Austrian Australian Armigers?

I'm feeling a bit apathetic right now but that's not surprising given how bloody hot it's been here for the last few days.

oh my god, how do you know that song?

Today I drove over the Westgate bridge and couldnt help but think...how the fuck did that guy throw his daughter off this bridge? why her? the other 2 kids were left in the car?

It was a horrid experience [/off topic]

Let's just give it all to the UN. What do you say?

Time for a new world order: PM

KEVIN RUDD has denounced the unfettered capitalism of the past three decades and called for a new era of "social capitalism" in which government intervention and regulation feature heavily.

In an essay to be published next week, the Prime Minister is scathing of the neo-liberals who began refashioning the market system in the 1970s, and ultimately brought about the global financial crisis.

"The time has come, off the back of the current crisis, to proclaim that the great neo-liberal experiment of the past 30 years has failed, that the emperor has no clothes," he writes of those who placed their faith in the corrective powers of the market.

"Neo-liberalism and the free-market fundamentalism it has produced has been revealed as little more than personal greed dressed up as an economic philosophy. And, ironically, it now falls to social democracy to prevent liberal capitalism from cannibalising itself."

Mr Rudd writes in The Monthly that just as Franklin Roosevelt rebuilt US capitalism after the Great Depression, modern-day "social democrats" such as himself and the US President, Barack Obama, must do the same again. But he argues that "minor tweakings of long-established orthodoxies will not do" and advocates a new system that reaches beyond the 70-year-old interventionist principles of John Maynard Keynes.

"A system of open markets, unambiguously regulated by an activist state, and one in which the state intervenes to reduce the greater inequalities that competitive markets will inevitably generate," he writes.

He urges "a new contract for the future that eschews the extremism of both the left and right".

He mocks neo-liberals "who now find themselves tied in ideological knots in being forced to rely on the state they fundamentally despise to save financial markets from collapse".

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/...818725574.html

It's disappointing that that's what you get out of that article Merc.

There is a lot written about anti-protectionistic practices being floated by various countries, including the US. IMHO, the global economy has fueled much of this mess we are in now. Making things more global is not going to help.

Yes but why the comment about the UN? What's that got to do with it? I don't get why you'd think KRudd would be suggesting we hand over regulatory powers to the UN.

What he's calling for are tighter restrictions on the free market economy that we've been operating under over the last 30 years in order to try and stop banks from collapsing in the future, to name just one major issue connected to this situation.

My brother and I had a bunch of "novelty song" albums when we were kids.

But I thought it was pretty well known anywhere.

The UN is one of the greatest supporters of global free market economies. It was a flippant remark drawing a comparison.

Rudd's out of his mind. The market is presently performing that correction, and will manage it if political power doesn't fuck with the market's workings.

There will be a considerable flurry in Washington and among other capitals, which certain pols will spin as "a/the solution." I'll remain skeptical, thanks. The "Economic Stimulus and Recovery" bill is being shredded by the minority party and sundry commentators as not a reconstruction, but a spending bill with every major Democratic-Party wishlist item featured, and its capacity to do any recovery or stimulus at all is being called extensively into question. There had been talk of applying it to the financial sector and to national infrastructure such as upgrading and repairing transportation; this is no longer heard. Huh?

Australia had a stimulus package for lower income earners before Christmas. It's done nothing to save our economy.

They're now talking about tax cuts and what would be the best solution that way. One of the best ideas put forward so far IMO is to reduce or even remove the GST which has been the bain of small business for many many years now.

I think what Rudd is talking about are banking regulations (among other things) which so far seem to have kept our banks from collapsing here in comparison to those of other countries with lower or less regulations which has allowed them to trade with insufficient safeguards on loans etc. I'm sure our system here is not perfect, but so far it's doing ok and although we still have had a larger number of foreclosures than usual, these bad debts are currently being absorbed much more easily.

It is not only about banking. The idea that Obama stated in a recent speech to, "Buy American", which I am not sure we can really do with most goods due to the volume we import, has raised the hackles of many of those around the world. That combined with bailout funds and other pork barrel spending for votes in respective states in Pelosi's bill has made the rest of the world sit up and notice, and they are worried about protectionist practices.

This was a pretty good article about the whole issue:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/...bal-420859.php

I think most governments are employing 'protectionist practices'. After all, they're meant to protect the people as best they can whether it be from physical attacks or otherwise. In this case it's economic. I've not noticed any comments in the media or in parliament denegrating the US for doing what they can to help its people.

I think it'd be strange if the US government was more concerned about what the rest of the world thought.

FWIW, banking regulation was just an example. Obviously there are other issues.

Oh Ali - the Us has been getting slammed for its "protectionist policies" all week. Many world leaders are concerned about this.