The economic consequences of Covid-19

The foundations of many future PhD’s have been announced. Australia’s Liberal Party government realised the philosophy of Howard and Costello, followers of Reagan and Thatcher’s mentors Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman are in a previous chapter of Australia’s history. Checking the index PM Morrison and Treasurer Frydenberg found Coombs, HG , and an ancient formula for revitalising a stalled economy “Keynesianism”. It had been applied in Australia, after WW11, back in 1945, to restart the peace time economy. Having done a health check they found little debt, AAA credit rating, an ability to borrow long term at less than 1% per annum, demand for growing exports, but low confidence in consumers and business alike. The electorate wanted answers now. In Liberal tradition implementation was left to the private sector. Winners had been picked, migration policy twigged to get smart and entrepreneurial, money injected into R&D grants, jobs, training …tax policy changed … We just need the entrepreneurs prove the model still works. It will be a $213bn investment in 2020, $480bn over 4 years and will see debt peak at $1.7 trillion in 2031. Was there a choice? There are no real critics.  

Paul Raftery