Alec Sewell

PhD in social policy. Tweeting about social, economic and criminal justice policy. (Mostly.)

[Alec Sewell @alecwsewell]

@AimeTim Have you read 'Living gently in a violent world'? It's very good.

[Alec Sewell @alecwsewell]

Serious bottom of the barrel advertising at Twitter/X

[Alec Sewell @alecwsewell]

@DavidSligar The tertiary education union once published some research which included unreasonable work expectations (not further defined) under the category of bullying.

[Alec Sewell @alecwsewell]

@StuartBDonovan @rocco_mate @chrisedmond Both processes are dynamic, ie they affect inflation levels rather than price levels

[Alec Sewell @alecwsewell]

@StuartBDonovan @rocco_mate @chrisedmond Why does a supply shock lead to entrenched inflation? One answer is that employees factor inflation expectations into wage demands. Another is that firms do so via price increases. Both rely on market concentration, whether because unemployment<nairu OR because of oligopoly.

[Alec Sewell @alecwsewell]

@MattCowgill To the extent that prices are rising due to profits (ie businesses including inflation expectations in price setting) then competition/antitrust policies are more salient than demand reduction, no?

[Alec Sewell @alecwsewell]

Is it possible there's a non-accelerating inflation rate of competition, below which companies can build inflation expectations into their prices? (tongue only a little bit in cheek)

[Centre for Future Work @CntrFutureWork]

Inflation would have stayed within or near the Reserve Bank target band if companies had not squeezed consumers through excessive price increases, our research shows. (1/2) #auspol

[Alec Sewell @alecwsewell]

@janidle @Sarahrcyb @MQ_Sociology Yep, that was my experience. Finished in 2016 and I've been working in the Australian and NSW public sectors ever since.

[Alec Sewell @alecwsewell]

@peter_tulip Counterpoint: Inner West voters are strategically voting Green so that neither major party will pay attention to local density concerns.

[Alec Sewell @alecwsewell]

@QuentinDempster @abc730 @AdamBandt Income tax deductible, not wealth tax deductible

[Alec Sewell @alecwsewell]

@tfswebb I remember reading somewhere that it was one of the legacies of King O'Malley.

Here's a summary (from the BBC of all places)

https://t.co/xzKmBigPST

[Alec Sewell @alecwsewell]

@JeremyPoxon I haven't seen a clear definition of austerity in the Australian context. I noticed that excess mortality was actually negative for 2020 (not for 2021 afaik). It's hard to work out what causes what, especially in a pandemic, but I've wondered how much job keeper etc saved lives.

[Alec Sewell @alecwsewell]

@antoinette_news Full on! Thanks for isolating. There are currently more than 5,000 unlinked cases in the Sydney outbreak, so it's possible a bunch of them are unlinked outdoors transmission. (You can check unlinked cases at https://t.co/GiutJlWrM3)

[Alec Sewell @alecwsewell]

@JohnQuiggin Absolutely agree. This also sheds some light on the differences between the responses at the state/territory level versus the Commonwealth. State public sectors have a workforce as well as a bureaucracy, which keeps the public servants grounded to a degree.

[Alec Sewell @alecwsewell]

Obviously hyper- or accelerating-inflation is bad, but it strikes me that most people would be the same or better off, through inflating away debt, wage growth, and increases to payments and pensions. What am I missing?

[Alec Sewell @alecwsewell]

Hi @richardaedy , I was listening to the show yesterday, one of your guests said something to the effect of 'no one wants high wages growth and high inflation'. I'm in my mid 30s and have never experienced high inflation so I'm wondering why that's a given?

[Alec Sewell @alecwsewell]

Just got vaccinated. I'm really impressed by the mass vaccination centre in Sydney Olympic Park. There are dozens if not hundreds of people going through every fifteen minutes. Feels like organised chaos but actually it's just a really impressive system.

[Alec Sewell @alecwsewell]

@Rob_Stott https://t.co/vyVWCimRbs

[Michael Salter @mike_salter]

@vanOnselenP Spirals are probably the most common recurring motif in the artwork of trauma survivors. I have a spiral painting on my office wall given to me by a survivor.

Nobody with expertise in this area would consider such self-expression unusual in the circumstances.