Australian PM calls for new economic order

Australian PM calls for new economic order

SYDNEY (AFP) — Australia's prime minister has called for a "new world order" of government intervention and regulation, blaming capitalist greed for the global economic crisis.

Kevin Rudd's administration came to power in November 2007, ending more than a decade of conservative, free-market rule, and has already launched a series of stimulus measures in response to the crisis.

"The time has come, off the back of the current crisis, to proclaim that the great neo-liberal experiment of the past 30 years has failed; that the emperor has no clothes," said Rudd in an essay previewed here Saturday.

"Neo-liberalism and the free-market fundamentalism it has produced has been revealed as little more than personal greed dressed up as an economic philosophy," he wrote, in a 7,000-word essay to be published next week in The Monthly magazine.

Aligning his views with those of new US President Barack Obama, and drawing on the experiences of Depression-era US leader Franklin D Roosevelt, the centre-left leader called for a "new contract for the future that eschews the extremism of both the left and right."

"Minor tweakings of long established orthodoxies will not do," Rudd said, advocating instead a new era of "social capitalism" involving the regulation and intervention of an "activist state."

But he urged his democratic colleagues not to "throw the baby out with the bathwater" by returning to a model of the all-providing state, and said there was a place for open competitive markets, both at home and abroad.

Rudd is expected next week to announce a second major stimulus package in response to the global economic crisis, which has already slashed thousands of jobs in Australia and eroded billions from government revenues.

Measures launched so far include a one-off 10.4 billion dollar cash injection aimed mainly at families and first-home buyers to boost consumer spending.

Recession is the birth pangs of a new global order, says Brown

Recession is the birth pangs of a new global order, says Brown

Information Liberation
By Kirsty Walker
Originally posted on Feb 07 2009, 10:07 PM

Gordon Brown has insisted that the recession was just the 'difficult birth pangs of a new global order'.

As a poll showed more voters are turning against him, the Prime Minister warned that countries must see the financial crisis as the chance to forge a new financial system.

Setting the scene for April's G20 talks in London, Mr Brown said: 'If what happens to a bank in one country can within minutes have devastating effects for banks on a different continent, then only a truly international response of policy and governance can be effective.'

He said current 'threats and challenges' to the world economy should be seen as 'the difficult birth pangs of a new global order'.

'Our task now is nothing less than making the transition to a new internationalism with the benefits of an expanding global economy, not muddling through as pessimists, but making the necessary adjustment to a better future and setting new rules for this new global order', he said.

Mr Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling are aware the G20 summit of developing countries and business leaders on April 4, could decide further stimulus measures that could alter the of this year's Budget. The Prime Ministeris pinning his hopes on other countries, in particular the U.S., following Britain's lead by pumping cash into their economies.

The Treasury rejected suggestions that Mr Darling is already working on a third economic rescue. Ministers want to give the Government time to see if its £410billion rescue plan has had any impact on the economy. But a poll last night found most voters believe Labour's attempts to kick-start the economy are doomed to failure.

The Guardian/ICM poll found that two-thirds of voters believe that the banking bailout packages will achieve nothing or make things worse.

It also shows more signs that David Cameron has seen off the 'Brown bounce'. The Conservatives have opened up a 12-point margin on 44 per cent, up six on last month, while Labour is on 32 and the Liberal Democrats are on 16.

The poll, carried out after last week's bank bailouts and sharp falls in share values, found that public confidence in Labour's economic team has plunged by 11 per cent since November, with the Conservatives seen as more trusted on the economy by a margin of two points.

There is support for the VAT cut (63 per cent) and a programme of public works (85 per cent). But only 43 per cent support the decision to buy large stakes in some banks and only 40 per cent back outright nationalisation. Voters are slightly more enthusiastic about Labour attempts to underwrite bank lending, backed by 52 per cent.

If the poll were replicated at a General Election, the Tories would win 360 seats - a majority of 70. The LibDems will be disturbed by their fall to the lowest level in any ICM poll since August.