Aussies and NZers: Four seasons in one protest

[The Anti-Targ]

This is about the USA, but since we're talking about inflation and interest rates here I thought it worth posting the musings of Robert Reich (former Labour Secretary under Bill Clinton, in case people would scratch their heads about who this guy is).

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Raising interest rates is a terrible mistake.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has once again vowed to continue raising interest rates as a means of fighting inflation. “I can assure you that my colleagues and I are strongly committed to this project and we will keep at it until the job is done,” he said today during a Q&A with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. Powell’s remarks signal that the Fed will probably increase rates again when it meets later this month. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, Jerome Powell and the Fed are making a huge mistake. True, inflation is near a four-decade high. But the Fed’s aggressive effort to tame it through steep interest rate hikes – the fastest series of rate hikes since the early 1980s – raises the risk of recession and will do little to actually combat the main driver of price increases; the power of corporations. Inflation gives powerful companies cover to jack up prices faster than their costs are rising, so much so that they are earning their highest profit margins in nearly 50 years. Raising interest rates won’t solve this problem, but it will wreak havoc on lower income people who are already paying the price and are often the first to lose jobs as the economy slows. A smarter approach from the government would be to put the burden of inflation where it belongs, through a windfall profits tax on excess corporate earnings, price controls, higher tax rates on corporations and the wealthy, and bolder antitrust enforcement. What are your thoughts?

He's pretty active on YouTube posting videos about economic issues, esp as concerns the fate of the poor and low income workers and the corruptions in the political-corporate complex. I have to say I find myself in agreement with most of what he says, including the above.

[Skyrazer]

I, too, would love a slew of progressive and prudent fiscal policy but I'm not holding my breath. ALP offered up a light serving of that at the 2019 election and it caused the electorate to flock to the Coalition.

So that leaves us to rely on the reserve banks and their giant sledgehammers to do the dirty work.

[karaddin]

4 hours ago, Skyrazer said:

I know alot of republicans will be licking their lips, but I think any push to become a republic should hold off for a bit while the shock of her passing subsides. Going in too early risks the perception of being insensitive and could end up hurting the movement.

And I say all this as someone who's generally pro-republic.

Yeah I'd be waiting until Charles pisses people off.

[The Anti-Targ]

Why would you not just bide your time and call for another republic referendum at the next GE. It's not like Australia is going to go all post-apocalyptic between now and then if it does ditch the king. Climate change will do that whether Australia has a king or not.

Honestly, I'd rather stick with the toothless British king and ceremonial governor general than have some kind of president who has actual individual power. I guess some European countries, and Israel, have presidents who basically do about the same thing, and has the same power (which is none at all) as the British monarch. If the head of state is like some kind of uber-diplomat who gives nice speeches written by the govt of the day and helps the govt of the day implement its policies by going to ribbon cutting ceremonies and talking a good game about the country overseas, and gets on TV and tells everyone it's all going to be OK when shit hits the fan, I suppose that might be interesting.

Also, we have our own [Maori] king, so we could just replace one with the other. Though the Maori king isn't the king for all tribes, so that might not fly.

[Paxter]

Ceremonial presidents can be absolutely awesome. See Sergio Mattarella, among many others.

I didn’t want to get sucked into this debate so early but the truth is I wanted a republic 20 years ago and I’ll be trying for it until death.

[Paxter]

7 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

This is about the USA, but since we're talking about inflation and interest rates here I thought it worth posting the musings of Robert Reich (former Labour Secretary under Bill Clinton, in case people would scratch their heads about who this guy is).

Just got around to reading this. Obviously I disagree on interest rates and there is no point re-hashing that. 

But I'm absolutely happy to pile on and agree with Reich on antitrust. It is arguably the single biggest debate that we on the left have lost over the last few decades. And we are paying for it big time now as large oligopolies with incredibly strong pricing power are everywhere - tech, financial services, industrials, consumer goods, materials, energy, media, advertising etc. 

Think, for example, about the idea Reich has about windfall taxes. It's great in theory. But in practice, companies across the world economy have so much market power that they will just pass the taxes on to consumers, thereby worsening the inflation situation. 

