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“READ EVERY OECD REPORT”

Kevin Rudd wonks it up:

On the question of the economy, the fundamentals of what we’re on about in the economy of course derive from macro-economic stability. There’s broadly a bipartisan consensus in terms of monetary policy, inflation targeting and also fiscal balance and don’t take my word for that, read carefully the Boyer Lectures of the recently departed Governor of the Reserve Bank, Ian MacFarlane. He says that, in effect, over the last decade-plus, we’ve achieved that level of bipartisan political consensus, and that’s a bogus debate which Mr Howard wants to have on the economy, on macro policy. What I’m talking about is this on micro policy, most particularly, how do we boost productivity, how do we do it through human capital investment, how do we raise the quality and skills of our work force for the future economy, that is the core of the productivity debate - not Kevin Rudd’s say so. Read every OECD report and every Productivity Commission report that’s been produced. This is the battleground for the economic debate and I challenge Mr Howard to join it, because the numbers are against him in terms of the data which has been produced on declining productivity growth.

Man. Bring back the fork in the road.

Posted by Tim B. on 01/25/2007 at 11:06 AM
  1. Fork in the ears stuff.

    Posted by boxofmatches on 2007 01 25 at 11:13 AM • permalink

  2. Read every OECD report and every Productivity Commission report that’s been produced.

    I’d sooner be disembowelled with a tent peg or trepanned with a corkscrew. I think Rudd’s strategy is simply to put everybody to sleep, tip-toe into office, and then, when the people all wake up, they’ll find that Labor has turned Australia into the City of Oz (he hopes). Is this kind of wonkish excess Rudd’s stock in trade?

    Posted by paco on 2007 01 25 at 11:20 AM • permalink

  3. Human capital investment means, eg., getting new prostitutes from time to time.

    We’re talking real depreciation here.

    Posted by rhhardin on 2007 01 25 at 11:21 AM • permalink

  4. Mr. Rudd, an “F” is not enough of a failing grade for your scribbling—to call it writing would be an insult even to Margo Kingston.  Instead sir, you are hereby demoted back to first grade so you can learn how to write a sentence.  From there you will work your way up to paragraphs and eventually actual essays that are comprehensible.  We won’t demand actual, good content, just writing that does not make my brain hurt upon reading it.

    Sincerely,
    Everyone Who Ever Taught You English.

    Posted by rbj1 on 2007 01 25 at 11:32 AM • permalink

  5. Omigod, he’s Beazley in a more compact &  prolix body. Bring back the light on the hill, whoever it was. At least the electorate switched it of.

    Posted by mareeS on 2007 01 25 at 11:35 AM • permalink

  6. off, I mean.

    Posted by mareeS on 2007 01 25 at 11:37 AM • permalink

  7. #4 - They’re not sentences, it’s just waffle. Rudd seems to be an expert.

    Posted by Ian Deans on 2007 01 25 at 11:43 AM • permalink

  8. Hey, I interpret this as meaning that KRudd is going to bring in unfettered capitalism.

    Where do I vote?


    jlc

    Posted by Jack from Montreal on 2007 01 25 at 11:46 AM • permalink

  9. This Rudd character is talking utter bilge, in terms of the dismal science. I’m worried that people will start to believe him, however. If one’s chasing the cheap soundbite, he sounds quite plausible.

    Posted by James Waterton on 2007 01 25 at 12:17 PM • permalink

  10. Yikes. Commas ahoy.

    Posted by James Waterton on 2007 01 25 at 12:18 PM • permalink

  11. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ….......huh? Oh, sorry; was I snoring?

    Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2007 01 25 at 12:51 PM • permalink

  12. > how do we boost productivity

    It’s easy! Abolish transfer based taxation.

    Increasing Comparative Advantage is the best way to increase productivity.

    SO JUST GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY.

    Posted by Rob Read on 2007 01 25 at 01:04 PM • permalink

  13. Translation for those of us who are not patronising windbags:-

    Our macro-economic polices are the same as the Coalition’s.  Even though Mr Howard says there are differences, according to Ian McFarlane, there isn’t.

    The difference in policies is on a micro-economic level, most particularly, boosting productivity through education and training.  According to the OECD, micro-economic policy is the important issue.  That is where Mr Howard is wrong and he should engage me in that.

    Do the Australian people want to listen to this gobsh!te for 3 years?  I sincerely hope not.

    Posted by murph on 2007 01 25 at 01:06 PM • permalink

  14. I totally understand him.  Of course, I’m also running a fever.

    Posted by ushie on 2007 01 25 at 01:37 PM • permalink

  15. #3

    Wouldn’t that be AMORtization?

    Posted by yojimbo on 2007 01 25 at 02:22 PM • permalink

  16. Erm… monetary policy has nothing to do with the elected government - it’s within the hands of the Reserve Bank - so who cares if there’s bipartisan consensus amongst the politicians?

    Plus he’s arguing for an expansionist fiscal policy in an already inflationary economy… the guy’s just a populist idiot, and he’s screaming “it’s microeconomics” to justify it.

