An intriguing story in The Australian today which they have titled, “Treasurer Wayne Swan calls for debt-led recovery at G20”. I’m amazed he feels he can show his face in public, never mind advise others how to fix their economies.
Anyway, first we see what the G20 members have actually decided to do:
In a carefully worded final statement, G20 leaders said at the weekend they were committed to ensuring ‘sustainable public finances’ and stood by their prior commitments to halve their budget deficits by this calendar year and stabilise their debt levels.
Sounds good. You have to wonder where they have found an economic theory to support taking such steps but forgetting about such things for the moment, this is what they are doing. But then we have the world’s greatest treasurer offering his own advice:
One of only a handful of world leaders and senior bureaucrats to address the elite forum last week, Mr Swan said: ‘You don’t need to slash and burn now to put your budget on a sustainable path over the medium term – in fact, cutting too hard now will rip the guts out of growth and leave you with higher debt later on.’
Well he should know. He is after all a world expert on steps to take if you want to leave yourself with higher debt later on.
C’mon Goose….give ‘em the nuts and bolts on how to run a pink batts / $500k bus shelters led recovery.
Keynes would be proud, proud, proud.
The national lesson re Swan is he wouldn’t be there, drowning not waving, if not for Union power in the ALP factions.
The ALP will never crawl into modernity until the Unions become a rump….see ALP finances.
Therefore the ALP is stuck forever in the thrall of the bruvvers, excellent.
Alfonso
18 Feb 13 at 2:02 pm
So for exactly how much longer will we have to endure the excruciating spectacle of this clown masquerading as some sort of economic soothsayer?
Give me strength…
Rabz
18 Feb 13 at 2:04 pm
I’m actually trying a debt-led recovery at home at the moment, but it’s amazing how irate one’s creditors can be about this, especially when you live with them.
I’ve TRIED telling them ‘I don’t need to slash and burn now to put my budget on a sustainable path over the medium term – in fact, cutting too hard now will rip the guts out of growth and leave me with higher debt later on.’
But they ain’t buyin’ it, so I just have to fork up the $63 I owe my sister for the cat netting out the back.
Which leads me to wonder just how well Swan’s other economic policies would work in a domestic situation …
Philippa Martyr
18 Feb 13 at 2:05 pm
It’s the worst case of Dunning Kruger effect in history.
This pathetic little drop kick should be teetering on a ledge with tears rolling down his face, not gallivanting around Europe. Has he no goddamn shame?
Infidel Tiger
18 Feb 13 at 2:08 pm
The only treasurer in history who couldn’t raise money with a tax.
C.L.
18 Feb 13 at 2:08 pm
Somehow the next line Goose delivered got cut from the quote…
No, that is the job of the adults that replaced you when the electorate finally clues in and kicks you and the other kiddies out of the crache.
Also, remember to fall on the floor, pound our fists and throw a major dummyspit, and always respond to criticism by calling your opponents juvenile names.
Token
18 Feb 13 at 2:09 pm
They’ve chained themselves to the gates of progress, since they got their filthy paws on superannuation – see John Leard, my post on the issue (15 May 2012) or the fees and contributions to the ALP via the AEC’s searchable website.
.
18 Feb 13 at 2:10 pm
The only ‘expertise’ that Swan has is mastering the art of totally fucking up everything he touches.
Popular Front
18 Feb 13 at 2:14 pm
Every time I think of Swannie I think of this
I wonder where he’ll be during the next election.
“Do I have to put up with this?” LOL.
Lloyd
18 Feb 13 at 2:24 pm
Tomorrow’s headlines and first line from the story:
“Swan to lead by example: will plunge his household into debt to enable recovery from debt. In a reaction to this announcement Mrs Swan responded: “over my dead body”.
HRT
18 Feb 13 at 2:30 pm
The Swan model of economic management:
Spend taxpayer dollars like a junkie and then, when you pull you thumb out of your mouth and realise you’ve rooted the budget, scream “you can’t slash and burn, you can’t slash and burn”.
Ant
18 Feb 13 at 2:31 pm
The G20 today. Nambour TAFE after September 14.
H B Bear
18 Feb 13 at 2:57 pm
Ah Wayne Swan, ladies and gentlement, this is the greatest treasurer in the history of the universe.
How bad must the rest have been? Hahaha!
MattR
18 Feb 13 at 2:58 pm
Will the Goose survive his Moscow campaign? Have the knives been drawn while he is away? The Liar needs a scapegoat. surely he is number one on the list.
johno
18 Feb 13 at 3:07 pm
I can’t believe that in speaking to an international forum the treasurer warned them not to “rip the guts” out of growth. How did that phrase translate, I wonder? What an embarrasment. Thankfully they seem to have ignored him.
Anthony
18 Feb 13 at 3:09 pm
Wayne Goose, Special UN Economic Advisor to Greece?
If it was good enough for Biggles… and those State dumping grounds aren’t what they used to be.
H B Bear
18 Feb 13 at 3:12 pm
Let it be clearly known that Labor, between now and September 14, will be absolutely determined to run up as much debt as possible by announcing scheme after scheme that is not underpinned by funds.
They do not care about their legacy – not one iota.
