Jonathan W Dean

Physicist working in the Quantum Sensors division at NIST. All opinions expressed are my own.

[Jonathan W Dean @JonathanWDean1]

@FarziCricketer So unlucky? Because it was only **just** hitting the stumps? That’s a correct call.

[Jonathan W Dean @JonathanWDean1]

@HarrisonJa30066 @AflGlicko With the lifestyle capital

[Jonathan W Dean @JonathanWDean1]

@PurpJuicey @AflGlicko lol Dangerfield a scumbag in what world

[Jonathan W Dean @JonathanWDean1]

@GolfGreer Easy on the courses Gary Player would play on. He should come to my local muni

[Jonathan W Dean @JonathanWDean1]

@HaliburtonGOAT I heard from a mate it was actually Bailey Smith who orchestrated the whole thing.

[Jonathan W Dean @JonathanWDean1]

@TcameronTodd The cats really do live to spook you

[Jonathan W Dean @JonathanWDean1]

@MonsieurJudge Always celebrate personal achievements no matter how the team is going. Easiest way to break team morale would be if the change room stayed quiet.

[Jonathan W Dean @JonathanWDean1]

@piersmorgan Brett Lee went way over the top this. Even so, Piers showed more guts than the English batting line up from this series put together.

[Jonathan W Dean @JonathanWDean1]

@engineeringolf Honestly, how much could my game improve if I’m still using Dad’s old Titliest 762s from 2005? I play off 9.

[Jonathan W Dean @JonathanWDean1]

@kleeposting No, the real lesson was to realise that rank choice voting is important in a democracy.

[Jonathan W Dean @JonathanWDean1]

@weymarplanet @simbarashebako Have you ever played cricket? Who cares if he was never going to chase those runs. They want to take the wicket now and head to the pub asap.

[Jonathan W Dean @JonathanWDean1]

@nibraz88cricket If you fine fielders for this youll have to fine batsmen who refuse to take singles to stay on strike.

[Aaron Smith @aaronsmith]

Thank you, Dave. I appreciate you reaching out to ask what you got wrong.

The clip we’re discussing is less than 90 seconds long. What I’m about to do demonstrates Brandolini's Law: where the amount of energy required to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude greater than that required to produce it. Or, in this case, it takes around 600 words to correct 90 seconds of your economic fan fiction.

1⃣ Between 0 and 30 seconds

You begin by confusing government debt with the Future Fund and appear to suggest that the Future Fund can't exist along side Govt debt.

They’re different things. One can exist without the other, and in Australia they do.

Australia's Future Fund was established in 2006 with an initial govt investment of about $60B. Its first annual report, in 2008, showed assets of around $64 billion - not the $100B you suggested.

Then, at around 27 seconds, you talk about the Future Fund as though it ceased to exist (you used the word 'had' as in past tense).

It still very much exists Dave. In fact, it's grown every single year since it was created. Today it's worth around $270 billion, or over $330 billion once the other funds under management are included (eg Medical Research / Housing Australia / Drought).

So before we're even 30 seconds into the clip you've managed to confuse government debt, the Future Fund, its size, and whether it still exists.

That’s a lot of economic history to get wrong in under 30 seconds.

2⃣ Around 32 seconds

You then claim Kevin Rudd used the Future Fund to "flush money through the economy".

Again, that’s simply false. The Future Fund wasn't used to fund the stimulus. It wasn't used to build school halls. It wasn’t used for any of the things you’re describing. In your defence, you do briefly flirt with the possibility that you don’t actually know what you’re talking about. Sadly, it was a very short-lived relationship.

The GFC stimulus was funded through government borrowing.

For context, construction approvals were collapsing, more than a million Australians worked in construction, and the objective was to stop unemployment exploding during the worst global financial crisis in generations.

You're welcome to argue that was the wrong policy (but you didn't). You’re not entitled to rewrite where the money came from.

3⃣ At about 44 seconds

You say, "I might be wrong".

I concede you were correct during this part of the video.

4⃣ From 44 seconds onwards

You make a series of broad claims about the GFC response.

Yes, government debt increased. That's true.

What you omit is that Australia's stimulus largely went directly to households rather than primarily rescuing financial institutions, as happened in many other countries.

The aim was simple: keep people spending, businesses operating and Australians employed while global demand collapsed. It's known as counter-cyclical fiscal policy.

Whether you agree with it politically is your business.

The specific outcome for Australia isn't contested though - Australia was one of only two economies in the OECD to avoid recession during the Global Financial Crisis. There's no reality where that wasn’t a comparatively impressive outcome.

The money didn’t need to "trickle down". The entire point was that it started at the bottom.

5⃣ Government debt

Throughout the clip (and in life generally) you repeatedly return to the theme Labor is responsible for Australia’s debt (which btw is comparatively low).

Here are the actual numbers of net debt added by each Govt since 2007.

> Rudd/Gillard: about $190 billion over six years.
> Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison: about $366 billion over nine years, around two-thirds of which pre-dated COVID.
> Albanese: about $75 billion over four years.

Those figures don’t support the story you've been telling people. And that’s really the issue.

This isn't about getting one date wrong or misremembering one statistic. Nearly every claim in your 90-second clip turns out to be either wrong or misleading.

If you're going to publicly lecture Australians about economic history, the bare minimum expectation is that you’ve first acquainted yourself with it.

Because once the errors have been pointed out, as they have been to you multiple times, every repetition stops looking like an accident and starts looking like a strategy.

Given your very public coffee with Angus Taylor last week, perhaps people are entitled to ask what that strategy might be.

[Jonathan W Dean @JonathanWDean1]

@SiennaSSinclair @martinmbauer His problem is probably the same as some top scientists. His ability in one area makes him think he’s a genius in all areas (he clearly has aptitude, at least at some point in time)

[Jonathan W Dean @JonathanWDean1]

@alexjmingolla “If we focussed more resources on x, then we would be better at x”. Well yeah. Not exactly rocket science.

[Jonathan W Dean @JonathanWDean1]

@piersmorgan Pathetic? Maybe. Cheating? Absolutely not.

[Jonathan W Dean @JonathanWDean1]

@Spenciehustle @engineeringolf On real grass?

[Jonathan W Dean @JonathanWDean1]

@2D0XPS They finished grad school, earned a phd, and now wish to use their proper title of DR

[Jonathan W Dean @JonathanWDean1]

@cricketingview @RobbieMcIntyre1 Moen’s 20 wickets would be 120 runs more expensive. I don’t think that’s secondary

[Jonathan W Dean @JonathanWDean1]

@HendrickPa5880 @ProfBrianCox @WKCosmo 50^54 = (5 x 10)^54
= (5^54) x (10^54)