It is so depressing to read such stuff. From The AFR today:

Dr Banks suggests with monetary and fiscal policy no longer able to spur additional economic growth, it is time for other changes that can spur activity.

This was the former head of the Productivity Commission lamenting that we have run out of the ability to use monetary and fiscal policy to generate higher levels of economic activity. The depressing part is, of course, that anyone ever thought we could. What we are seeing today is the end game in having wasted our resources in various loss-making stimulus projects. But he is the same as the rest of the economics fraternity. They are genuinely mystified by the deepening downturn that should have gone away with all their public spending.

Possibly even more irritating is to find the former Secretary of the Treasury, Martin Parkinson, on the front page of The OZ discussing Slow growth the reason to reform not delay. He was not just the Secretary when Labor was in government creating the problems, he continued as Secretary well into the present government’s period in office. Tell me again, Joe, how reformist you are. Well, now, way too late, we hear this:

“You will never be able to ­increase the potential growth rate without increasing productivity, and at the moment our performance on that is terrible. That is the starting point for the argument on reform.”

Is that so? So tell me, Martin, about all the public spending you signed up on as part of our stimulus and all the cuts that were never made.

Then there’s this: Labor takes aim at Malcolm Turnbull as NBN cost blows out by $15bn. The subhead:

The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, says communication minister ‘hasn’t been doing his day job properly’ as negative polls hint at Coalition leadership change

At least someone is pointing out just how bad a Minister he’s been. And with no little thanks to Malcolm, Bill Shorten is now preferred PM.