Mike
Mike of Marion
18 Feb 13 at 3:13 pm
I’d say something, but must respect the laws against animal cruelty.
pete m
18 Feb 13 at 3:14 pm
I.T.What you said could apply to John Howard. I heard the ghastly little freedom hating shit of a jumped up suburban solicitor pontificating to the Americans about gun control on the ABC this morning.
The only thing he ever had to make himself look good was Costello keeping the keys to the piggy bank.
Eyrie
18 Feb 13 at 3:27 pm
I was listening to Peter Schiff yesterday and he pointed out that the latest ruse of the Democrats is to say that they don’t have a spending problem, they have a paying-for-it problem. One Dem. said that they weren’t broke, they just had a misallocation of funds – ie. the money was still in private hands.
Follow that reasoning and see where it leads.
Ellen of Tasmania
18 Feb 13 at 4:20 pm
Ellen, I have long stated to my conservative friends that a common theme in leftist political parties is that the entire income distribution is fixed in size and is the property of the state to allocate. The worrying thing now is that the fuckers think they can be open about it and not get punished by an electorate with an ever expanding number of people dependent on the state.
Skuter
18 Feb 13 at 4:46 pm
G’day Steve,
What saddens me is the absolute Tsunami of Superannuation Devastation that will occur when the ‘Union’ based promotional spending is exhausted.
Who does The Labor Party represent?
NoFixedAddress
18 Feb 13 at 4:47 pm
Seriously, I don’t think Swan will get a job anywhere after September 14th. No company would incur the hit to goodwill and reputation by hiring him.
Econocrat
18 Feb 13 at 5:21 pm
Agreed. I just made the same comment in the Open Thread!
Infidel Tiger
18 Feb 13 at 5:23 pm
Didn’t Swan spend all last year telling us over and over how absolutely positively critical it was to bring the budget back into surplus?
Now its absolutely positively essential to go on a government spendathon?
My head is spinning.
Or is he just talking about the other countries so we get their business, but remains a failure at home.
MichaelC58
18 Feb 13 at 6:38 pm
Swan – turns zero debt and a $22Bn surplus into $250 billion of debt and a $30Bn deficit with nothing to show for any of it and the disgusting little toe-rag has the brazen gall to advise other nations about economic policy?
Good Lord.
Mk50 of Brisbane
18 Feb 13 at 6:39 pm
You lot have it all wrong.
The best thing for Australia is the complete wipeout of the ALP at the coming election.
Nothing will better promote that outcome than having Goose in the Lodge. It will utterly spiflicate the leftard vote.
Think of the country. Goose for PM.
I am the Walrus, koo koo k'choo
18 Feb 13 at 8:01 pm
I know a few people that have what I call, the Anti-Midas touch, meaning every thing they touch turns to S#%t not gold. I am writing to the board at Macquarie dictionary with the hope to establish a new antonym for the phrase “The Midas Touch”, what else could it be but ‘The Swan Touch’?
Colmac
18 Feb 13 at 8:11 pm
Agreed, Colmac. The current government have it in spades.
But let’s reflect for a moment on Wayne Swan and what an odious little creep he is.
tbh
18 Feb 13 at 8:18 pm
Just counting down the days till Pigsy Howes plants himself in front of the ALPBC cameras and boasts about how he made the phone calls that put Goose in the Lodge.
C’mon Pigsy! Shaft another PM! Brag to us again what a Big Swinging Dick you are!
Man, I gots ta get me more popcorn.
I am the Walrus, koo koo k'choo
18 Feb 13 at 8:32 pm
Ithese criminal alp theives Must Be Punished when we finally throw them out,how can you expect to be rewarded with huge super and handsome pensions for life ,for Ruining the Best Country in the World. Hanging would be an option ,but Stripping ALL their money and family assets would be a modern alternative,Poverty ,Abject Poverty would be nice for them,and they Justly Deserve It!
Borisgodunov
18 Feb 13 at 8:42 pm
You ungrateful bastard Boris. Lardarse and Goose, Obeid and Mcdonald, Thomson and Slipper and Williamson are doing us all the greatest favour – they are ripping the guts out of the ALP’s base vote.
Never again will children have to put up with being sprayed with verbal ordure by vomitous meat puppets like Carr and Rudd.
There aren’t medals big enough to pin on their chests.
Goose is the number one kamikaze pilot for the ALP self destruction squad. He has targeted his little Cessna at the heart of the ALP, and everything is going to plan. He is right on target. I salute his selflessness in sacrificing himself, making himself look like the king of village idiots, for the good of the country.
C’mon Boris, get up on your hind legs and salute Goose, the man who single handedly is ridding the country of the curse that is the ALP.
I am the Walrus, koo koo k'choo
18 Feb 13 at 9:00 pm
You can see why Assange wants to joint this club, parliament become a social refuge of white collar crims and sleazebags.
Chris M
18 Feb 13 at 9:52 pm
Conspiracy Theory?
1). Wayne Swan goes to Russia.
2). In an attempt to fix Australia’s ailing economy, God sends meteorite crashing into Russia.
3). Unfortunately, God’s aim is off and meteorite misses Swan.
4). Mortified with embarrassment, the Pope resigns.
5). Anybody got the phone number of Juliar’s optometrists, so God can fix himself up with a set of industrial-grade, budget Emo-proof, Michelle Grattan Goggles like Juliar now wears?
Up The Workers!
19 Feb 13 at 9:14 am