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Economics: about as scientific as astrology

Tory Maguire

by Tory Maguire

06 Jun 02:59pm

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Filed under: Economy, Gdp, Joe Hockey, Politics, Unemployment, Wayne Swan

64 comments

We might as well put today’s “stunning” set of economic figures down to the Transit of Venus. At least we knew that was coming.

Oh mighty sun god, what is in store for our mining boom? Picture: AP

As Lucy explained to us yesterday, while rafts of economists were split three ways on what the RBA would do with interest rates: “Astrologically speaking the Transit of Venus symbolises a time of hope and optimism, and many believe will signal the end of a particularly bad patch of economic woes.”

And then today, as Venus made it’s wondrous progress across the face of the sun, Wayne Swan got to gloat about a set of economic indicators no-one foresaw.

It turns out we’re not just OK. We’re FANTASTIC!

Well, everyone except Joe Hockey, who was trying to find the dark side this afternoon in economic growth of 1.3 per cent.

As the debate immediately descended into a race to label the other side the economic bogeyman, Hockey said the “scariest thing in Australia is Wayne Swan”.

“Wayne Swan doesn’t exude confidence. He is not someone who, if you were in the trenches and he blew the whistle, that you’d readily jump over the top for.”

Typical Leo.

I wonder what Jonathan Cainer thinks the RBA will do next month?

Most commented

64 comments

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    • Grey says:

      03:07pm | 06/06/12

      It can depend on how the numbers are arrived at.  For example, the unemployment figures are the result of survey and hence have margin of error just like an opinion poll.  Individual numbers of can bounce around a little.

      Reply

    • St. Michael says:

      03:14pm | 06/06/12

      Couple of things about economics as popularly reported:

      (1) Only infrequently are you contemporaneously given the full equation required to work out whether something is economically good or bad.  This is partially why economics is much better at reasoning out economic disasters post facto, but few people except the “extremists” see them coming ahead of time.

      (2) You can be guaranteed that a government will not tell you the truth about a nation’s economy, whether successful or not.  Partially it’s because of a lack of real information; even CPI is at best a guess, not an accurate price index to the goods every individual consumer may need or want.  Partially it’s because governments will always beat up economies as doing better than they are because to do otherwise is to throw yourself out of office.  Overly successful economies will also not be the subject of accurate reporting, because it draws attention to how inefficient government is and how highly it taxes people.

      (3) Economics has more to do with relativity than astrology: where you are economically is liable to misinterpretation based on the position of the observer.  What’s good for the government is often not what’s good for the country.  And needless to say what’s good for the country is not that often terribly what’s good for the government, either.

      For example, as I keep saying, economic indicators not as crap as the rest of the world is no real reason to get cocky about having a superawesome economy.  If it makes one happy to crow about being the turd floating at the top of the toilet tank while the others are lying at the bottom, go ahead.  Just don’t expect your optimism to mean that much when that toilet gets flushed because of how badly the rest of the shit in the bowl stinks.

      Reply

    • TerryTiger says:

      05:39pm | 06/06/12

      I saw words but all I read was excuses from someone who doesn’t want to acknowledge Wayne Swan as a great treasurer. He puts Costello to shame. But you wouldn’t know from all the excuses coming from LNP hacks.

      Well done Wayne. You’re a ripper treasurer.

    • year of the dragon says:

      06:04pm | 06/06/12

      TerryTiger says:05:39pm | 06/06/12

      “I saw words but all I read was excuses from someone who doesn’t want to acknowledge Wayne Swan as a great treasurer. He puts Costello to shame. But you wouldn’t know from all the excuses coming from LNP hacks.

      Well done Wayne. You’re a ripper treasurer.”

      The scary thing is I think that you actually believe this.

      Wayne Swan inherited a gold-plated balance sheet courtesy of Costello.

      Had he inherited a balance sheet in similar condition that of the UK or USA, Australia would be in deep, deep shit.

    • Austin 3:16 says:

      06:42pm | 07/06/12

      If Swan had inherited a banking system like the US or UK then we’d be in it deep.

