an improvement in productivity and we’ll give you a pay rise, they have it backwards. Higher wages now will encourage businesses to improve the productivity of there now more expensive workers.

The solution to the cost-of-living crisis is higher wages.”

#AusPo, #NeoLiberalEconomics #TrickleDownEconomics #AbuseOfWorkers #ClassWar #TaxTheRich #WageIncreasesNow #GregJeriocho #GreedFlation #noMoreBillionaires #JoinYourUnion #InUnity #TradeUnionsStrength

A word or two (quoted from Prof. Richard Murphy) on the nonsense of increasing the official #CashRate to stymie anticipated #inflation stemming from external uncontrolled events. Here, the European Central Bank is the guilty party but it holds true for all Central Banks.

“This [ECB] move is meant to control inflation arising as a consequence of the war between the USA and Iran, as well as food shortages arising from that same war and drought. No one is suggesting there is excess demand in the Eurozone. However, inflation arising from excess demand, a phenomenon not seen in many economies for decades because so many people are having so many problems in making ends meet, is the only type of inflation that an interest rate rise can address.”

Not only do we know all of this, but so do the #CentralBanks (they’re not stupid).

“[…] increasing interest rates at this moment might be described as an act of economic illiteracy. It might also be described as class warfare based on economic aggression, because its purpose is, in reality, to deter those on wage income from seeking pay increases to maintain their economic positions, while those who profit from the price increases are left to enjoy their newfound and unearned riches.”

Economic illiteracy or calculated monetary intervention to maintain unemployment and shift more wealth into the pockets of those least in need? #Bankers are not stupid. They know. The #Oligarchs creates a #war and we all pay for it while they reap insane #profits from it. And the Bankers think: ‘Why not let them moke more profits through #GreedFlation?’ We’re all screwed on this path… time for a real change, for a change.

https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2026/09/11/the-central-banks-begin-their-war-on-the-innocent-victims-of-inflation/#gsc.tab=0

#Economics #TaxTheRich #NoMoreBillionaires #TaxRegimeChange #NeoLiberalEconomics #WealthInequity #Wealthredistribution #WorkersKeepPaying #JoinYourUnion #InUnity #AusPol

#RichardDenniss from the #AustralianInstitute talks about the RBA and its role in our economy in plain language that everyone will understand. It cannot be said often enough that the RBA’s obsession with controling inflation is a two-edged sword which, if you listen to Denniss, hurts the most vulnerable in our society and about a third of Australians who rent (because landlords put up their rents when mortgage rates go up) and another third of Australians because their own morgage rates also go up. On top of that, fighting inflation also causes higher unemployment. Denniss does a good job explaining all of that here, have a listen:

https://omny.fm/shows/whats-the-point-with-richard-denniss/whats-the-point-of-the-reserve-bank-of-australia

Another conversation could be had about whether the RBA should be independent of govt (Finance and Treasury) given that the govt is the only authority for issueing and removing currency.

#Inflation #RBA #NAIRU #Unemployment #ProfitLedInflation #Banking #CashRate #TaxReform #TaxSuperProfits #TaxTheRich #MMT #NeoLiberalEconomics

More on Employment from the RBA:
https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2024/apr/pdf/assessing-full-employment-in-australia.pdf

@aljazeera_gotgrip
Stock markets are nothing but legalised betting houses. And the behaviour of speculators are identical to gambling addicts. Both stay entranced in the room despite knowing the house always win and the game is *gamed*. And the rest of the world stand there agape…

#BanGamblingAdds #TearDownNeoLiberalism #Antifa #AntiOligarchy #NeoLiberalEconomics #RegulateFinancialMarkets #CorruptedAdministration #Nepotism #UnfetteredCapitalism #InsiderTrading #MarketManipulation #Résistance

@eddyjokovich
We do indeed need some drastic political changes because the majors are so tied up in anti-social #NeoLiberalEconomics interests that our circumstances are only getting worse as time goes by — whatever time we have left. Albanese’s ill-considered side stepping of the issues around #AssistedDying is just another example of a government out-of-touch (I know not if this is an unresolved personal issue for him, which he ought to keep to himself anyway). I had hoped that the failure of The Voice referendum due to another of his side-steps might have taught him to be ‘brave’. Obviously, #AlboPM needs more lessons before he learns from his failures.

