Tell me straight, good news or bad
LET’S do the time warp again.
It is November 29, 1990.
Paul Keating is Australia’s prime minister and the economy is tanking.
The boom of the 1980s has run its cycle and Keating, frustrated at the global headwinds that will see 17 of the 18 OECD countries experience recession, winches his dress shoes into his mouth with a sharp tongue that brings him undone in spectacular fashion.
“I will give you a few comments on the national accounts,” he begins, pivoting away from his previous forecast of a “soft landing”.
“The first thing to say is that the accounts do show Australia is in a recession.
“The most important thing about that is – that this is the recession Australia had to have.”
Paul Kelly later said it was “perhaps the most stupid remark of his career, and it nearly cost him the prime ministership”.
“However – it is largely true – the boom begat the recession.”
Contrast this with the Biden administration’s scoffing denial that a recession can be described as two successive quarters or more of negative growth.
How can you be in a recession when unemployment continues to fall?
Or when some sectors of the economy are growing?
Or when petrol prices are coming down?
Nothing to see here, brought to you by the people who divided us into 64 gender types, limited freedom of expression at every turn and created degree courses in navel gazing.
In the UK, they’ve borrowed a leaf out of Keating’s directness and forecast a 15-month recession throughout next year.
They’re not arguing the semantics.
It’s two or more quarters of going backwards. Plain as day.
If there’s any spin, it is about empathising with the pain people will feel as they endure a significant downturn that will cost them jobs and opportunity.
This is not an article about recession, though.
It is a protest at the politics of distraction, the dishonest overcomplication of everyday meaning.
Donald Trump perfected the art of real-time Orwellian propaganda where if you say the same thing over and over again for long enough, it becomes an acceptable alternative fact that rusted-on believers will turn into flags and badges.
For Trump, even the concept that bills and taxes are meant to be paid is fair game if obfuscation and confusion advance your own financial position.
Again, if you do the same thing over and over again for long enough – and get away with it – it becomes an acceptable alternative way of doing business.
Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
Never let the other guy get in the way of your profits.
Ensure the facts are disputed and redefined.
Rinse and repeat. These are ultimately selfish techniques that throw the rest of us under a bus.
When trust in our institutions and leaders is at its lowest, wallpapering over real problems with the
TikTok equivalent of a sound bite is cowardly.
It weakens the spirit of the people and creates division and discontent.
That’s not to say we should do the opposite and leap into a spiral of negativity and naysaying.
But we deserve to hear the news, good and bad, as straight as it can be told from the people who run the show.
If the economic outlook is tough, then prepare me well.
Use all the tools at your disposal and tell me what to do next.
Don’t mince your words.
Don’t tell me a fairytale.
And don’t rewrite my dictionary instead.
WE DESERVE TO HEAR THE NEWS, GOOD AND BAD, AS STRAIGHT AS IT CAN BE TOLD FROM THE PEOPLE WHO RUN THE SHOW.