      But thanks to Hawke / Keating / Howard he didn’t

    • Slim says:

      03:17pm | 06/06/12

      That’s an insult to Astrology.

      Reply

    • M says:

      03:46pm | 06/06/12

      As venus moves away from the solar line point, expect less articles comparing Astrology to other, lesser sciences.

    • sunny says:

      06:00pm | 06/06/12

      Economics is much simpler than Astrology, there are 12 signs of the zodiac but only two signs of the economy - the Bull and the Bear.

      ..ok sometimes a third sign is needed - the Frog That’s Floating Belly Up Down The Creek smile

    • Shane From Melbourne says:

      03:17pm | 06/06/12

      Economics cannot be a science. Economics essentially is about how humans value things which is purely subjective. Science is objective.

      Reply

    • MarkS says:

      03:28pm | 06/06/12

      Economics is basically special form of sociology. It has all the faults of sociology; it’s not real science. But calling it astrology is a little unfair. At least it attempts to have a rational explanation for its predictions.

    • Gordon says:

      05:22pm | 06/06/12

      It has maths, and observation, and recording, all of which is (or can be at least) objective and rigorous, but the human factor is notoriously squishy and hard to interpret. It does better at explaning the past than predicting the future.

      ...unlike climate modelling, which of course we all know is a veritable Rock of certainty (ducks)

    • Joan says:

      03:19pm | 06/06/12

      The likes of Gina, Palmer, Twiggy and mining companies gave the boost - nothing to do with Swan we all know that except Swan. The man is a laugh - totally delusional and thinks he is responsible for growth in some way. Swan policies responsible for thousands of jobs lost in Victoria, manufacturing down turn, housing price slide, retail sales downturn, high utility prices etc - Swan and Gillard policies can take credit for that - the voters know they are not on the miners gravy train and they know its mining and not Swan thats keepin the nation going..  Swan and Gillard totally deluded as always. - not fooling anyone but themselves.

      Reply

    • Sharon says:

      03:40pm | 06/06/12

      Joan

      I wrote earlier that Swanny was cooing and wooing - stunning figures he says. He lost all credibility though when he couldn’t talk it up without the usual Abbott attack.

      What is it with this lot even when they have good news to their advantage they can’t help themselves but attack Abbott as if to give them the confidence and the vigour to keep going? Could it be the Thomson stench, the carbon tax lie and even the attack of one of their own ( Rudd ) is taking its toil and sapping every bit of oxygen out of them? More bad and very little good!

    • Thomas says:

      03:43pm | 06/06/12

      Speaking of fooling yourself, you reckon the Government are responsible for anything bad that happens, yet somehow have nothing to do with anything good that happens. Now, that is delusional.

    • MK says:

      03:49pm | 06/06/12

      Please, enlighten us mere mortals:
      1) Which “Swan and Gillard policies” have contributed to a housing price slide?
      2) Which “Swan and Gillard policies” have contributed more to the manufacturing and retail downturn than the high Australian dollar and post-GFC lack of consumer confidence?

    • Roberta says:

      03:53pm | 06/06/12

      Joan – I read recently that mining employs less than 2% of Australians and that it accounts for less than 10% of GDP.
       
      So obviously a lot of the fat is going to the folks at the top of the mining heap.

      But it’s a bit of a long stretch to accord all of the country’s growth figures to just mining.

    • Blind Freddy says:

      04:00pm | 06/06/12

      It was so clever of Gina, Palmer and Twiggy to bury all of those mineral resources in the outback and then go dig them up.

    • Rosie says:

      04:02pm | 06/06/12

      Joan

      No worries, she’ll be right mate the sky hasn’t fallen in and the nation should be gloating because the good news belongs to all Australians. Remember Swan the Federal treasurer and Gillard the PM kept reminding the nation that the mineral sources belong to all Australians. This good news was made possible because of the mining companies good management in mining our mineral resources, the Rhineharts, the Palmers, the Twiggy Forrests. Poor Swan taking the credit for being the treasurer of the worst govt in our political history!

      Well it is not yet a cobra strike and not even a python squeeze but already the cash handouts, borrowed from the nation’s credit card have been distributed and in some cases have been already spent to pay off personal credit cards.

    • Fantastic says:

      04:11pm | 06/06/12

      Oh dear, poor old Joan. Totally engrossed in the doom, gloom, utter fabrications and outright lies spewed forth the T Abbott and Alan Jones ad nauseum. The facts speaks for themselves Joan.
      5% unemployment. Low interest rates. Low inflation. A booming economy. A huge pipeline of investment. The Australian economy is the envy of the world Joan and will stay that way for some time to come no matter how badly yourself and the likes of Tea Bag Tony’s supporters would love to see otherwise. If a booming economy, managed by the World’s Greatest Treasurer is so tough for you Joan may I suggest Greece or Spain for you.

    • Rosie says:

      04:21pm | 06/06/12

      MK

      This good news is only worthy the kind of debate we are going to get if the Govt didn’t stink to high heaven. The media will be using it to play out the Govt and the Opposition. At the end of day, it is only natural any Govt would want to take credit for this kind of good news. In this case we know that Swan and Gillard have nothing to take credit for.

      Roberta

      Our mineral resources play a major factor in today’s economic climate. Lucky for us we had good reforms in place by previous Govts. I really don’t think it is going to make any difference in consumer confidence because of what is happening globally. We are still going to be wary.

    • Super Fantastic says:

      04:37pm | 06/06/12

      Yes Joan, and don’t forget that the World’s Greatest Treasurer and the entire Labor government is also stating the Mining boom is having an impact on earnings (though not nearly as much as you think…the fact is, all State earnings for the first quarter are wel lup across multiple industries), and that due to the boom in mining revenues we should introduce a mining tax included with a reduction in company tax!
      What a brilliant idea that is! Or at least it would be to anyone with half a clue. Alas, we have Tea Bag Tony screaming no, no, no!! to something with as much common sense even as this.

    • Jinx says:

      04:38pm | 06/06/12

      Fantastic says:04:11pm | 06/06/12 “managed by the World’s Greatest Treasurer”

      Yeah Fantastic - by the same magazine that voted Lehmans the best company before it went down in flames - you must be taking the piss -

    • Swingdog says:

      04:51pm | 06/06/12

      Such bitter tears.

    • Mitch says:

      05:04pm | 06/06/12

      We’d obviously all be better off letting the holy trinity of Gina, Twiggs and Palmsy run the country. After all they are very good at selling dirt to China.

    • Terence says:

      08:36am | 07/06/12

      As usual Joan has hit the nail on the head!
      It’s mining which is keeping Australia’s head above water, and these morons we have running this Country can only sit back take credit for something they are trying their hardest to distroy!  All they are doing is placing more strain on the economy by imposing red tape or scaring off investment with their do nothing for the environment carbon tax.

    • Rosie says:

      08:38am | 07/06/12

      Joan was correct in that we are faced with all this things; “yep its all about deflation -retail cutting prices, house prices sliding - everyone cutting prices to make a dollar - except utilities soaring to the moon courtesy Swan Gillard policies.”

      What has Wayne Swan done to be credited for these GDP stunning numbers that any Govt of the day would have done? The mining and carbon tax haven’t yet kicked off. Has it anything to do with the cash handouts of borrowed money from the nation’s credit card? To easy any Govt would have done it.

      Ironically the day Swan gets to claim good news for his Govt, the Thomson saga gets more bizarre and rotten. Talk about the Venus luck that came and went for Swan on Wednesday, 6th of June, 2012.

      Oh yes the Gillard Govt can’t even claim the good management of the last GFC because it belongs to Rudd and they hate Rudd! LOL!

    • PJKing says:

      03:20pm | 06/06/12

      With all the confusion in this political climate the problem was everyone and anyone became an economist. It added to the confusion and yes Wayne Swan had the right to gloat because he is the federal treasurer of today’s Government. However, I think he had the cheek to take all the credit because smart people know that it had a lot to do with the mining companies mining our mineral resources and the reforms of previous governments. Swan should explain why the attack on the Australian mining magnate?

      Like Joe Hockey said; imagine if this government was a good government without their renowned stuff ups,  Australia would be even in a better position. Imagine if Gillard had not lied to the people about the carbon tax and lost their trust, Tony Abbott would have been struggling to keep up with this Labor government and definitely a challenge would have been on to which party was going to win government.

      If the economy is so good why the cash handouts just before the carbon tax is introduced? Borrowed cash from the nation’s credit card to be handed out! Please someone make sense of it.

      Reply

    • Blind Freddy says:

      04:02pm | 06/06/12

      So it’s OK to blame Swan for everything that goes wrong but give him no credit when things go good?

    • PJKing says:

      04:29pm | 06/06/12

      Blind Freddy

      Poor Swan he may have been given a bit of credit if he wasn’t the treasurer of the worst government and the worst PM in Australia’s political history.

      Venus must have brought Swan some luck! Luck that will last until the Elections would be good I would imagine!

    • Blind Freddy says:

      03:22pm | 06/06/12

      Hockey: All gravity and no gravitas.

      Reply

    • NigelC says:

      03:48pm | 06/06/12

      You should be on stage ... as a janitor.

    • Young One says:

      06:29pm | 06/06/12

      Nigel
      You need to stir the lentil soup. It’s starting to stick to the bottom of the pot.

    • Nick Firth says:

      05:13am | 07/06/12

      Hockey; All gravy and no grits

    • Steve says:

      03:29pm | 06/06/12

      Governments always tout positive data as their accomplishment and oppositions always blame negative data on government incompetence.

      In reality, Governments should share equal praise/blame for good/poor data as their policies contribute to the data, but aren’t ever the only reason.

      Anyone barracking for one side of politics over the other is useless. They are not football teams.

      It always seems a conflict that oppositions (of whatever stripe)  have a vested interest in seeing the nation and its economy do poorly as that enhance their electoral chances.

      Wayne Swan and Joe Hockey are the two biggest idiots running around (and there are plenty of candidates in this current parliament).

      Neither side offers differing positive versions of the future, just different negative versions of those opposite.

      And economists are basically fortune tellers. They don’t really use scientific process to come up with their “estimates”. ABS data in itself is an estimate within a given confidence interval, but at least they use scientific process to come up with results. Economists are decent at explaining why they were wrong though while not admitting it.

      Reply

    • Dan says:

      03:30pm | 06/06/12

      Economics and science are opposites. Economics is about trying to generalise the behaviour of over 6 billion people battling for resources that are often unknown in quantity. Science is about the fundamental rules that are basically constant regardless of when or where you are. Things like gravity, evolution, electricity.

      Science thrives on exceptions to the rule because it means that the rule may not be right all the time. Science limits the variables in its experiments to one so that it can understand that variable completely. You try that in a global economy! Economics doesn’t expect to be right all the time, just that it will get pretty close to the average when 6 billion plus humans make their own decisions.

      Both disciplines are useful when used properly.

      Reply

    • Alex says:

      03:30pm | 06/06/12

      The slow down occured in April and has accelerated since, these figures mean nothing. Also the gdp result was increased by price deflation which is a result of a weakening ecomomy and massive price reductions. Australian citizens are deleveraging their massive household debt load during a mining investment boom, its a tricky time for economists.
      You are either in mining or struggling

      Reply

    • Joan says:

      06:31pm | 06/06/12

      Alex - yep its all about deflation -retail cutting prices, house prices sliding - everyone cutting prices to make a dollar - except utilities soaring to the moon courtesy Swan Gillard policies. RBA interest rate drop means things ain’t as hunky dory as Swan makes out.  Some laughable commentator said it was a pub, bar, club, cafe,  big spend that inflated figures. If that is right then Gillard handouts are financing people to get fat, boozed , to blunt out current dispondency felt by most - hardly the smart Australia.

    • Nick Firth says:

      04:55am | 07/06/12

      What slowdown? price reductions? The only problem with the economy is consumer confidence.  That’s whats explaining the sales, price slashing etc. .  If Abott, Hockey and co. could just stop frightening the horses, more people would feel happier about the future, and dollars will flow into the service side of the economy.  Really, things aren’t that gloomy in Oz, and believe it or not, shopowners don’t really like selling their goods for peanuts.  And please, if you feel the urge to comment on economic issues, find a good textbook - and read it

    • Budz says:

      03:36pm | 06/06/12

      The problem with economics as a whole from my point of view is the assumption that people are rational, as the assumptions that are used are based on how people should behave, but they just don’t do that. And this makes those assumptions useless. It’s still the best way to predict what may happen in the future, and until there is a better way, this is all we have.

      Reply

    • Dan says:

      03:51pm | 06/06/12

      I agree. To some extent economics is a reflection of psychology’s failings

    • Richard says:

      03:59pm | 06/06/12

      Yes, everyone’s saying these figures are stunning. And the fact is, they are stunning. Absolutely stunning. In fact, its unbelievable. Seriously, I don’t believe the numbers. And I predict they will be revised downwards in the next quarter (i.e., the statisticians, after looking at with a bit of hindsight, will say “oh no, the economy actually only grew at 1.2%” or something, which is actually pretty common).

      But even still, with Australia’s growth rate now soaring to well over 4%, why has the RBA been slashing interest rates lately? Honestly, if they had half a brain between them they’d have RAISED interest rates over the last 2 months, not slashed them. When are people going to learn that ZIRP or close to ZIRP is precisely THE worst monetary policy possible, and that interest rates need to be >5% at least in order to safeguard the economy.

      Reply

    • dancan says:

      04:10pm | 06/06/12

      I don’t care how much interest rates come down.  If the normal house/apartment price is still inflated by 50k-100k thereby putting most out of my price range, saving an extra $20 per week on a loan that I don’t have doesn’t do squat

      Reply

    • Landlord says:

      04:40pm | 06/06/12

      When rates go up I jack my rent. When they come down I leave it.

    • dancan says:

      08:51pm | 06/06/12

      curse you landlord.  thy art my mortal enemy

    • Mike says:

      10:52pm | 06/06/12

      The correct word is “thou”, but more importantly, you look at all the forecasts for the dollar or the ASX in six months time from all the financial institutions, brokers, fund managers etc. and you will receive as many (and widely differing) numbers.

      No one really knows.

    • world class economic results says:

      04:55pm | 06/06/12

      Today’s “world class economic figures” are due to the world class Gillard Government’s economic management !
      Remember Tony Abbott is not interested in economics and environment as he finds them boring .

      Reply

    • I know says:

      06:32pm | 06/06/12

      Hockey and Robb have trouble with big numbers
      They recently lost 70 billion dollars.

    • Monty says:

      04:59pm | 06/06/12

      The current eonomic theories that are in vogue in powerful circles tend to be very unscientific and use complex mathematical models that bare little resemblance to reality and the way humans and society in general work. When economists lose their love affair with mathematics and start treating their discipline as more of a “social science” that has more in common with social studies and psychology than real science, then we might start seeing some economic practices and predictions that reflect the real world.

      Reply

    • Millsy says:

      05:08pm | 06/06/12

      Hockey would have trouble climbing out of the trenches, let alone making it over the top. The only thing lightweight about him is his knowledge of economics.

      Reply

    • thatmosis says:

      05:23pm | 06/06/12

      Swanny has got to get his gloat in now because the carbon Tax has yet ti impact on the Australian figures. Lets wait and see what the next couple of sets of figures reveal before we get to enthusiastic.
      As Joe said just imagine where Australia would be if we had a Government that knew what it was doing!!!!!!!!!

      Reply

    • Nick Firth says:

      05:08am | 07/06/12

      Yes, the Pillars of Western Civilisation Will Surely Tremble Cometh the First of July!! Listen, Joe says a lot of things, of which a small percentage correlates with what you and l know of as reality.  I personally think this Opposition is probably the worst we could possibly have visited apon us.  Probably the first in living memory that requires the goverment of the day to keep them honest,as opposed to the normal construct.  That laughable performance in Question Time the other day, where they all ran to the exits in a group denial of democracy, put the seal on that mob.

    • Dismayed says:

      05:26pm | 06/06/12

      I think we can see that Australians are just whingers plain and simple who want a Government to tell them that only under us can you survive. We had 12 years of Howard doing it now the whingeing sheep want to install Abbott and Barnaby Joyce. Yes that will surely improve things. WAKE UP we have it pretty good here. Stop whingeing you wankers.

      Reply

    • Richard says:

      06:43pm | 06/06/12

      Fair go gov, we only had 11 years of Howard, and by the time the next election arrives we’ll have had 6 years of Rudd/Gillard/Swan, which is a fairly decent innings.

      The fact is, the government is not really all that responsible for the economy. Sure, it can harm the economy with bonehead policy, but the government is not responsible for economic growth in the slightest. Its not like Wayne Swan is sitting in a central control bunker pushing buttons and pulling levers and making the economy run.

      The economy is run by self-interested individuals and groups of individuals pursuing their own ends in a legitimate, commercial fashion. That’s what drives economic growth. Government’s role is incidental, in that it can only harm the economy, by putting inappropriate taxes in place or increasing bureaucratic red-tape or promoting inefficient industrial relations policies.

      But it can’t HELP economic growth, except by reversing those factors I just mentioned (i.e. cutting taxes, reducing red-tape, and increasing workplace flexibility and efficiency).

      Unfortunately, despite this one off good result on our GDP figures, our current government is nevertheless hopelessly incompetent, and needs to be dispatched. The Beef Ban debacle, the Australia Network Tender corruption, the Roy Hill squabble, the Burning Batts fiasco, and a host of other cock-ups can’t be swept under the carpet.

    • Thomas says:

      06:50pm | 06/06/12

      Incorrect all we want is a good government governing for the people and not one making out they are governing when all they are doing is to win government against Tony Abbott and remain in power for another 3 years after this term. God forbid!

      Dismayed in just over 1week this government has had two good things happen to it, the migration of foreign workers to work in the mines and now today’s good news. They should be talking it up without having to attack Tony Abbott and fight the Unions. In both cases it is their fault for having introduced the class warfare and playing the blame game on everyone else except themselves. One minute the economy is rosy and the next minute they are blaming the economy for their incompetency to deliver with confidence to the people what they believe is good for them and the nation’s future. Added to all their stuff ups, they have the stench of the Speaker of the Parliament, Slipper and the member of Dobell, Thomson who lies to the nation every time he opens his mouth.

      If they had not knifed Rudd, Tony Abbott wouldn’t be in the position he is in now. It would have been a challenge for his party to win Government.

    • year of the dragon says:

      06:07pm | 06/06/12

      As a discipline, economics is no more flawed than any of the other sciences that attempt to forecast the future including medicine (which of our eminent medical scientists forecasted the swine flu), geology (there’s a whole topic of it’s own), sociology and more.

      Reply

    • mikem says:

      07:27pm | 06/06/12

      Thoughts of Abbott and Costello as a Liberal duo with comic potential always brought a wry smile to my face.  Unfortunately that didn’t come to pass and instead we have Abbott and Hockey.  Whilst not as good they have had their comic moments.

      Reply

    • Cynical economist says:

      08:14pm | 06/06/12

      Tory

      What you speak of is the mirky works of macro-economics as it is undertaken by the people who tend to work in the financial sector. These people are a special breed of economists that have largely forgotten everything they learned at university and now look for trends in partial data and tell us in very certain terms what is about to happen. This is about as scientific as reading the tea leaves.

      To the economists that work in other fields, applying much more rigour, and being honest about the uncertainty in our work, we see the guys on TV as grossly overpaid charlatans. The rest of you should do the same.

      Reply

    • NESLIHAN KUROSAWA says:

      09:54pm | 06/06/12

      Hi Tory,

      It is very interesting that you should mention astrology to help us with out daily struggles as well as helping us making us ends meet financially.  Does that mean that it is written in the stars?  So that we could be more hopeful and feel more optimistic about our future?  Well surely it would not hurt at this stage, simply because we all could use a little bit of good news about our economic future, whether it happens to be social or personal!

