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As the China boom fades Australia is experiencing a delayed version of the GFC, without the banking crisis. Until now we've been reasonably well served by both sides of politics, in terms of macro-economic strategy. Now we require a way of dealing with more mundane economic issues like productivity and efficiency. Neither side has many good ideas about how to achieve the required structural shifts.
Joe Hockey provoked outrage with his recent suggestion that we should rely on families rather than the state for social welfare. His premise that high social spending leads to debt and decline reflects the GDP fetish of fundamentalist economists that Joseph Stiglitz blames for Europe's current economic problems.
When America sneezes the world catches cold. No wonder crowds are demonstrating against Wall Street. Successive economic crises reveal that we have forgotten the economic lessons learned after the Great Depression. I am one of the dwindling number of Australians who was alive at that time.
50 years ago this week, migrants and refugees from Eastern Europe rioted at the Bonegilla migrant reception centre outside Albury-Wodonga. The Federal Immigration Minister said such behaviour was not tolerated in this country, but investigation prompted public sympathy for the demonstrators.
There are widespread calls for the stimulus measures to be wound back as the Australian economy emerges from the global economic crisis. It might be better in this year's and subsequent budgets to continue the economic stimulus, but focused on our most disadvantaged communities.
The parochial Australian press reaction to last week's Samoan tsunami shows how editors play on people's sense of pride to sell newspapers. But the misuse and manipulation of information can have adverse consequences for third parties.
The Reserve Bank now places education behind only coal and iron ore as Australia's most important export. It is difficult to understand how the targeting of international students is not viewed with greater urgency.
With uncharacteristic vehemence, Mr Rudd said people smugglers could rot in hell. This kind of language echoes the tabloid characterisation of people who have done foul deeds as monsters. The Christian view of evil is more complex.
If we regard asylum seekers as illegals who burn boats to force themselves on us, we might choose to close our doors to them. Rather than criminals, we should regard them as human beings in great need, deserving our respect and compassion.
As Kevin Rudd ends 2008 and his first year on a high, it seems he's every bit the trickster John Howard was. We're heading into one of the worst recessions in living memory, yet the government leapt to a six month high in last week's Newspoll.
Barack Obama has deflected heat off the US at the current climate change conference in Poland. But in true Howardian style, Australia, by sitting on the sidelines, is sabotaging the conference's prospects of real-time progress.
After the 2001 Argentine economic disaster, workers' collectives organised to autonomously run their enterprises. The collapse of the ABC Learning empire should not be seen as a total calamity, despite the obvious potential for fallout.
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