Just Be Thankful We’re Not in Recession

In his classic adventure novel, Glory Road, Robert Heinlein’s narrator reflects on his service in an unnamed war in South-East Asia:

It wasn’t a war – not even a “Police Action.” We were “Military Advisers.” But a Military Adviser who has been dead four days in that heat smells the same way a corpse does in a real war.

And a voter who’s facing spiralling prices on everything from a head of lettuce to a tank of petrol, while their real wages fall further and further, isn’t any better off because they’re in a “downturn” and not a “recession”.

For the past few days, Americans have been squabbling over the definition of a “recession”. For a long time, journalists have pushed the notion that two successive quarters of negative GDP is a “technical recession”. But this isn’t exactly true: there’s no hard and fast definition of a recession.

Still, all this squabbling over definitions seems petty and pointless when you’re watching the price of everything go through the roof — and the government chasing sky-dragons instead of working to fix the economy they screwed up.

Just two days into this new parliament and one wonders what planet this Albanese government is on, Sky News host Andrew Bolt says.

“Right now we have Australians getting belted by a cost of living crisis, with inflation today hitting 6.1 per cent, and rising – that means Australians are getting poorer,” Mr Bolt said.

Sky News

And what is Labor’s biggest priority in Parliament? Pushing “emissions reductions” targets — which will not only make absolutely no difference to the climate, but worsen the economic and energy crises smashing Australians right now.

Never, mind: Treasurer Jim “Zippy” Chalmers is telling us there is no recession, and don’t you believe your lyin’ bills.

Jim Chalmers has ruled out the prospect of Australia heading into a recession, as he flagged more help for pensioners in the October budget amid rising inflation.

The Treasurer will today warn the worst inflation figures in two decades, combined with stalling global growth and climbing interest rates, will slash $30bn from the economy over the next three years in a parliamentary update.

Just as well it’s not actually a recession, I guess. Then we’d might really have to worry.

But, how seriously should we take a Treasurer who moans that, “We don’t have the sort of budget to spray money around” — and with the next breath promises to beef up the bennies? “Our economic plan is about cost-of-living relief.”

Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth says the Job Seeker and pension payment will be indexed in the budget in a bid to take in rising inflation and account for cost of living pressures faced by Australians on lower incomes […]

“When it comes to Job Seeker, it will be indexed in September as we will take the pensions to take into account some of those cost of living figures. But in addition, our government is also working on reducing the costs of medicines, driving down electricity prices and addressing the cost of childcare.”

The Australian

So… taxpayer’s money, more taxpayer’s money, and — wait for it! — even more taxpayer’s money.

Oh, but of course: it’s not taxpayer’s money, it’s government money. They can always print more, right? Thomas Piketty says so!

It worked so well in Great Reset paradise Sri Lanka, after all.