Kouk continues pointless self-immolation

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Whacko stuff. Friday morning Kouk was in high dudgeon about lack of stimulus:

The social and mental health costs of this dismal state of the labour market is huge. The economic costs are similarly large.

The good news is the problems can be addressed and with good policy settings, fixed.

…Which brings us to the policy outlook.

There are policy levers the government can pull and push to underpin better economic conditions.

In simple terms, injecting cash into householder pockets will support spending and with that economic activity. Government funded spending on housing, transport infrastructure, local government and regional projects, incentives for business investment are all candidates for policy action.

But by lunchtime he was pounding away at the Government for its profligate latest borrowing:

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Then this morning he’s out with this, which could bridge the obvious contradiction in his first two outbursts, but won’t:

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Err, you know, this:

“In simple terms, injecting cash into householder pockets will support spending and with that economic activity. Government funded spending on housing, transport infrastructure, local government and regional projects, incentives for business investment are all candidates for policy action.”

Alan Kohler continues to do far better:

Please stop tipping petrol on yourself, Kouk.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.