A Conservative Abandons Almost All Hope

I lamented publicly a few years back about the dismal prospects for economic reform in Australia. While I tried not to pay too much attention to domestic affairs in the intervening years, it seems I had the measure of the situation and have been at least vaguely vindicated. To be honest, it is probably a lot worse than that, but it’s too demoralizing to keep score at this point. Needless to say, there’s not much one can point to in our recent economic history that constitutes progress.

It’s not that the prognosis I made was particularly radical, few would have disagreed, it was more that the assessment of the underlying malady was likely more candid than most appear willing to admit. The political eco-system is busted as far as good economic policy is concerned; it contains no usefully organized constituency for the politically difficult policy changes that will lift living standards incrementally across a range of fronts. Meanwhile, the left and the rent-seekers are…