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Articles from En Passant

Fix the budget deficit – tax the rich

April 29, 2013 - 21:09 -- Admin

So the obvious has become a reality. Australia’s predicted tax revenue is short $12 bn.

My prediction earlier in the year that the Budget deficit could be up to $20 bn looks on track. Of course now that Gillard has said nothing is ruled out, the actual budget deficit itself will be less than that as Labor makes us suffer death by a thousand cuts.

Austerity economics: If I use an umbrella, will it lead to rain?

April 28, 2013 - 20:37 -- Admin

One of the many puzzles about the economic crisis is that people still listen to economists writes Alex Callinicos in Socialist Worker UK. Even the queen noticed that the economics profession failed to anticipate the financial crash of 2007-08. Indeed, the mathematical models constructed by mainstream economists effectively ruled out such a crash as impossible.

Saturday’s socialist speak out

April 27, 2013 - 08:57 -- Admin

Multi-billionaire Clive Palmer, one of Australia’s richest men, has set up a political party, the United Australia Party. If the name sounds vaguely familiar that’s because it was a party formed in 1931 by dissident Labor members and conservatives. They united against Labor’s Depression policies and for austerity to address the Depression, and in 1932 former Labor minister Joe Lyons led the party to victory. He governed for 7 years, to be followed by Bob Menzies.

Lest we forget: the war against Aborigines has never ended

April 25, 2013 - 11:32 -- Admin

ANZAC Day is about forgetting. Who remembers that Gallipoli was a defeat? That a number of returning soldiers, scarred by the reality of war and what they had experienced, became socialists and communists to fight for a society where war no longer existed?

Who remembers that revolutions in Russia and then Germany ended the First World War?

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