Previously we examined the Treasurer’s opinion piece from the Fin Review with our progressive and modern monetary frame and now we examine the message contained within.
From that frame we learned the Treasurer at least admits we are not investing enough in childcare and perhaps schools.
Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has an opinion piece in the Australian Financial Review today, the complete article can be read on the Treasurer’s website.
Originally posted at Australian Real Progressives
By now you have probably noticed Australian Real Progressives has a rather heavy focus on jobs. This is because 2 million Australians are looking for work or more hours.
“So far as it can humanly contrive, never again will the dole queues be seen in this country. Never again will competent workmen stand idle for months and years while limitless work remains to be done. Never again will young men drift hopelessly from town to town and from State to State, searching for the jobs which, in all this wide land, did not exist for them.”
Ben Chifley, 1949.
Andrew Leigh is an incredibly nice guy and I used to follow his blog before he entered parliament. He had many very useful statistics on that blog which I believe you can find at PreviousLeigh (see a sense of humour too).
Unfortunately as a practising economist he has zero understanding of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT).
In my previous post I outlined why jobs don’t come from rich people: capitalism runs on spending (sales), not savings. Job opportunities appear naturally when businesses forecast sales growth and expand output accordingly (and similarly disappear under reverse conditions). When viewing the economy as a whole, we can observe that private sector investment responds to rising incomes and spending as entrepreneurs expand output to match market demand and banks have confidence lending.
