Ozonomics by Andrew Charlton – Book Review and Quotes
September 29th, 2007 • Australia, Economics, Noteworthy, Opinion, Political
My awesome wife got me Ozonomics by Andrew Charlton for my birthday and I found it quite interesting. Charlton takes a look at Australia’s economic history to determine who/what is responsible for the boom times we are currently experiencing. Along the way he explains some economics, makes you laugh and blows away the myths being propagated by the Liberal Party. At only 200 pages it’s a bit short for my liking, though it did make a quick and easy read. The content may not be mindblowing for those in the know, but it is handy to inform people like me who need some of these ‘hard facts’ for when relatives and friends trot out the old furphy about how bad interests were under Labor. With an election looming bursting these myths is more important then ever, Howard and Costello have done a tremendous marketing job so that most of the electorate (even those voting Labor) still have more faith in the Liberals running the economy. It’s a bit scary to think how well the propaganda has worked, especially when contrasted against the history presented in Ozonomics.
The second half of the book is certainly the most interesting, as Charlton outlines some of Australia’s political history. The politics, lies and deceitfulness over Liberal economic rhetoric is astounding. Whether it’s debt, interest rates or the budget surplus, the Libs consistently outplayed Labor by misrepresenting economic policy and Australia’s economic position. It’s imperative anyone interested in Australian politics, or is planning to have a meaningful vote this election, reads up on this stuff. If we don’t know our history we are bound to repeat it.
Now for some good quotes:
Scrolling back through the breaking-news archive of the last few days reveals that the dollar has been on a veritable rollercoaster ride…but all these urgent stories, on closer inspection, are utterly insignificant…But fortunately, non-economists take no notice because they don’t know enough about financial markets to make any sense of this information, and economists know enough to realise there is no sense in it…Economic information like this isn’t informative.
Nobody knows if there is a strong link between productivity and industrial relations systems. The truth is that there are probably lots of contradictory effects…The real argument against the removal of workers’ rights is much simpler. Job security is its own reward. In a society as rich as ours, there is no reason to remove the right of workers to challenge their employers if they are treated in way that is unjust, unfair or unreasonable.
the truth is that Dick Smith is one of a long line of Australian businessmen who want their own profits to be shielded from foreign competition at the expense of the Australian consumer. He is using fear of foreign ownership to whip up a lot of free advertising for this business
China is producing 442,000 new graduates [in engineering] every year. That’s almost twice as many as the total number of Australian graduates per year in all disciplines. And at the same time, the Howard Government has reduced funding to Australian universities.
While richer people tend to be happier than poorer people, wealth does not improve society’s happiness as a whole.
It simply wasn’t true to assert…that mortgage rates under Labor governments are always higher than under the Conservatives. The standard mortgage rate in the Whitlam years averaged 8.5 per cent, while in the Fraser years…it was 11 per cent.
At his campaign launch Howard described debt as the most important indicator of a government’s economic credibility…However, more than ten years after Howard was elected…Australia’s net foreign debt has grown almost threefold, to $522 billion
Can Peter Costello say that he sees no way to invest in Australia’s future? In a country where our physical infrastructure…is woefully inadequate, this cannot be the case.
Other reviews by: Larvatus Prodeo and the Hipprocratic Economist.
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