How Australia learnt the wrong lessons from the GFC
Kevin Rudd’s erroneous view that the catastrophe of 2008 was down to neoliberalism entered the political bloodstream here. We have been paying the price ever since.
It came as a nasty surprise to almost everyone 15 years ago this Friday, when Lehman Brothers failed and the world found itself on the cusp of a greater financial collapse. In response, a few politicians blamed capitalism and used the crisis as cover to extend their powers.
The then-prime minister Kevin Rudd declared that “the great neoliberal experiment of the past 30 years has failed”, because it had “not served Australia well in preparing for the current crisis”.
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Tom Switzer is executive director at the Centre for Independent Studies and is an outgoing presenter on ABC Radio National.
