Fine but the examples of Venezuela and Zimbabwe need to be viewed on their facts. They're used as a bogeyman as if varying from the orthodoxy of balanced budgets will drive us over this cliff.
The facts don't support this contention but people respond well to fear. They elect governments out of fear. But it's not as if those facts are going to be repeated here. Let alone in the US which has enormous productive capacity.
The reality is that the US has long had a
trade embargo on Venezuela crippling that economy, which also is
very petroleum dependent.You have a collapse of the petroleum price, well under way before Covid-19 and you have a recipe for disaster. Especially as the wealthy were making themselves scarce for tax raising.
The principle is that governments of
fundamentally healthy economies can certainly issue money and trade their way out of trouble.
The absolute need for balanced budgets is a furphy, it's only even a relative need in relation to the productive capacity of that nation, along with the ability to raise taxes. We have a taxation problem here and it needs to be solved. Too many companies are evading taxes and minimising them, and too many people who are high earners minimise tax.
Australia has been captive to the false emergency of balancing the books each budget round. Fear-based campaigns worked. Now we can see them for what they were and ar.
Now that a serious economic emergency exists, they no option but to throw out the rulebook on balanced budgets.
It's fun watching them squirm. The only other way is a complete breakdown of the social fabric. Something that not even the moneyed elite can bear to contemplate.
What we DO need to revise is the policy on energy. It's absurd that Australia is the biggest exporter of LNG in the world and YET manages to have the highest domestic prices for gas, this cripples local industry. Then you have Chevron, which is part owner of the biggest gas operation in Australian controlled locations, basically pulling out.
https://www.copyright link/companies/energy/chevron-seeks-exit-from-34b-nwshelf-venture-20200618-p553xqAustralia has to revise it's energy policy and make cheap gas available so that we can develop industries here. It's axiomatic that a nation wealthy in natural resources should have a cheap domestic supply. That also applies to electricity although the policy elements are far more complex and we need to shift to where we are wealthy: solar energy. Coal is ridiculous. Everyone knows that except hard headed coal producers and workers. The latter are a depleted group.
