Modern macroeconomists “solve” the problem [of market imbalance] by assuming it away: the standard models assume that somehow the economy is in equilibrium, with demand for labour and goods somehow just equalling supply. That we achieve this beautiful equilibrium is, like the belief in market efficiency itself, a matter of deep religious conviction, and the path we take to get there a matter of mystical revelation. If a problem crops up in this all-encompassing theory – if there is unemployment, for example – the response is simple: blame the victim, meaning workers, for demanding too-high wages, or migrants, for flooding the job market. If only wages were sufficiently flexible, the theory goes, or borders sufficiently forbidding, the economy would always be at full employment.
Joseph Stiglitz
June 9, 2019
Genocide is not just a murderous madness: it is, more deeply, a politics that promises a utopia beyond politics – one people, one land, one truth, the end of difference. Since genocide is a form of political utopia, it remains an enduring temptation in any multiethnic and multicultural society in crisis.
Michael Ignatieff
June 7, 2019
Politics isn’t about left versus right; it’s about top versus bottom.
Jim Hightower
June 1, 2019
Nobody wants to live in a country where, despite a strong economy, families are homeless, where our environment is being rapidly degraded and people with mental health issues do not receive the support they need.
Jacinda Ardern
June 1, 2019
My three years in politics was very instructive about the way in which the appetite for political power can destroy a human mind, destroy principles and values and transform people into little monsters.
Mario Vargas Llosa
May 31, 2019
[On Journalism] If someone says it’s raining and another person says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out the f****** window and find out which is true.
Anonymous
May 27, 2019
If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy.
David Frum
May 22, 2019
I love a timid country
A land of scare campaigns
Where mindless bogan slogans
Just overtake our brains
The stunted, short horizons
Of those who will not see
Who, presented with alternatives
Think only: me, me, me.
[apologies to Dorothea Mackellar]
Mike Funnell
May 21, 2019
When the industry you work in cuts penalty rates within the next twelve months, remember yesterday.
When the entire workforce has been casualised, remember yesterday.
When your kids are slaves to labour hire companies and never find secure work, remember yesterday.
When your local public hospitals and schools are defunded to the point of collapse, remember yesterday.
When your taxes increase while the wealthy gain tax cuts totalling in the billions, remember yesterday.
When the banks get waved through to proceed with their predatory business model without consequences for the crimes exposed by the banking royal commission, remember yesterday.
When people who defended a debauched, convicted paedophile priest take their seats in our national parliament, remember yesterday.
Congratulations, Australia. This dystopian nightmare is what you’ve signed up to.
Craig MacPherson
May 19, 2019
Once I got into politics, I saw the real fight, where big money controls everything, and where politicians care more about campaign contributions than the people they’re supposed to represent.
