The demand that the treasurer intervene to cut rates unless governor Michele Bullock does so herself effectively sinks Jim Chalmers's chances of passing his reforms.

This seems pretty wtf.

What sort of precedent do they want to set? Whether or not you embrace neoliberal ideology political interference with monetary policy has not typically gone well, no matter what or whom you want to blame for that.

Am I missing something, or are they just going off the rails here?

  • theroff@aussie.zone
    2·
    2 months ago

    Yeah, I usually follow the Greens and warm to MMT thinking, but using interest rates to improve housing affordability is just a really big misuse of a big lever with broad consequencess.

    Now, they didn’t talk about it at all in their media release and maybe it hasn’t even been considered by Aus Greens, but a big theme in The Green New Deal in the US is looking at fiscal policies that may reduce inflation, like continuing to reduce dependence on petroleum through electrification and public transport infrastructure (every person who catches PT is reducing oil demand), and improving healthcare through universal healthcare like we do here. Of course construction may be the limiting factor when it comes to inflation, but a wartime-style focus on construction supply is basically what is being proposed by MMT proponents.

    Back to Australia and the Greens, if they were talking about price stability and alternatives to higher interest rates I might be more supportive. I can think of another political candidate also calling for lower rates in the US - Donald Trump. The reality is that it’s politically popular to deliver lower rates risking future price inflation.

    • NaevaTheRat [she/her]@vegantheoryclub.orgOPEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      Yeah samesies. I’ll listen to criticism of neoliberal economic doctrine and monetary policy all day because well gestures at everything but it’s a mistake to take potshots at a system without replacing it with something.

      I’m on board for bold experimentation, the current system is not working and causes horrific suffering, but I want to have the experiment laid out.

      So you attack the rba and… then what? Nothing systemic changes and now a precedent of fiddling with currency for short term political reasons is established. I see that working out really well.