Neo-Robinsonian economist. Castlemaine Institute & @UniMelb SSPS. #WellbeingEconomy, climate, social justice, environment, employment. @warwicksmith.bsky.social
Djaara country
Joined March 2009
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The @RBAInfo deliberately creates #unemployment to control inflation. Then our employment services system treats the jobless as if they caused their own predicament and don't want to work.
Unfair and unnecessarily cruel. My latest in @ConversationEDU:
theconversation.com/the-rbas…
Actual hardline socialists are a very rare breed, as are full, free market, minimal government types. Reality & the majority lie between them yet this weird website is full of free market ideologues arguing against a version of socialism that almost nobody wants.
Socialism is an ideology so morally rotten that its advocates' best defense against the accusation of being evil is to plead stupidity or ignorance.
Either they understand that their ideology requires coercion, confiscation, and the sacrifice of individuals to collective demands, or they don't.
One is a moral indictment. The other is an intellectual one.
Neither is much of a defense.
Warwick Smith retweeted
This page from Joan Robinson’s article is one of the most powerful pieces of writing in the entire economics literature of the second half of the twentieth century.
Joan Robinson, The Production Function and the Theory of Capital, The Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 21, No. 2 (1953–1954), p. 81.
Warwick Smith retweeted
Capitalism doesn’t require everyone to believe they can become rich. It requires most people to keep working regardless of whether they believe it. The system runs on wage dependence.
Warwick Smith retweeted
What a day!
Our clients Wendy and Tony have just won the first ever climate case to be heard by Australia’s highest court!
Such a privilege to have been able to represent them in this landmark case, which will reverberate around the world.
theguardian.com/environment/…
Warwick Smith retweeted
Joan Robinson knew that economics isn't a neutral science—it’s all about power.
We don't need more unthinking economists parroting econ class teachings.
We need rethinkers ready to push for an economy that serves people and planet.
If you agree, join the movement. ✊
I get a mention in this article, as does @ChrisEconomist. I disagree with Chris' monetarist comment "Inflation is just too much money chasing too little stuff." Inflation can be many things but rarely too much money. abc.net.au/news/2026-09-29/r… via @ABCaustralia #auspol @mikejanda
Warwick Smith retweeted
Our book is finally out today!
"The Blueprint is the clearest, most forceful, and most detailed case for market socialism that anyone has made for a generation, or more. It should be read, and debated, by all of us who want to build something better than capitalism, as well as the skeptics."
– Cosma Shalizi on our book, which is officially out in an hour.
Read about the model and order the book: blueprintforsocialism.com
Warwick Smith retweeted
Today 'The Blueprint' by @mikejbeggs, @JacobinBen and @sunraysunray was released (this is my review copy). I cannot recommend it more strongly, my favourite book of the year. It brilliantly blends socialist horizons with a sober analysis of how such an economy could actually work
So is there some correlation between renewable energy and fertility? The population is still growing strong, despite the demographic transition (when we get rich we have less children). If you really wanted population control you'd educate and empower women.
The privatised "employment services" system has always been about surveillance and punishment in order to discipline wage claims. The shift from full employment policy in the 70s to using unemployed people to control inflation was all about shifting power away from labour.
Do tougher job-search requirements help people find work?
We randomised almost 40,000 jobseekers to different requirements. Six months later, employment outcomes were virtually identical.
More in my Shann Lecture on building a learning state. ministers.treasury.gov.au/mi… #randomistas #auspol
Warwick Smith retweeted
Today, we launched the Planetary Health Check 2026. Seven of nine Planetary Boundaries are transgressed, and pressure on all seven is at its highest recorded level.
Yet, we still have a window to change course. But we need to move fast.
pik-potsdam.de/en/news/lates…
Warwick Smith retweeted
AI is finally taking over economist's job. It's all over.
AI chatbots give wrong answers to financial queries ‘most of the time’ ft.trib.al/KxRXFO6
Warwick Smith retweeted
Turns out 2026 officially was the hottest summer ever recorded in Western Europe. We’ve seen droughts, heat deaths, dry rivers. This will become more common. Cities and farmers must adapt to an uncomfortable new normal. Source: eu1.hubs.ly/H0y9-bG0
Wow, the replies to this are really wild. People absolutely committed to the view that the Albanese government is communist or socialist who clearly have no idea what the words communism or socialism actually mean. It needs a descriptive term. Cold war zombies?
The typical Australian worker's pay hasn't kept pace with productivity growth for 30 years.
New research Adelajda Soltysik and I presented at ACE this week for the Centre for Policy Development, covered by Gareth Hutchens at the ABC. 🧵
Falling average hours aren't a "leisure dividend" either. The biggest declines in work hours are among the lowest-paid workers. That's a story about part-time work, gig work and casualisation — not people choosing more free time.
Governments are pushing hard to lift productivity, including via AI. But nothing automatic ensures the gains are shared — that's a policy choice. If the last 30 years didn't deliver for typical workers, we should ask where the next 30 will flow.
abc.net.au/news/2026-07-10/w…
