Hi Alan,

<< There appears to be strong vindication for former treasurer Wayne Swan from a formula just published in Australia's alternative media.>>

This seems like an opening line from the Melbourne Comedy Festival. I take it that this is to whom you are referring when you say “alternative media”?

I think you might be a little out of touch with Australian voter sentiment, perhaps the message takes a long time to reach Southern France?

But in the great tradition of progressive hypocrisy, everything is resolved with the little “narrative theory”.

Anyway, back to the Melbourne Comedy Festival. Your comments were hilarious. Could you please put some stuff together for Dave Hughes, he is desperate for some new material, particularly stuff that eulogizes anyone associated with the greatest political defeat in Australian history, that of the ALP at the last election.

Since you are in France, can you contact the two students that had Wayne Swan down as the “worlds greatest treasurer”. If you can’t track them down perhaps you could ask that Alan Austin guy, he seems to have a pretty good spanner on these things, well he seems to think he has.

I like the way GY keeps accepting your articles just to give you the opportunity to self destruct. Great strategy!

Good morning,

Thanks for these comments. Intriguing, as always.

@Foyle, thank you for the UMKC link.

Yes, agree about asset inflation. This is another argument for redistribution of wealth and income towards the poor and lower middle, rather than the reverse which Australia is now pursuing again.

@Ludwig, to which period are you referring with: “We are NOT seeing overall improvements in our basic services and infrastructure”?

Before or since September 2013?

Which countries have a better record than Australia for infrastructure development during the period 2009 to 2013?

Who was International Infrastructure Minister of the Year in 2012?

Agree completely the IAREM score doesn’t measure social or environmental outcomes. Or education, or health, or life expectancy, or happiness. It is openly a measure of economic performance.

There are other tables which measure and rank social outcomes.

@Rhian, yes, agree it’s a weird formula. But what econometric formula isn’t?

Re: “tweaked raw data for incommensurate variables introduces large arbitrary weighting bias towards some measures and against others that can’t be justified by any measure of relative importance.”

Why not? Pretty sure it can, Rhian.

Re: “It also can't capture the inevitability of different levels of variation of different measures.”

Yes, it can. Satisfactorily, if not perfectly.

Re: “Are you targeting economic wellbeing, or economic management?”

Both. Measuring the former as evidence of the latter.

Re: “I’d suggest that growth rates not levels are a better measure of financial variables.”

Agree. The variable for growth – gr – is a measure of growth rate. Refer here:

http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/australia-tops-the-iarem-worlds-best-economy,6279

Re: “A country that starts poor will still have low income and wealth even after many years of excellent economic management.”

Correct. Hence the weightings adopted. The charts show Chile, for example, has advanced from 49th in 2007 to 17th in 2013. This is because income, growth, employment and inflation have all improved – despite wealth declining.

Agree also that other measures for wealth and jobs could have been used. The challenge, of course, is to find numbers comparable across time and nations released annually.

Happy to discuss further.

Cheers, AA

Pretty good metrics, there isn't anything I can take issue with here, though I am somewhat curious as to why the Gini coefficient isn't among them.
True, it is probably a more relevant indicator in terms of societal outcomes than the power of the economy, but I would also argue that the sustainability of the economy is fairly closely related to income distribution.

<< Honestly, I give up. >>

Haaaa hahahaaa Pericles!

<< …you have finally silenced me! >>

Really?? Truly?? Promise??

I don’t believe you!!

Well there’s no need for me to go to the trouble of responding in detail to your post then.

All I will say is that you are so sooo wrong!!

C’mawwn. Denounce your silence. Let’s get stuck into yet another one of our long and wonderful discussions!

Tell me you are willing to respond. Then I’ll address each of your incorrect statements one by one. I could write a book in response to your post! ( :>)

<< Our electoral cycle precludes sensible economic planning >>

Indeed it does, Foyle.

And the enormous bias exerted on our political process by profit-motive-driven vested-interest big-donations big-bribing big-business is another huge factor.

I wonder if the 10 billion a year we are paying in interest on the debts the last 2 ratbag prime ministers ran up could be having a bit of a depressive effect on the public well being.

That debt doesn't include the ridiculous NBN debt, that was kept off the budget by a typical Labor sleight of hand, or the ridiculous Disability insurance scheme, or the Gonski school spending. A couple of little booby trap the delightful Julia set for her replacement, when she knew she was about to get what she deserved, a good kicking.