Australia Economic Crisis Management Julia Gillard Style: “Cash For Clunkers”
Julia Gillard, Australia’s brand-new prime minister, is about to head into a general election. Having deposed her former boss and Labour Party P.M. Kevin Rudd in a Machiavellian scheme that can only be labelled a bloodless putsch, the politically ambitious Gillard is determined to win the Australian election, which will be held on August 21, by any means necessary. Thus, she replicated U.S. president Barack Obama’s “cash for clunkers” boondoggle.
In a previous post on my blog, I labelled the Obama “cash for clunkers” program as being in reality “economics for dummies.” Needless to say, Julia Gillard hopes that the voters of Australia will be similarly dumbfounded.
According to the Gillard plan, consumers who trade in a pre-1995 car for one with lower emissions will be eligible for a $2000 rebate, courtesy of the taxpayers from down under. The move is being presented as a concession to environmentalists, but at a time of global economic crisis, such a move is clearly a deficit-funded stimulus measure. And who will benefit? Of the 7 car models that qualify for the rebate, five are imported models. In other words, Julia Gillard wants Australia to take on more public debt to subsidize automobile companies located overseas.
Gillard may be a savvy and ruthless politician, but as an economic policymaker she has already established herself as a waltzing disaster, in my view.
