Happy to challenge status quo, reform seems harder |
Seeking to reassure the Australian public in his most recent Press Club address, Anthony Albanese borrowed from populism.
“There is no security in maintaining a status quo that doesn’t work for people,” he said.
Albanese was speaking in the context of how the federal government was moving to shore up the domestic economy, and the new agreements it was signing with partners like the European Union.
As I write this, he is in Singapore attempting to find new lines of fuel supply for Australia. Because despite what the government says publicly, it is preparing for the long-term economic impacts of the United States and Israel’s decision to bomb Iran.
Australia is not alone in this stance – the latest World Uncertainty Index, which monitors 143 countries, reported a spike, similar to that seen in January 2008 when the US Federal Reserve made an emergency cut to its cash rate to try and fend off what became the Global Financial Crisis.
We don’t know what will happen, but now that the inevitable consequences of Israel’s actions, backed by the US, are having ongoing economic implications for most of the world, we are looking for an exit ramp.
The death of tens of thousands of civilians was not enough to move governments, but economic downturns always tend to move what paralyses ethics, values and moral lines.
Milton Friedman, the granddaddy of neoliberalism who advised Chilian dictator Augusto Pinochet in the mid-1970s, was not right on much but he did identify how to........