My Episode 15 – Podcast – Letters from the Cape – Available now.
In this episode, we consider the Australian Government’s recently released Full Employment White Paper, which aims to set the labor market policy agenda for the foreseeable future. We juxtapose this with the 1945 Full Employment White Paper, which recognized the federal government’s spending power and obligation to achieve and maintain full employment. By comparison, the 2023 version is a tawdry document that reinforces the idea that maximum employment levels are determined by estimates of the non-accelerating inflation unemployment rate, and that macroeconomic policy only tries to boost the economy Growth only leads to inflation. Unemployment fell below this level. It thus rehearses the standard orthodoxy that microeconomic policies targeting the unemployed are needed to reduce unemployment. This evasion by the Australian government is sad.
Duration: 7:48