I do have a bone to pick with you though Eddy. Because you write: “…try telling that to the terminally ill cancer patient in rural and regional Australia who can no longer tolerate the pain, even after endless supplies of morphine – making a mockery of his belief that “people have a right to die with dignity”.

I have been there with both of my parents. I have sat at their bedside, holding their hands and frankly going to pieces as they slowly died. Thank God for the endless supplies of morphine is my only worthwhile comment. When a cancer patient is deemed ‘terminal’ (how ghastly and uncaring that sounds…) they are transfered to a hospice as my father was or sent home with a nurse visiting for the first few injections (as my mother wished). In either cases they are put on a regime of morphine and, as you say, as much as is required to dull the unbearable pain of failing organs. From that moment on, there is no pain as such, only dream-filled induced sleep punctuated by barely conscious moments when another dose is required; in ever shortening cycles. They do not eat and eventually stop drinking despite their thirst when momentarily awake, they have no life at all. They are ‘assisted in dying’ and there’s not much ‘dignity’ to speak of in that. Whatever dignity means and the pain that goes with that is with the family of careers who assist a loved one slip away from their lives, never to be replaced, nor forgotten. Dying , is dying. One can add qualifyers, but there’s nothing that can be said about dying other than to describe its morbidity. None of this can be aided by ‘telehealth’ my friend. What’s needed is more visiting nurses and doctors willing to make house calls in the first instance — especially where there is no family to assume the last watch in regional areas.

Well maybe, I don’t have a bone to pick with you. This was just an excuse for me to get things of my chest… yet again… 18 years on and it’s not getting any easier.

I apologise for using your column to dump some of my sorrow on you Eddy. And also to those who read this comments. For those who suffer the loss of loved one, stay strong and live well, you owe them that much.

This may be too early an exposé since no appointments have been made by #Burnham, yet to make it to the top rung himself, but just in case, it is worth knowing what kind of representative James Purnell really is while the UK (presumably a majority of the electorate) awaits better times as a result of Sir Keir’s foibles & imminent demise.

“It has been widely reported that Andy Burnham is planning to appoint James Purnell, with whom Burnham served in Gordon Brown's cabinet, as his chief of staff if he becomes prime minister.

The questions this raises are obvious, apart from who he is and what sort of politics he represents.

Two questions better than that are:

Do we need another Oxford PPE graduate in government, when we know all the harm all these people have already done?
Do we need another former chair of the Labour Friends of Israel in government, perpetuating the Zionist hold on its thinking?
To those we might add:

Do we need another second-generation New Labour politician in government, placing in power yet another person of no apparent substantial achievement except for the fact that they owe most of their loyalty to Blair in power? Haven't we seen that this does not end well enough by now?
And of course this is this one:

Do we need another former corporate lobbyist for neoliberal entities in Downing Street, because that is what Purnell has been of late? Again, haven't we learned by now that this does not tend to end well?
And, whilst mentioning neoliberalism:

Do we need another of this ilk in power, and that is undoubtedly what Purnell is?”

Read more (and Boost more please, for the UK that is)
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2026/06/25/the-politics-of-james-purnell/

PS. I ordinarily would pay no mind to what is happening in UK Politics, if it wasn’t for the sins of our governing Labor party here in Australia which are uncomfortably similar to Sir Keir’s lurches to the right and championing of neoliberal nonsense.

#UKPol #AusPol #KeirStarmer #Burnham #Albanese #Purnell #NeoLiberalEconomics #DeregulatedFinancialMarkets #StateCapture #TaxTheRich #TaxReformNow #AntiFa

[edited to correct an grevious error]

I normally pay attention to #AlanKohler but I don’t always agree with him. In this article he tackle #Productivity and #AffordableHousing.

On productivity Kohler links #Wages with #Inflation to explain low productivity. WTF. That’s as close to #NeoLiberalEconomics as you can get and that old horse was put to pasture in 2008 (though it’s hanging around with a bad smell that every politicians and most economist fail to apprehend). Furthermore, you cannot ask workers to work harder for more hours with less pay just to increase productivity. That is not how it’s supposed to work. Capital investments in production processes and tooling are necessary to improve productivity. That is, cutting profits to re-invest — which of course runs counter to #NeoLiberalism and the #TrickleDownEconomic model the #Grifters have been peddling for the last 40 years or so.

