Markets, Madness and a Middle Way Revisited (2007)

May I thank the original inhabitants of the land on which we now meet, for their courtesy in having us as their guests?† Just over 14 years ago, I gave the second Donald Horne Address on ‘Markets, Madness and a Middle Way’ (I have a horrible feeling it was also the last Horne Address). Tonight I want to revisit some of the themes and issues I raised then. February 1992 was a strategic time in which to reflect upon and assess the emerging or emerged effects of the Monetarist experiment in many advanced capitalist economies, together with the rise to dominance of neo-liberal policies backed up by the arguments of economic rationalists. It was also an appropriate time to try to persuade the then Prime Minister, Paul Keating, to have second thoughts about some old-fashioned theories and policies which the ALP government had jettisoned almost entirely but nevertheless were still maintaining relatively open minds about, as the law of unintended consequences began to emerge explicitly and openly.