![]() ![]() Some of the juiciest bits come from the ever-quotable Milley, who offers candid assessments of Ukraine’s state of denial going into the invasion, the poor state of the Russian military and the ongoing need for “escalation management” as the conflict threatens to grind on for months - or longer. The exhaustive account - compiled by Garrett Graff from dozens of interviews conducted by Erin Banco, Lara Seligman, Nahal Toosi, Alex Ward and others - starts in the months leading up to war, when national security officials first noticed a worrisome buildup of Russian forces, and continues through Biden’s risky surprise trip to Kyiv last week. MARK MILLEY, Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN, national security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN and Director of National Intelligence AVRIL HAINES. Our team has compiled a must-read oral history of the effort, told by those in highest echelons of power, including Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. and its allies rallied to alert Ukraine to and prepare it for Russia’s invasion, setting the stage for the remarkable defense of its homeland. One big piece of that history is how the U.S. Ripple effects have rocked the global economy, while Russia has found itself further isolated by a refocused NATO alliance rallied to action by President JOE BIDEN and Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY.Ī year of unspeakable tragedy has left enormous questions about what lies ahead - more on that in a moment - but the history of this conflict is now beginning to be written. More than 14 million displaced Ukrainians have flooded into Europe and beyond. Hundreds of thousands have been killed, including thousands of civilians. But the toll of that decision has been immense. LOOKING BACK - One year ago today, Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN launched an invasion of Ukraine that he thought would quickly topple the government in Kyiv, expose Western powers as feckless and hopelessly divided, and usher in a new, muscular era of Russian world power. | Photos by Serhii Korovayny for POLITICO DRIVING THE DAY The bigger problem is explaining how living standards are continuing to fall with no sign of the wages price index getting ahead of inflation, never mind the real, after-tax story.Ukrainian photographer Serhii Korovayny spent time in Donbas before Russia's full-scale invasion, and he returned there earlier this month to document how the region has changed. Politically, lying about debt and deficit and interest rates for nine years will make it hard for the Coalition to suddenly have credibility in telling the truth that rising rates are a sign of a strong economy, that falling and extremely low rates are not necessarily healthy. The irony is that tightening monetary policy actually can’t result in much spending being reduced.Īs the Australian Bureau of Statistics explained, most of the inflation we’re feeling is in non-discretionary spending – we still have to pay the rent, buy food and fuel, meet necessary health costs, even people with big mortgages. Remember that only about a third of households have a mortgage and most of those have either built up a buffer or substantially paid it down.īut the psychological impact of the first rate rise in a dozen years is broader than the number of people who will feel it in their wallets.Īll the headlines get noticed, the idea of people cutting back on spending spreads around. The financial impact of this and the next couple of rate rises will be felt by few Australians – only those who took on large mortgages in the past couple of years. Money remains cheap enough to be stimulating the economy, not slowing it. Anyway, Dr Lowe said only “some withdrawal of the extraordinary monetary support” was appropriate. The other factors in the monetary equation could no longer be ignored. I’ll take bets now that wages growth will still be a long way short of the inflation rate, meaning living standards will continue to fall. ![]() The bank’s business liaison tells of wages growth picking up. ![]() The forecast is still for this inflationary surge to be transitory, for both the headline and underlying figures to be ”around 3 per cent” by the middle of 2024.ĭr Lowe had nailed the bank’s colours to decent wages growth before lifting rates but, you know, stuff happens. The bank acknowledges headline inflation will continue to rise from the latest consumer price index reading of 5.1 per cent to 6 per cent for the year with underlying inflation of 4.75 per cent. Growth of only 2 per cent doesn’t reduce unemployment. The unemployment rate is predicted to fall to about 3.5 per cent nearly next year, but then stay there. (The RBA’s 2022 forecast is half a percentage point lower than Treasury’s budget prediction of 4.75 per cent, but matches the budget’s soft 2023 expectations.) ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |