Topics of conversation and ABC reporting recently include Pauline Hansen not getting into the NSW Senate with 2% of the vote, the Clubs & Gambling people screaming against Andrew Wilkie's proposal to attempt to control problem gambling and the on-going crises in Japan with the nuclear facility at Fukushima. News that Portugal's economy needs bailing out, the rise of the Aussie $ compared to the sinking of the US $ and other financial woes including the Resource Rent Tax and Carbon Tax are simmering away sometimes making the headlines, sometimes not.
Is this symptomatic of the conflict with the "Nanny" State ie large, interventionist, regulatory Government telling the business world that they must control their behaviour to enable social needs of equality, social support, and long-term environmental improvement? This website says yes!
Or are the forces of business - endless growth, consumerism, jobs at any cost to environment or social needs gaining the upper hand again after a brief lull with the GFC? (hands out and begging)
My reading this month has included Joseph Stiglitz "Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy", Loretta Napoleoni's" Rogue Economics", Andrew Leigh's "Disconnected", "History's Greatest Deceptions" by Eric Chaline.
As the New York Times article on Joseph Stiglitz book comments "ersatz capitalism, the privatizing of gains and the socializing of losses".
Books can give a larger view of whats happening than a 3 minute TV news clip, 1 page internet link or 5 minute radio interview. What do you think?
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Greenstone Girl