    Posted by pache on 2007 01 25 at 03:18 PM • permalink

  17. Fuck. How about the executive summary?

    Posted by Scott W on 2007 01 25 at 03:25 PM • permalink

  18. He’s also taking a gamble that people that do bother to read the OECD and Productivity Commission reports will skim over the huge chunks that talk about how harmful Unions have been to productivity, and how things like WorkChoices are the right way to deal with this.

    Posted by Behemoth on 2007 01 25 at 03:45 PM • permalink

  19. Read every OECD report; climb every mountain…

    The ALP tries to reach for the stars, again.

    Posted by andycanuck on 2007 01 25 at 03:46 PM • permalink

  20. Krudd obviously wrote the Sophia College preamble.
    O/T Happy Australia Day youse pack o’ bastards! Arc up the barbie!

    Posted by 81Alpha on 2007 01 25 at 04:34 PM • permalink

  21. Can someone stick a fork in Kruddy. He’s acting like a sausage and it is Australia Day!

    Posted by curious george on 2007 01 25 at 05:27 PM • permalink

  22. Wonk? More like wank. By a wunt.

    Posted by boxofmatches on 2007 01 25 at 05:41 PM • permalink

  23. Never vote for anybody who doesn’t speak plain English.

    Posted by surfmaster on 2007 01 25 at 06:16 PM • permalink

  24. No big deal.
    I flush one of those things through an ‘S’ bend every day.

    Posted by Do not beat around the Dubya on 2007 01 25 at 06:24 PM • permalink

  25. #17
    Forget the executive summary.  Wait for Maxine to cough up the Monarch Notes.

    Posted by lotocoti on 2007 01 25 at 06:31 PM • permalink

  26. Jeepers: this stuff makes me nostalgic for the gem-like clarity of knowledge nation.

    Posted by cuckoo on 2007 01 25 at 06:46 PM • permalink

  27. Rudd seems to have perfected the art of circular breathing whilst talking.  Amazing.

    Posted by duncanm on 2007 01 25 at 06:52 PM • permalink

  28. Where does it say productivity is the responsibility of government?

    Here’s a hint for Krudd: Want to improve productivity? Fire a portion of government employees—the same output with fewer employees is an automatic boost to government productivity.

    Clueless ignoramous. But reduce that wonkish jargon to clever sound bites, and he’s likely to convince a lot of numbsculls that productivity is part of the agenda.

    Posted by Forbes on 2007 01 25 at 06:56 PM • permalink

  29. Jeez. I think I’ll print that out and keep it by my bedside for those nights when I have trouble sleeping.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2007 01 25 at 07:12 PM • permalink

  30. Two thing worry me about this utterance:

    1. His mouth and his brain are not synchronised; and,
    2. His mouth and his brain are synchronised.

    Posted by Contrail on 2007 01 25 at 07:24 PM • permalink

  31. I think all these booms come to an end and, at the end of the day, ...

      It seems this man, when talking, gets a word or phrase stuick in his brain and it repeats. That’ll explain fork

    Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 01 25 at 07:31 PM • permalink

  32. Flesch readbility scale of 25.6 (very difficult) with a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 12.

    What a man of the people!

    Literally 2% of the demi-literate graduates of our fine state education systems will be able to comprehend this.

    MarkL
    Canberra

    Posted by MarkL on 2007 01 25 at 08:39 PM • permalink

  33. Is this why Kerry dropped out of the 2008 race?  So he could write for Rudd?

    Posted by Steve Skubinna on 2007 01 25 at 09:08 PM • permalink

  34. A paragraph of bureaucratic flummery, betraying that he’s out of his depth on the subject: ‘death by PowerPoint’ by a grey man in a grey suit; the punters will be sufficiently awake to remember this joker by election time?

    Posted by egg_ on 2007 01 25 at 10:25 PM • permalink

  35. And they said Kim was prolix ...

    Posted by blogstrop on 2007 01 25 at 10:40 PM • permalink

  36. I’m glad this Kevin Rudd fella is a fan of productivity growth, much like myself.

    So I assume that he accepts the basic tenet of mainstream economics that the way to optimize productivity is to allow the economy to be absolutely as free and unfettered as possible, as government intrusion and involvement only detract from productivity.

    No doubt he’s learned from Lewis’s “The Power of Productivity” that such politically correct answers as Education are far, far less helpful than free markets, free trade, and sheer Darwinian capitalism. Glad Rudd gets it!

    Posted by Shaky Barnes on 2007 01 26 at 02:10 AM • permalink

  37. #15

    yoyimbo: Don’t cast aspersions on me like that!

    Posted by amortiser on 2007 01 26 at 09:59 AM • permalink

  38. #13 Our macro-economic polices are the same as the Coalition’s

    Is that what he was saying?  So the 10 years wasted opposing the GST was Labor’s micro economic policy?

    Posted by PeterTB on 2007 01 27 at 03:05 AM • permalink

  39. I don’t know what it is but everytime I see or hear Mr Rudd on telly, I am reminded of next door’s poodle.
    It yaps a lot too.

    Posted by waussie on 2007 01 28 at 12:10 AM • permalink

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