As for his other suggestions, I will tackle each in turn:

Price controls: A few problems with this old chestnut. But the big two are: 1) Distorting effects on supply. Now that you have introduced a price ceiling, what is the incentive for producers to supply more? Especially if the producers' cost base is also increasing due to inflation. The lack of supply caused by the ceiling will simply exacerbate the problem. 2) Administration. Price controls are a game of whack-a-mole. It usually gives rise to a massive policy and lobbying effort as government agencies scramble to set appropriate prices across a range of markets while producers lobby hard and/or try to evade controls. 

Higher tax rates on corporations and the wealthy: Brilliant! Love it! But doesn't do much to help inflation. Corporations could well pass their taxes on (making inflation worse), while the wealthy will simply absorb or evade. Higher taxes could slow down the economy a bit, which might help at the margins, but interest rates are a much faster tool to the same end. And, of course, if you spend the taxes on handouts you will continue to feed the inflation spiral. If you spend it on subsidies, you are back to whack-a-mole - addressing the symptom of inflation but not the cause. 

[The Anti-Targ]

The thing with windfall profit taxes is they are taxes that happen after companies have fleeced people through high prices while claiming it's inflation that is making them charge more. If the windfall profits taxes are in place the companies are forewarned not to pump up prices, because the excess profits will be taken away anyway. So, in theory windfall profit taxes should reduce inflation. But then again trickle down economics is meant to work, in theory.

Depending on the situation, I think short term price caps on some things that have an economy-wide effect might work. Such as a price cap on electricity. For countries where it is not possible to export electricity, price capping could work. I doubt price caps could be placed on anything that is imported, since those products will just find another home without a price cap. We could also easily put price caps on some food items because there is basically no possibility of exporting those things elsewhere, but it would be a fairly limited range, and unlikely to give a meaningful benefit to the people who most need relief.

[Paxter]

Ah the culture wars. The AFL has opted to cancel its proposed minute of silence that was going to be held in the Queen's memory during Indigenous Round of the AFLW.

A manifestly defensible decision but the monarchists/Coalition/Sky viewers will be howling I'm sure. 

[The Anti-Targ]

Being expected to pay respect to the figurhead of the empire that brought their culture to ruin. Just another day in the life of the colonised.

[Skyrazer]

I think the whole public holiday to mourn her passing is a bit unnecessary, but I won't complain about an extra day off. Being in Vic, that makes it a 4 day weekend for me (Grand Final Friday on 23rd) which is pretty sweet.

Do any other states have Friday 23rd off as well or is it just us?

[The Anti-Targ]

I think the NZ govt is politically in a losing position whatever decision they make on the one off public holiday issue. Businesses in general have said they don't want it, royalists probably want it, and workers are always up for some temporary respite from their daily toil. I would say ideologically the Labour party would be mostly against a holiday to honour a monarch's passing, but they are in favour of holidays for struggling workers.

From what I've seen in the media the opposition parties have said nothing about whether they support or oppose a one off public holiday. The main opposition, National, is the pro-business party, so they typically hate giving workers days off. But it will also be the party that is more heavily populated with royalists (like the media person who cried when they announced the Queen's passing), so they probably have some internal angst about what to support. In the end they will oppose whatever decision the govt makes. If the govt was smart would seek to get agreement from all parties on the decision, and if agreement from all parties is not achievable make it a conscience vote rather than a govt policy. It is a one off after all, so it's got nothing at all to do with the govt's policy agenda.

[Impmk2]

1 hour ago, Skyrazer said:

Do any other states have Friday 23rd off as well or is it just us?

Think it's just you, you bastards.

I'm in a similar boat. Anti-royal, pro-day off. Conflicted, but I'll take it.

[The Anti-Targ]

One off public holiday for us on 26 Sept. Unscientific news website poll has 53% in favour 47% against. 

Dropping pretty much all COVID measures. Masking in healthcare places, 7 day iso for people testing positive both remain. The few vax mandates that continued (healthcare workers) now gone too. That's pretty much it. 

 

[Paxter]

10 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

One off public holiday for us on 26 Sept. Unscientific news website poll has 53% in favour 47% against. 

Dropping pretty much all COVID measures. Masking in healthcare places, 7 day iso for people testing positive both remain. The few vax mandates that continued (healthcare workers) now gone too. That's pretty much it. 

