ABSTRACT
‘The principal economic problem’ of the developed industrial nations, Geoff said in his 1993 Harcourt Plan to Save the World, ’is sustained mass unemployment with which is associated the need of many of them to restructure in order to solve persistent balance of payments problems’. Discussing Macroeconomic Policy for Australia he proposed (among other things) equitable fiscal means of restraining consumption; selective credit rationing; and learning from the NICs ‘that we should leave tariff levels where they are, at least in the medium term’. That paper’s conclusion reflected Keynes’ theory and MITI’s practice:
On the side of real investment the government should take the lead in designing investment incentives which persuade business people to invest in those areas which, overall, the government has decided most need to be developed. Provided those areas are defined broadly enough, the chances of corruption will be lessened, yet neither the government nor its public servants will be able to dodge the responsibility for giving leadership in what should be a partnership between the public and private sectors.
(1995: 31)