Behind Albanese Labor's timid leadership is an internal struggle to break with the crisis-ridden neoliberal model generating inequality and reaction across the world... my response to Sean Kelly's Quarterly Essay on 'What does Labor stand for?'
mckellinstitute.org.au/penningtonth...
Check out this piece from Gareth Hutchens at ABC from Nov 25. Fitting!
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...
Inflation targeting is not the answer. IMF found inflation was approx 1.5 %points higher after 2022 shock in countries whose central banks focused on inflation targeting (orange line), than those that didn't (blue). Inflation also *fell faster* in countries that didn’t target inflation.
New war inflation is hitting workers in high petrol prices. Next it'll be interest rate hikes & calls for gov't spending cuts. But oil prices won't stabilise coz workers hand $400/mth extra to banks in mortgage payments! This is supply-side inflation like COVID & 2022 surge after Russia-Ukraine.
Roll up! Excited to host Gary Stevenson in Melbourne on Feb 28! Hear from this refreshing, no-BS working-class voice from UK on how wealth inequality is killing the Fair Go & how we can get it back! @garyseconomics.bsky.social
What’s radical is that two average-earning people can’t afford to buy a house in any capital city in the country anymore! More coverage of my proposal to tax ultra-wealthy landowners to fund cheaper housing for homebuyers.
Read more on how our proposal can deliver cheaper housing for non-investors through a tax on extreme land wealth >>> 4/4
www.news.com.au/finance/ultr...
The effects of our tax proposal are:
- Top end of land wealth pays more ($3bn)
- FHB, downsizers and movers pay less (investors excluded)
- New supply encouraged
- Collection costs kept low, using existing state land tax admin
- Novel tax infrastructure created for future wealth tax proposals
3/4
As I tell News .com, “Average workers are forced to hand over 1/4 of their pay packet every fortnight, while ultra-wealthy landholders quietly accumulate millions of dollars in unearned gains that remain untaxed for decades.”
We need to address this unfairness in the tax system. 2/4
Extreme land wealth is key driver of rising wealth inequality - a crisis undermining homeownership for workers & future generations. We need action. Great coverage today on our proposal to tax ultra-wealthy individuals with land fortunes +$20m to fund stamp duty cuts for homebuyers of new homes. 1/4
The decline of collective bargaining power should be turning the whole economic commentariat’s focus away from NAIRU...yet it prevails! 7/7
Like workers organise for higher wages, business organises to protect profit margins. Privatisation and new ‘markets’ in government-funded services increased their upper hand. All in all? Low unemployment is entirely compatible with high profits, and therefore, higher inflation. 6/7
The disciplinary tool of creating unemployment to keep workers in line (neoclassical orthodoxy & RBA practice) is totally ill-fit for addressing where real inflationary pressures lie: excessive pricing power by businesses operating without any countervailing power of unions or state regulation. 5/7
But the restructuring of jobs since the 1980s on a more insecure, less dependable basis means labour can be employed at high levels without any risk that wages growth encroaches upon profit margins. 4/7
High unionisation & full-time permanent job rates in 60s & 70s meant employment was an indicator of inflationary pressures. More workers in good jobs meant labour had more power to raise real wages and eat into profit margins, with associated risk that business would raise costs in response. 3/7
But there is a more sinister backdrop to this Keynesian ‘high employment’ success & it means the de-coupling of employment from inflation is not really that baffling. 2/7
Interesting piece on RBA economists' 'dirty little secret' - they want more unemployment. Aus's ability to bring inflation down, avoid recession & retain high employment is good by internl standards. Workers paid in real wage losses & higher mortgage repayments. But at least they had jobs right? 1/7
Growing wealth inequality in Australia is hoovering up the housing stock, undermining living standards, and dragging on the productive potential of our economy. Glad to join @thinkforward.bsky.social 's Tax Wealth, Not Work campaign! >> www.thinkforward.org.au/taxwealthnot...
Roll up! Excited to host Gary Stevenson in Melbourne on Feb 28! Hear from this refreshing, no-BS working-class voice from UK on how wealth inequality is killing the Fair Go & how we can get it back! @garyseconomics.bsky.social
