Gerard Jackson
BrookesNews.Com
Monday 24 November 2003

Every time the Bush-hating Ali bin Ramsey opens his bigoted mouth on economics he just makes a bloody fool of himself. In A salesman at work, jumble or not (Sydney Morning Herald 22/11) he gleefully quoted David Walker, a Clinton appointee. In a recent address to the Washington Press Club Walker claimed that his remarks on the economy would be professional and non-partisan.

Well, the way Ramsey quoted him, he seemed pretty partisan and misleading to me. However, knowing how dishonest Ramsey is, I'm prepared to consider the possibility that he grossly distorted Walker's views. Be that as it may, one must still examine Walker's vews on deficits.

Walker said that the US has something like an accumulated deficit of $US7 trillion and a net operating deficit for 2002 of $US365 billion. The 'non-partisan' Walker's conclusion:

"The bottom line, in my view, is that the Government's current financial statements and annual reports do not give policymakers and the American people an adequate picture of our Government's overall performance and true financial situation. This is a serious issue ... The days of surpluses are gone …"

As expected, Walker's figures gave Ramsey a considerable amount of vindictive satisfaction. Being a complete economic illiterate as well as a political bigot Ramsey was unable to see what was left out of Walker's speech — perspective.

According to the OMB (Office of Management Budget) the deficit comes in at only 2.8 per cent of GDP. A figure that was exceeded for 20 years out of the last 30 years. Adjusting the deficit for inflation means that in real terms it is now lower than in 7 of the last 21 years. It's so low in historical terms that serious economists discount it.

In terms of government debt held by the public that now stands at 35 per cent of GDP as compared with 50 per cent in 1993 and 33 per cent in 2001. There is nothing here a good Keynesian could seriously object to. Moreover, only for 26 of the last 40 years has government debt fallen below 33 per cent of GDP.

The connection between debt, jobs, inflation and growth is not as clear cut as some critics suggest. During the high debt years unemployment averaged 5.65 per cent compared with 6.43 per cent during the low debt years. We find a similar situation with growth. During the high debt years real GDP averaged 3.47 but 2.59 per cent for the low debt years. The situation for the CPI is even more striking: 2.95 percent in high debt years compared with 7.6 per cent in low debt years.

What Walker should have pointed out is that debt and deficits are not the real problems and never have been. It's spending that's always been the problem. And I don't recall Walker ever criticising the Democrats' spending plans. Also missing from Walker's 'non-partisan' rebuke of the Bush administration was the recognition of the dreadful role Keynesian thinking has played in causing inflation, destabilising the international monetary system, and generating government debt and deficits.

I don't expect someone of Ramsey's strictly limited intelligence to grasp even basic economics. However, I don't think it's asking too much of him to try and be honest with his readers, if only occasionally. Instead, he presented the words of a Clinton appointee who addressed members of the Washington Press Club, 89 per cent of whom voted for Clinton (a 1995 Roper Center for the Freedom Forum poll), as a final and damning indictment of the Bush administration's fiscal policies.

Ramsey being Ramsey couldn't resist one final juvenile dig at Bush, making the silly suggestion that he wanted to turn the US into a Kingdom with himself as crown head. The Saddam Times just gets worse and worse.

More articles exposing Ramsey's bigotry and dishonesty.

Is the Sydney Morning Herald's Alan Ramsey anti-Semitic?

Journalist bigotry among the media's Bush-haters

Lefty reporter wheels out the Liberal dead to defend Saddam

An Australian journalist thinks Bush is a thief, a drunk and a deserter

Reporter backs Klansman's attack on Bush

Reporter defends Taliban fighter and sneers at US

The Saddam Times lies about wages and jobs

Ali bin Ramsey throws a fit now that Australia is at war with Saddam

Shredding people is such fun

Saddam's human shredding machine

Gerard Jackson is also Brookes' economics editor