To go along with the Morrison Government’s stimulus suicide, at the AFR:
This isn’t the first time Australia has used stimulus to fight off a downturn. And the good news is we have a pretty solid record at doing exactly that. Will it be good enough this time too?
The first test is speed: will the money reach people and businesses fast enough? Where stimulus has struggled in times past it has been where the money arrived too late, revving up a recovery rather than defending against a downturn.
The second test is size: will the money be enough to help protect the economy?
…Even better, it adds to the cavalry already arriving in interest and exchange rates, in petrol prices, and in likely State Government support.
Yeh, Chris, but it fails on the only test that matters. Will it increase or decrease deaths arising from COVID-19?
Unless the private sector ignores the stimulus, which it very likely will thankfully, then the answer is it will increase the speed of virus transmission and therefore the the rate at which the health system is overloaded, exacerbating the mortality rate.
That is the only measure that matters and we will remember.