Daily deaths also on the downtrend in NZ (from around 20-40 per day to less than 10). So the winter peak has receded. Australia ran about 50-100 deaths per day during the winter and that has been quite sticky, but is also starting to drop now. 

The sideshow around QEII mourning day is kinda amusing/weird. 

Oh and VIC has an egregiously good number of public holidays. I think two or even three more than NSW (Grand Final, Melb Cup and one other). 

[The Anti-Targ]

As I mentioned a few months back, I think in the Int'l thread, we celebrated our first true indigenous national holiday, Matariki, the Pacific new year (it is specifically the Maori new year, but it is also the new year for many Pacific Islands, and of course being the Pleiades cluster is significant beyond the south Pacific too). Those on the right, who hate people having holidays, rather than oppose the holiday, which would come off as racist, and does reflect racism among at least some of those opponents, rather than expose their racism demanded that if Matariki was to be made a public holiday that another existing public holiday be dropped. Of course most of them would be wanting to drop Labour Day. Though Labour Day does not mark a specific event or person, so in theory it could be dropped, the importance of Labour Day is its timing. Without Labour Day there would be no public Holiday between Queen's (now King's) Birthday previously, but now Matariki, in June and Christmas. So basically 6 months without a long weekend, and heavily skewing public holidays into the basically 6 months between late December and June.

Personally I would have no problem with ditching one or all of the religious (Christian) national holidays. We are a secular nation, with now the majority of people being a different religion or no religion, so there is no special meaning to Easter and Christmas outside of it having been there for a long time in our national calendar. But I think those 4 days should find a new home as public holidays. My preference would be for all non-religious public holidays to remain fixed and for the 4 days that we have currently for the Christian holidays (Christmas and Easter) to be changed into floating extra days off which each person can nominate as being days to celebrate specific anniversaries that are important to them (religious, cultural, personal). Each person informs their employer what those days are, and they are guaranteed to not be required to work those days, and just like Christmas currently, if they fall on a weekend the day off is Monday / Friday-ised.

[6649er]

yes, quite ironic. A way to honour the Queen's service and duty ... a day off work. Way to go Australia!

[Paxter]

3 hours ago, 6649er said:

yes, quite ironic. A way to honour the Queen's service and duty ... a day off work. Way to go Australia!

It’s not just us! NZ also declared one. Will see if Trudeau and co follow suit (decision possible tmrw).

[The Anti-Targ]

Of course, the Queen never took holidays so in no way should her subjects be allowed one to celebrate / commemorate her life / passing. I'll leave it to each individual to choose their preferred verb / noun combination.

[The Anti-Targ]

Interesting story

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2022/09/popular-australian-pub-labelled-uneducated-and-culturally-insensitive-after-refusing-entry-of-m-ori-woman-with-moko-kauae.html

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Popular Australian pub labelled 'uneducated and culturally insensitive' after refusing entry to Māori woman with moko kauae

Without clicking the link. How many Australian boarders know what this headline is referring to?

I would be very disappointed and feel it is certainly racist if this happened in a pub in NZ. But I'm not sure what to make of it in an overseas context. I have no expectation that overseas businesses have any awareness, but should they be open to being flexible when things are put into context for them?

And then there's this...

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/rugby-league-nrlw-star-handed-ban-after-reprehensible-queen-post/2WXWZYKRQHCAKDSN6CGNCWR7HA/

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Rugby league: NRLW star handed ban after 'reprehensible' Queen post

Moran, a former Jillaroos representative and Indigenous All Star, has since been forced to delete the Instagram post, which featured a picture of Queen Elizabeth II.

"Todays a good fkn day, uncle Luke announces his tour, and this dumb dog dies Happy fkn Friday," the post read.

I recall not that long ago arguments that Israel Folau should not suffer consequences for saying all gay people will go to hell unless they repent. Moran's censure is not as sever as Folau's but I'll be curious to see if Folau's defenders will be equally critical of the suspension and fine handed down to Moran.

[Impmk2]

14 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Without clicking the link. How many Australian boarders know what this headline is referring to?

I had absolutely no idea. Thought it was an item of clothing before I read the story tbh.