Monday, May 25, 2020

Bill Mitchell – The Australia government is increasingly buying up its own debt – not a taxpayer in sight

In the wake of the $A60 billion bungle, the Australian government has turned its attention to creating smokescreens. Yesterday (May 25, 2020), the Treasurer released a statement – Temporary changes to continuous disclosure provisions for companies and officers – which effectively allows corporations to withold information from the public and investors about the state of their company finances. It will now be very hard to prove that company directors have mislead their investors. This is one of those thin end of the wedge trends that the Government has introduced under its emergency powers. For some time, the business peak bodies have been demanding the Government limit the capacity of shareholders to engage in class actions and for workers to pursue actions under industrial relations legislation (for example, QANTAS staff who have considered a class action against unsafe working conditions). But the point is that these diversions, which may or may not linger after the so-called 6-month sunset clause, take the pressure of the Government for their inept economic management, which is responsible for more than 2.4 million Australians (over 24 per cent of available workers) idle in one way or another. And when the question of economic management is raised we get a litany of lies reinforcing the fictional world that mainstream economists have created to prevent people from really understanding what the currency-issuing, Australian government can and cannot do. Today, I present some data on the RBA bond buying program and the way it is dovetailing with the debt-issuance activities of the Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM). The Treasurer is in the National Press Club today and will spend his time lying about saving taxpayers’ money and reducing the debt burden for our grandchildren. Meanwhile 2.4 million Australians need more work....
Bill Mitchell – billy blog
The Australia government is increasingly buying up its own debt – not a taxpayer in sight
Bill Mitchell | Professor in Economics and Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE), at University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

1 comment:

lastgreek said...

You know, Tom, I sure wish Greece were an island country, like Australia, thousands of miles away from everyone else. Thousands of years later and the Greeks still have the worry of invasion and territorial theft. What I'm saying is is that Australia has it pretty good, relatively speaking ;)

Turkish jets keep violating Greek airspace.

https://euobserver.com/foreign/147565

The Greeks have to shoot them down. There is no "please don't violate my airspace" talk strategy with the Turks because in the end you're guaranteed to lose.