Christ on a kebab, how can you so selectively pick and choose? Was the Fraser government so very long ago?

Inflation of 11%, unemployment of 10% and a cash rate averaging 12% AT THE SAME TIME! Nobody under Labor managed that trick.

Look, true to centrist form I more or less agree with Arjay's last post. Give either side too much power and you screw yourself. Rudd ain't brilliant, but neither was Howard. At least Rudd didn't feel the need to insult presidential candidates (those who ended up winning, at that) or deceive people regarding boat-people.

Economically, I don't see much difference between Howard and Rudd at all, though I find Rudd's social policies marginally less noxious (I say marginally because the proposed internet filter really pisses me off, but I don't think it'll ever eventuate).

Governments of either persuasion always feel the need to 'do' something, whether it's needed or not.
The bigger the crisis, the more they feel they must 'do' something, or else they fear that the public will cotton on that they're not so very needed.

Howard would feel the need to throw cash at things now as well.
What other response could he make that wouldn't be seen as sitting on his hands? The rest of the world is throwing money at the problem, Howard couldn't stand by without doing the same. Do you really believe Howard would stand apart as a politician unlike the governments from pretty much 'every' other western nation?

Sell it to Howard's blessed apes of Borneo, 'cause I ain't buyin' it.

The difference between Howard and Rudd is that John is a realist and far more disciplined,while Kevin is a bureaucratic pragmatist who is disciplined by the system.
The present crisis needs discipline and creativity.Kevin misses out on two qualities.

For a conservative Mr Howard was as good as ya get...
The last election was sad, happened to Sir Winston Churchill too...

Mr Rudd, he's not steady and able to stand his ground... my gut says Mrs Gillard(sp) will stab stab stab him the moment she can, he won't see it coming, but what ever.

TRTL, Mr Fraser was a crap PM, I agree..

Well the Brits don't see a problem with partial nationalisation of the banks. The governments won't run the banks but there will be some stringent guidelines and protections.

As Brown stated, this is the time for some creative thinking outside the square and not being afraid to depart from the tired old dogmas.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27078582/

We tend to get too tied up in left and right politics or Keynesian versus Monetarist style debates rather than taking a pragmatic re-think about what might actually work.

We have to get away from the idea that we are faced with only two broad choices ie. either unfettered and unregulated free market capitalism or communism/socialism. Within a social democracy we do need some creative thinkers who can get away from the stringent dogmas we have imposed on ourselves and adopt a view more along the lines of "Third Way" thinking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way_(centrism)

Whether Rudd has the spark or gumption to go up against the anti-regulation brigade and the extremists within the free market movement is yet to be determined.

Belly “The lefty brand Col throws around is not wasted, every one is left of our Col Rouge.”

Show where anything in my post is wrong.

The problem is, the left cannot handle the history of their incompetence nor the misery it has created.

I recall a dearest Margaret Quote

"Socialists have always spent much of their time seeking new titles for their beliefs, because the old versions so quickly become outdated and discredited."

TRTL “Howard would feel the need to throw cash at things now as well.”

Do you think?

I think that is pure speculation and what the liberals would do in a crisis would be far more constructive than what labor is doing in this crisis.

The successive Howard governments are the team which had the vision and skill to turn around the mess left after Keatings incompetence,

Doubtless, based on the events of that history, their credentials and capacities suggest they would deal more adroitly with this current crisis than how Krudd & Co is stuffing it up.

But don’t blame me, I voted for the talent, not the sanctimonious “mee-too” smarm.

Meredith “For a conservative Mr Howard was as good as ya get...
The last election was sad, happened to Sir Winston Churchill too...”

That is true with one exception, Churchill nearly wrecked the UK economy by putting it back on the gold standard, Howard’s economic performance was far better than Churchills

Pelican “As Brown stated, this is the time for some creative thinking outside the square and not being afraid to depart from the tired old dogmas.”

Bearing in mind Brown was UK Chancellor of Exchequer (Treasurer) for the decade before he replaced Blair, I think it safe to say

“He was more part of the problem than part of the solution”

The “tired old dogmas" are those of "socialism” (aka big government) and that is what the world does need to depart from, the UK in particular.

"We tend to get too tied up in left and right politics or Keynesian versus Monetarist style debates rather than taking a pragmatic re-think about what might actually work.

We have to get away from the idea that we are faced with only two broad choices ie. either unfettered and unregulated free market capitalism or communism/socialism. Within a social democracy we do need some creative thinkers who can get away from the stringent dogmas we have imposed on ourselves and adopt a view more along the lines of "Third Way" thinking."

Pelican,

I agree totally with this sentiment. The old dogmas are just hooks upon which the lazy hoist themselves. There is no originality there whatsoever and no hope of improvement. It's a barren wasteland.

I subscribe to the view that's been put by Thomas Friedman as the flat-earth model of development. This is no more than a realisation that the world is moving from one where society operates in a narrow, deep, cloistered, siloed etc way to one where standards become shallower but where opportunities are much greater. That is, a flattening of the playing field. Unlike the flattening that may be done by socialists however, this flattening comes with compensation: the enabling of many more people. In effect, a redistribution of the opportunity for individual industry.

So, for example, if we as a global society are really going to mitigate CO2 emissions, the only way to do it is to encourage many more people to get involved in the project. This means not having regulations that lock people out of making a contribution. It means exporting ideas to places like China and India and eliminating the hegemonies that have caused the problem to build up in the first place.