When talking about #housing and #construction the only thing Kohler says that makes sence is that the only way to beat the current economic set up is to build housing that does not require private capital investment (because that requires a 6% pa return which goes to feed the crazy spiraling house prices, aka the #SpeculativeRealEstate markets). To do this, public funds must be used to build houses which requires #TaxReform to fund properly from federal revenues. There are other ways to do this of course. Like Community not-for-profit housing, as done in parts of Europe, through verious public funding models and favouring tax regimes. But when Kohler ties Immigration to housing shortages, he cuts corners and cherry picks. For example, immigrant families are generally bigger than Australia’s average of 2.57 per household (Source: ABS.gov.au), my family certainly was. Yet Kohler use the 2.5 adult per household figure to calculate the immigration demand on housing without differentiating between #NetImmigration and overall immigration numbers (wich include seasonal workers, international students, working holiday backpackers, ect.). This kind of data (mis)use goes some ways to discredit the validity of Kohler’s proposition and diminish the strength of his argument.

You can read the article here for yourself, but it does point out that even a well regarded economic analyst is prone to tailor their words to reflect their political and econmic hobby horses. Read it by all means, but don’t swallow anything until you’ve chewed the cud for a time. We are thinking beings, put your innate #CriticalThinkingSkills to good use in whatever you read (especially these days). Even when missing information and knowledge, think about what you hear/read/see before it goes to a change/shore up your opinion. Work in progress as always.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-31/federal-election-housing-productivity-bandaid-solutions-budget/105098402

Decades of Denial: How GOP Profit Politics Broke American Healthcare

Republicans didn’t fail healthcare—they designed it this way. From Nixon to today, profit has always come before patients.

#ACASubsidies #AmericanHealthcare #corporateGreed #GOPHealthcarePolicy #healthInsuranceCrisis #MedicareForAll #neoliberalEconomics #NixonHealthcare #ProgressivePolitics #RepublicanSabotage

https://wp.me/p1OjMZ-ou7

The view from Grogs
https://live.australiainstitute.org.au/2025/10/parliament-live-senate-estimates-gets-underway-all-the-days-events-as-it-happens/

Of course, this is the expected outcomes with every public infrastructure (Telecom sale) sold to the private sector. Falling service standards and profit taking priorities as long as profits are to be had, else the service tanks and privateers pull out without penalties.

#StateCapture #PrivatisationRuins #NeoliberalEconomics #ShortTermGains #LongTermFailures #InUnity #PublicInfrastructure #Optus #000Fiasco

If you’re an MMT‘er, this is one podcast you do not want to miss. I for one am looking forward to the next one.

If you are a neoclassical or neoliberal economist then watching this pod cast is likely to screw with your brain, so be warned even though I huighly recommend you watch it.

#RichardMurphy #economics #NeoclassicalEconomics #NeoliberalEconomics #MOdernMoneyTheory #MMT #Taxation #GovernmentExpenditure #Academia #EconomistsAdrift #FalseEconomicAssumptions #ChicagoSchoolOfEconomics #Reaganism #Thatcherism

Our economic systems are built on false assumptions and we need to change that because there are better ways to greater social good.

https://mas.to/@RichardJMurphy/115178485282189047

Business Stuff doesn't make any sense till I remember the principle (maxim? another vile maxim?) of the "Invisible Foot" explained by E.K. Hunt.
> .. The "invisible foot" ensures us that in a free-market ... economy each person pursuing only his own good will automatically, and most efficiently, do his part in maximizing the general public misery.
- https://mstdn.jp/@bsmall2/108195742682747173
- https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/zbooks/www/books/3/3.htm#3.2.1
#EKHunt #InvisibleFoot #BusinessStuff #WelfareEconomics #NeoLiberalEconomics #DismalProfession

#Brexit & #NeoLiberalEconomics really working out well in the UK 👍
#ukpol #ToriesBrokeBritain
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/19/self-styled-robin-hoods-steal-marks-spencer-food-banks/

.> In his book on globalization, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Friedman says, and I quote, “The hidden hand of the market will never work without the hidden fist. McDonalds cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas…and the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley’s technologies to flourish is called the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps.” Perhaps this was written in a moment of vulnerability, but it’s certainly the most succinct, accurate description of the project of corporate globalization that I have read.

Well, if the last 8 interest rate rises have done basically nothing to address inflation... then I'm sure the next one will totally work! 🙃🙃🙃

#NeoliberalEconomics