Ross was always willing to talk with anyone on economic public policy. Years ago he sent me a talk by email and mail by the late Geoff Harcourt on constructing economic policy. He didn’t not even know me at the time, but the fact that I was interested in Geoff’s work, was enough for him to send me a copy. Australia‘s greatest economic journalist. We need more like him today.
I agree wholeheartedly with your post. When I became an economist teacher in 1977, the uncomplicated publications by Ross Gittins helped my students to understand my theoretical lessons. As a young teacher I tried to impress and astound my students; and forget that my job was to educate them in economics.
Ross Gittins articles were down to earth and gave practical examples. His
budget analysis was always the best I had ever read.
The HSC guides, done yearly by Ross Gittins were one of the best senior student resources published in the 1990s. Many HSC economics teachers owe Ross Gittins a great debt of gratitude.
Later on, the SMH articles by Ross Gittins gave clear and concise explanations of public economics. This was a welcome change from the biased and prejudicial economic statements from media quoted business and financial economists.
Ross Gittins deserves praise for all the above achievements.
I have always enjoyed reading Gittins’s articles. It’s a shame that they’re paywalled. I broke with the Fairfax/Nine tabloids years ago, but he remains one of the few, if only, columnists there worth reading. There’s always been a humility about this writing and world outlook. In the past few decades, he’s had to operate in an infuriating and depressing space. I don’t know how he’s done it.
I started reading him at about the same time you did, I guess, and this is such a great summary of how good Ross is. He probably has no idea how big is his fan club.
I've been reading Ross Gittens since I started reading newspapers. He along with Tim Colebatch taught me most of what I know about economics, he's always come across as sensible and humane.
Nice to see economic rationalism defined so succinctly. This very much aligns with my views – that socioeconomic goals must be aligned to the social goals and a non-ideological approach to the economic side helps with realising the social goals.
As an example, a pure market approach to healthcare is an obvious failure, as seen in the US. The bigger problem in the US is that one of the two major parties is committed not to market success but to public sector failure. The Republicans are actually not staunch free marketeers – they are very happy with government interventions that aid big business.
Yet one must be pragmatic. Here in South Africa, where government has a deep competence problem, some private interventions in matters normally best handled by a competent state are supportable.
Some things are better handled as natural monopolies, in which case, the question of whether they are a private business or a state enterprise very much depends on the nature of the society: if it has a competent public sector, a state business is viable. If not, perhaps not. One example is a rail network or power transmission grid. Both a requirements for delivering a bigger project and both, in private hands, lead to the temptation to skimp on maintenance. If 10% of the power grid fails, the operator loses 10% of their revenue while it’s getting fixed. But the 10% of demand that is lost has a huge knock-on socioeconomic effect. Same with rail. If 10% of the network is out the socioeconomic effect goes far beyond the losses to the operator.
Ross was always willing to talk with anyone on economic public policy. Years ago he sent me a talk by email and mail by the late Geoff Harcourt on constructing economic policy. He didn’t not even know me at the time, but the fact that I was interested in Geoff’s work, was enough for him to send me a copy. Australia‘s greatest economic journalist. We need more like him today.
I agree wholeheartedly with your post. When I became an economist teacher in 1977, the uncomplicated publications by Ross Gittins helped my students to understand my theoretical lessons. As a young teacher I tried to impress and astound my students; and forget that my job was to educate them in economics.
Ross Gittins articles were down to earth and gave practical examples. His
budget analysis was always the best I had ever read.
The HSC guides, done yearly by Ross Gittins were one of the best senior student resources published in the 1990s. Many HSC economics teachers owe Ross Gittins a great debt of gratitude.
Later on, the SMH articles by Ross Gittins gave clear and concise explanations of public economics. This was a welcome change from the biased and prejudicial economic statements from media quoted business and financial economists.
Ross Gittins deserves praise for all the above achievements.
Ross has always fought for a better Australia
I may not always agree with him, but I'm always better off for having read him ...
I have always enjoyed reading Gittins’s articles. It’s a shame that they’re paywalled. I broke with the Fairfax/Nine tabloids years ago, but he remains one of the few, if only, columnists there worth reading. There’s always been a humility about this writing and world outlook. In the past few decades, he’s had to operate in an infuriating and depressing space. I don’t know how he’s done it.
He often, these days, re-publishes them through Pearls and Irritations, or the Conversation.
He publishes at http://www.rossgittins.com/ and has an RSS feed, so I keep up with his work via Feedly.
It’s good to read something so positive.
I started reading him at about the same time you did, I guess, and this is such a great summary of how good Ross is. He probably has no idea how big is his fan club.
I've been reading Ross Gittens since I started reading newspapers. He along with Tim Colebatch taught me most of what I know about economics, he's always come across as sensible and humane.
Thanks for this John, I too appreciate Ross Gittins.
💯
Pity Ross hides his magnificent thoughts behind such a pathetic neoliberal paywall.
Original, honest Australian media is on its knees.
It's time to be bold and disruptive, not to fold to the repulsive lies told by the Albo/fossil fuel lobby.
No doubt this post will wither in the graveyard of 'shit social media skills' like many. Happy Mothers Day to youse all....
You can find his work at http://www.rossgittins.com/
Nice to see economic rationalism defined so succinctly. This very much aligns with my views – that socioeconomic goals must be aligned to the social goals and a non-ideological approach to the economic side helps with realising the social goals.
As an example, a pure market approach to healthcare is an obvious failure, as seen in the US. The bigger problem in the US is that one of the two major parties is committed not to market success but to public sector failure. The Republicans are actually not staunch free marketeers – they are very happy with government interventions that aid big business.
Yet one must be pragmatic. Here in South Africa, where government has a deep competence problem, some private interventions in matters normally best handled by a competent state are supportable.
Some things are better handled as natural monopolies, in which case, the question of whether they are a private business or a state enterprise very much depends on the nature of the society: if it has a competent public sector, a state business is viable. If not, perhaps not. One example is a rail network or power transmission grid. Both a requirements for delivering a bigger project and both, in private hands, lead to the temptation to skimp on maintenance. If 10% of the power grid fails, the operator loses 10% of their revenue while it’s getting fixed. But the 10% of demand that is lost has a huge knock-on socioeconomic effect. Same with rail. If 10% of the network is out the socioeconomic effect goes far beyond the losses to the operator.