economics

WASHINGTON — At an impromptu news conference this week, Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, lamented the “shell games” and “budget gimmicks” he said his party was using to artificially reduce the $1.85 trillion price tag of the spending bill moving through Congress, saying the real cost was probably double that amount.

“This is a recipe for economic crisis,” Mr. Manchin warned, suggesting that he would not support a bill without understanding its potential impact on the economy.

DT...

When Scott Morrison fronted the travelling media at a stopover in Dubai on his way home, he looked drained. Here was a man in need of a steaming hot bath, and a big political reset.

 

Interruption from Gus here: No Ms Grattan, what Scott Saucisson needs is a few kicks up the arse and a boot out the door... Anything else is cajoling. Anyway Ms Grattan continues:

 

He's presumably had the opportunity for the former; he and his advisers will be mulling over the latter for a long while yet. It's not an easy assignment, especially when it involves issues of integrity.

spoof...Cancelling Terry Gilliam because some theatre staff don’t like his opinions is pathetic

 

Gilliam was set to stage the musical ‘Into The Woods’ next year, but the production has now been shelved, after staff at London’s Old Vic objected to his views on trans issues and the #MeToo movement.

It might be the funniest movie scene of all time, but it’d never get past the cultural thought police these days. No way.

morrison is deceitful...

Scott Morrison is crap.

 

gasoline

US President Joe Biden told reporters at a Wednesday speaking event that the passage of his hefty spending bill could've “maybe” helped elect Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia gubernatorial race.

liar

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said he will "treat all former Prime Ministers with respect" following an extraordinary broadside from predecessor Malcolm Turnbull in which he was called a liar.

 

The PM is currently in Dubai en-route to Australia after attending the COP26 summit in Glasgow where the French delegation claimed Mr Morrison lied to them about Australia's plans to scrap a $90 billion submarine deal.

 

When asked about Mr Turnbull's comment, Mr Morrison refused to be drawn into a tit-for-tat commentary.

 

belching

The Biden administration’s global initiative to cut methane emissions by 30 per cent by the end of the decade will affect Australian industry despite Prime Minister Scott Morrison refusing to sign on to the pledge, investor groups and analysts say.

But they caution the initiative – endorsed by more than 100 other countries – will wash through the Australian economy inefficiently, meaning industry will be forced to act, but less consistently and productively than might have been possible via a nationally adopted approach.

Australia is the world’s fifth-largest methane emitter not to sign up to the agreement, according to 2020 data from Climate Watch. The rebel pack is led by major fossil fuel and agriculture economies China, Russia, India and Iran.

saucisson...

Effective leadership on climate change is in short supply. Are our leaders too stupid or too cynical to respond to the world’s greatest problem?

 

One of the more remarkable aspects of the debate about climate change is that something like 99 per cent of recognised climate scientists agree on the basic drivers and likely consequences of unmitigated global warming. While this is an unambiguous vindication of the scientific method, perhaps, there are still lots of people who genuinely believe that climate change is either not happening, isn’t caused by humans even if it is, or that there’s not much we can do about it anyway.

ECB

DER SPIEGEL: Mr. Marsh, Christine Lagarde became president of the European Central Bank on Nov. 1, 2019. How would you rate her first two years in office?

David Marsh: I would give her a medium grade. On the one hand, she has pacified the most important body, the long-divided ECB Governing Council. On the other hand, under her direction – mainly because of the COVID-19 crisis, for which she naturally bears no responsibility – the ECB's dependence on euro-area governments has increased. She doesn’t have any deep fundamental principles when it comes to monetary policy.

pledge...

Conservation and farming groups are digesting the impact of a pledge by Australia to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by the end of the decade.

Australia is one of the 105 countries that has signed the declaration at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.

Underpinning the deal is an investment of $25 billion in public and private funds to protect and restore forests.

 

“We will have a chance to end humanity’s long history as nature’s conqueror, and instead become its custodian,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said of the pact.

maryse

Senator Payne is expected to visit Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam on the trip.

Cambodia has just taken over the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), while both Malaysia and Indonesia have sharply criticised Australia's plan to build nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS technology pact with the United Kingdom and the United States.

grant

The $5.5 million grant to fund a 1,000-person convention centre at a gun club in Wagga Wagga was the only one – of over 90 grants – in the NSW Murray-Riverina region that went to a non-government entity.

rich...Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos were roasted online for their failure to lead by example after reports of the billionaire climate warriors renting superyachts off the coast of Turkey to party ahead of the COP26 climate summit.

The American tycoons apparently prepared for the UN Climate Change Conference (which kicked off in Glasgow, Scotland on the weekend) aboard luxurious superyachts in the Aegean Sea. According to the British media, the weekly rental price of Gate’s vessel is $2 million.

grit...

Scott Morrison has stridently defended his integrity and personal conduct in the wake of the French President accusing the Prime Minister of lying about a $90 billion submarine contract.

cormann

... Morrison also loses his pin-up girl to what sounds unmistakably like corruption on taped calls, allegedly between the ex-premier and her former paramour.

Worse, it’s an ill-timed reminder of the government’s promise of a federal ICAC, impotent, unworkable and now three years’ old.

The PM doesn’t want any type of ICAC at all, least of all one with teeth, Rachel Withers notes because most of his government’s ministers would be hauled in to answer to it. Like a squid squirting ink, the Coalition quickly exudes a noxious miasma of lies to discredit the state integrity body and to cloud our view of its own transgressions.

It’s “a witch-hunt”, “the Crucible” and “a kangaroo court”.