Strangely, the first instalment of Mark Latham's "Civilising Global Capital" was coming to fruition... Would the world be brave enough to embrace his conclusion "SUPERSEDING THE MARKET..."? New policies including Zero-Sum Choices to counteract "Unguarded Incrementalism" and "addressing insecurities"... and plenty more. So many concepts so little time while the financial world has a few boils on its bum  — and hemorrhoids as well...

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“the most prominent political tension of our time arises from neither private production nor public ownership structures but from the relationship between global capital and nation-based politics”. [p. 27]

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Latham's second conclusion: "Sustainable Social Democracy" includes "Functional Flexibility" and "Social Equity".

Rudd expressed all this succinctly yesterday with something like this:  "There is too much %$#@&% GREED in the place... " Good luck to him. Everyone knows it, but like Global Warming, few will be prepared to do something about it. Especially when one's throws more gas into an overrunning engine about to seize up...

The Federal Opposition has questioned whether the Government should interfere in the salaries paid to banking executives.

In his latest reaction to the global financial crisis, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has called for tighter control of executive salaries in Australia and overseas to prevent risky behaviour.

Mr Rudd said he wants to rein in corporate greed in Australian and overseas institutions.

Opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne says the economic crisis must not lead to over-regulation.

"I think most Australians in the current situation would regard salaries of millions of dollars as beyond the pale but whether Government should interfere behind the curtain of companies is another matter," he said.

Mr Rudd's call for tighter regulation of bank executive paypackets has angered some people in the banking sector.

A former Westpac chief executive, Frank Conroy, says branding bankers as greedy is overstating the problem.

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Yes, I can hear some of the moneymakers in the US angrily saying loud and clear: "we're not greedy, we're just incompetent... and our incompetence should not be used to judge the size of our bonuses. We decide that." Point taken.

Opposition treasury spokeswoman Julie Bishop says the Coalition might have designed the Federal Government's economic stimulus package differently if it were in government.

The Coalition is supporting the principle of the Government's $10.4-billion spending plan, but still wants the Government to release its economic advice on the package.

Ms Bishop says if the Coalition was in government, they might have considered other design options.

"We may well have looked at another composition, we might have looked at other issues, we might have looked at tax cuts," she said.

"We might have reconsidered the first home owner matter, we might have got information as to whether or not this would be an inflationary package, and if you calibrated it another way."

Ms Bishop has repeated her call that the government must release the economic data used to work out the package.

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For an opposition that used to fob everyone while in government with secrecy galore, including grand fibs about reasons to go to war, this "must release" takes the cake of grandstanding.  And this "we might have reconsidered" is not a good enough argument for doing better...

Rescue deal an educated guess: Rudd
Phillip Coorey Chief Political Correspondent | October 17, 2008

KEVIN RUDD has revealed that his Government's $10.4 billion economic stimulus package was based on a well-educated guess that economic conditions were going to worsen rapidly, rather than any hard data.

As the Opposition continued to demand yesterday that the Government release the economic assessments that underpinned the package, Mr Rudd told Parliament it would have been irresponsible to have waited until next month's release of the official mid-year budget review before acting.

The decision to spend almost half of this year's forecast $21.7 billion budget surplus - most of it before Christmas - was completed at the weekend in response to a turbulent fortnight on global markets.

Mr Rudd said the latest hard data were quickly outdated estimates from the Reserve Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

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Mr Rudd is a good guesser. He says so himself... See the gnomes in the toon at top...

From the Sydney Morning Herald letter page (17/10/08)

What can't Malcolm do?

Not bad for a bloke who started out in life as the son of poor black sharecroppers born in a cardboard box on the lip of an active volcano outside downtown Vaucluse.

Ross Sharp Toowong (Qld)