      After all the doom and gloom and more bad economic news in other parts of the world, should we also be concerned about things like interest rates and our living standards slipping in Australia?  Of course and rightly so!  Anything more than I guess that we have to just keep on reading our stars in the Daily Telegraph by Jonathan Cainer and my all time favourite person Yasmin Boland. 

      We all know the power of “mind over matter” and any kind of good and cheerful astrological news could also be very powerful, indeed.  So when we have any serious concerns about the interest rates and our future, instead of waiting for the decision of Reserve Bank of Australia,  we simply have to look to the stars for all the right answers, may be?  Kind regards to your editors.

      Reply

    • Craig says:

      05:27am | 07/06/12

      The image of Venus in front of the sun accurately represents the statistical regard in which Hockey’s economic credentials are held versus Swan (Swan being the sun).

      However it also represents the level of respect that is held by the community for the Labor party after all their gaffes and own goals (Labor being Venus).

      Labor can’t even hold onto died on supporters anymore. If Abbott wasn’t such a slimy, two-faced git - a viable alternative - Labor support would be in single digits.

      Reply

    • old fart says:

      07:08am | 07/06/12

      What has astrology got to do with the transit of venus? Apart from the fact that the writer seems to think it has something to do with it.  Events such as yesterdays transit are ASTRONOMICAL events not ASTROLOGICAL events which are hocus pocus, the latin term for bullshit a term shared with economics.  A previous contributer is correct economics are sociologically based therefore not really scientifically based

      Reply

    • youdy beaudy says:

      08:35am | 07/06/12

      All these complaints from a pile of whingers who bad luck for us all woke up this morning. Yes, whingers, the sun came up again and you opened your eyes and raced to whinge on the punch. What a miserable life you must all have, poor things. Down to your last brass razoo are you all?.

      Well, economics for me is seeing how much change i can bring back from the shops or garage, and see that my dollar over the howard years has lost its buying power and you get bugger all for it. Yes, howard, costello and abbott were able during their golden rule to totally overinflate the price of housing and anything else that went along with all that.

      It’s a bit crook when you have to give your Grandchildren 10 dollars or more pocket money so the littlies can afford to buy themselves a lolly from the shop. My mother gave me two bob and it went a damn side further i can tell you and the older people will know what i am writing about there.

      So, economics, well, blah to that. What about making the dollar go further, now that would be good economics for most of us. We ordinary folk don’t worry about the big economics just the day to day buy nothing for your money economy. And where does the blame lie.

      I don’t think that the Liberal Party and their cohort whingers could do anything to improve the current economic results that Labor have created. Remember that they have been in charge of the Economy for a few years now and are going well according to the people who know, not necessaraly the instant economists that write in here on the punch. Go figure.! However i will go now and let you whingers get back to it.! God, some mothers do ave em, don’t they.!

      Reply

    • Luke says:

      08:45am | 07/06/12

      Sorry, (and I am a Coalition supporter) BUT Joe Hockey needs to be taken out of his Treasury portfolio and replaced with either Turnbull or Sinodinos.
      Joe does no favours to the Coalition in this role.
      I cringe every time he opens his mouth. Nice bloke, BUT credible? nup.

      Reply

    • Richard says:

      09:54am | 07/06/12

      I’m a Coalition supporter too, and I back Joe Hockey for Treasurer. Costello has his back too. He is ideologically at his core a pretty staunch small government libertarian free market advocate, moreso than anyone else in the opposition, so I am really happy to have him as the potential alternate Treasurer.

      Turnbull and Sinodinos in my opinion are both more suited to the Finance portfolio (which was incidentally Hockey’s old portfolio at one stage). Turnbull is also an excellent communications minister in my opinion, he runs rings around Conroy.

      Robb is a poor performer in my opinion, and I would can definitely see Sinodinos is his current portfolio at some stage.

    • sunny says:

      02:16pm | 07/06/12

      Abbott and Hockey in charge of the economy? That would be like putting Laurel and Hardy in charge of the economy!

 
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