The author has been described by News Ltd as an "iconoclast", "Svengali", a pollie's "economist muse", and "pungently accurate". Fairfax says he is a "Renaissance man" and "one of Australia’s most respected analysts." Stephen Koukoulas concludes that he is "85% right", and "would make a great Opposition leader." Terry McCrann claims the author thinks "‘nuance’ is a trendy village in the south of France", but can be "scintillating" when he thinks "clearly". The ACTU reckons he’s "an enigma wrapped in a Bloomberg terminal, wrapped in some apparently well-honed abs."

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Head of IMF agrees with global union movement on need for financial services taxes

Dominique Strauss-Kahn highlights the alignment between unions and the IMF on the need for financial services taxes, amongst other things:

"Financial sector reform is also crucial—and on this issue too, I believe we are on the same page as the labor movement. Excessive risk-taking—often fueled by greed—threatened the entire world economy and pushed millions into unemployment and poverty. We need to put the financial sector back in the service of the productive economy. This is why we support tougher and better regulation, especially to build capital firewalls against future crises. We also think that financial sector taxation can help reduce the likelihood and cost of future crises. Here, we have some differences with the ITUC—they support a financial transactions tax while we prefer a tax on profits and remuneration. But while we may differ on the means, we are united by the common goal of ensuring a fair and substantial contribution from the financial sector"