Foxy also quoted the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
and an economist from the Commonwealth Bank. But hey what
do they know? Our OLO posters know better?
They appear to think they do.

In any case - here on OLO we all have our opinions.

Jim Chalmers is in a good position
given his background as a key member of former Treasurer
Wayne Swan's staff. The fact that he was Wayne Swan's
Chief-of-Staff - he's in the right faction of the
Labor Party - so I don't think we'll see anything too radical
from him.

Anyway, lets wait and see.

"Foxy also quoted the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
and an economist from the Commonwealth Bank."

Well show me an economist who accurately predicted, twelve months ago, where we'd be today in terms of inflation and interest rates, and I'll go along with their future predictions.

But believing people today who were wrong yesterday and just regurgitated policy predictions is a fool's errand.

When, in ancient times, I was studying economics, one of the best truisms I was given by my lecturer was that the definition of an economist is someone who knows exactly why his last prediction was wrong.

The Liberals should be laughing. There has never been a better election to lose. Things are going to get much worse, and it doesn't matter who caused what in the past, an increasingly hard up and angry electorate is going to blame the sitting government, not the opposition, no matter how much Chalmers whines about what he 'inherited'. The goldfish-memory voters have already forgotten what the last lot did or didn’t do. They are now looking at a government whose mania about emissions will make them even poorer. By the time it is proved that the weather won’t change just because little old Australia ruins its economy - while the big emitters do nothing - even dozy Australians will be hopping mad.

mhaze,

I also studied economics way back. The most common criticism
of economic forecasts is that they're usually wrong.
In a liberal sense this is of course true because forecasters
can't hope to get things right to the last decimal point.
In a general sense however, the proposition is wrong. Some
economic variables can be forecast to a reasonable degree of
accuracy most of the time.

Economic forecasting is however - far from a perfect
science.

Still forecasts are useful not because they're accurate
but if properly used and understood will lead to better
business decisions than forecasts ignored or naively used.

"Chalmers admitted to two election lies: that the Socialists would reduce power prices and increase wages."

Imagine being clueless enough to believe Labor are socialists....

As usual, the Liberals destroyed things and Labor will pick up the mess

"The most common criticism
of economic forecasts is that they're usually wrong."

Yet people continue to believe 'the experts'...especially when they tell them what they want to hear.

The outlook is not good. And it'll continue to get worse long before it gets better...http://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-29/aemo-reports-record-wholesale-power-price-customer-nightmare/101279554

"...households and businesses had only just begun to feel the effects of spiralling wholesale costs [of electricity], and much worse was coming."

Much worse electricity costs.
Much higher inflation.
Much higher cost of living.
Much higher interest rates.
Declining house prices.
Collapsing international situation.
Increasing government debt.

Our political elite just aren't equipped to handle this.