Obama escapes media scrutiny

Our media have been in awe of Barack Obama’s physique, his workouts and basketball skills. But his lies about the proposed federal “stimulus” plan are what really deserve scrutiny.

Mike Allen of Politico.com quotes Republican consultant Frank Luntz as complimenting Obama for coming up with the deceptive phrase, “American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan,” to describe the largest federal spending bill in history that is mainly designed to bail out state and local governments that have already spent too much taxpayer money. More

Make hay as storm clouds gather

ENJOY New Year’s Day 2009 because this may be as good as it gets. Piers Akerman

Rudd reprising a scratchy old ‘78

Last month, the National Archives office released, under embargo, the 1978 cabinet records. In contrast to its parliamentary supremacy, those records show a government still struggling not only with the catastrophic Whitlam economic legacy but also the consequences of its own economic errors during 1976 and 1977. John Stone

Hot air is helping nobody

AS this year of global financial turmoil draws to a close, it is timely to look at the penchant of our governments, state and federal, to prick the conscience of the community on the varied social crises confronting the country. Malcolm Colless

On the road to protection

The great industrial symbol of the 20th century, the motor car, poses a beggar-thy-neighbour protectionist threat amid the first global economic crisis of the 21st century. Michael Stutchbury

Axe falls on banking staff

“Banks brutal with the axe” said the headline today on the Australian Financial Review’s page 3 story about mass sackings in the industry.

“The fear and loathing in financial services is getting worse … Doomsday at Macquarie Group … ”

The AFR reported the jobs cull at “5000 and counting.”

“It was all done with military-style precision,” one Citigroup banker said.

The description of that kind of management-staff relationship brought to mind the thesis of Ken Phillips’ book, Independence and the death of employment.

Phillips, Director of the Work Reform Unit at the Institute of Public Affairs, asking, “What is power?” introduces his work with the description of television commercial from 2001: More

US Federal Reserve announces: we’re clueless and stupid

NOW, be afraid. The guys that quite literally control the entire world’s financial and economic future made two ‘announcements’ yesterday: We haven’t a clue what to do. And we are a bunch of very scared, very stupid people. Terry McCrann

Whitlam redux

ANOTHER day, another stimulus package. Who cares if the package du jour’s main course, the nation-building projects, are merely commitments made by the previous government, frozen by this Government, and now hastily defrosted for the occasion? Henry Ergas

Fraudulent “credit crisis” paves way for economic disaster

Ben Bernanke (L) and Henry Paulson (R)
[Photos: US Govt]

WASHINGTON: Doing the kind of investigative reporting we should expect from the major media, a financial research and consulting firm has released a major analysis of the “credit crisis” that concludes that the claims made by Treasury Department Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke to justify a socialist takeover of the financial industry were demonstrably false. More

Cash-machine Kev to the rescue

Miranda Devine writes: “Whether or not this week’s financial “sugar hit” raises confidence in the short term is immaterial. It is damaging in the long term because it lulls Australians into the expectation that the Government should give them money for nothing.” Read the Story

Beware bold economists

THE open letter to Kevin Rudd issued on Saturday by eight respected Australian economists cannot but raise concerns. The letter’s motivations are as laudable as the clarity and strength with which its authors’ views are presented. But its three key recommendations are unconvincing and, if implemented, are likely to make things worse rather than better. Henry Ergas

Should the PM play Santa?

Now we have the Prime Minister urging people to go out and spend, spend, spend. That’s spend the taxpayer money they have been given by ‘Santa’ Rudd, very deliberately just in time, specifically, for Christmas. Terry McCrann

Is Rudd’s gift sound?

NO-ONE begrudges pensioners and carers, and other less fortunate members of the community a Christmas bonus but the rationale for the Rudd Labor government’s hand-out deserves serious examination. Piers Akerman

Bank guarantee has now come into effect, but questions remain unanswered

Chris Pearce

The Government’s bungled bank guarantee has recently come into effect, yet the Government still has no answer to the market distortion it has caused, Chris Peace, Shadow Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law, said today.

“This rushed and poorly executed guarantee has significantly distorted the Australian financial system,” he said.

“Now that the guarantee has begun operation, the most pressing concern is that the key questions surrounding the distortion caused by the guarantee remain unanswered and unresolved. More

No recession for Australia – Turnbull

Malcolm Turnbull

Australia will not go into recession, Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull said today.

“I think we will have positive economic growth in the year ahead. It will obviously be less than it was the previous year but we have a fundamentally strong economy and above all the Coalition Government left our public finances in very good shape,” he said on ABC radio.

“Most countries are paying off debt; we paid off all our debt so there’s no interest expense at the federal level. We’re not like other countries that have got a big debt burden and are now having to add to that. More