Wayne Swan elected to chair UN economics advisory body.
Tuesday, 17 January 2017
(two towering intellects of the economics world)
The World's Greatest Treasurer Wayne Swan has been elected to chair a UN economics advisory body.
Wayne Swan aka Wayne Swan FI* to the staff of the Australian Treasury. This is not a joke.
And the very first thing he said in his opening remarks in the new role? Governments need to increase taxes to give themselves more money to work with.
Inaugural meeting of the Eminent Expert Group on Tax Policies and Public Expenditure Management
The Eminent Expert Group has been established as an independent advisory board for the Executive Secretary of ESCAP to provide strategic guidance, suggest policy priorities and contribute technical inputs for ESCAP's efforts in supporting member States to rethink and recalibrate public finance policies for the successful implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
18 renowned experts and experienced policy makers serve as the founding members of the Eminent Expert Group, and 16 of them participated in the Group's inaugural meeting which took place in Bangkok on 6-7 December 2016. Mr. Wayne Swan, Member of Parliament and former Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer of Australia, was elected as the first Chair and Mr. Axel Bertuch-Samuels, former IMF Special Representative to the United Nations, was elected as the first Rapporteur of the Group at the meeting.
The meeting deliberated on a number of policy priorities covering (i) conducive tax and public expenditure policies for inclusive and sustainable development, (ii) international tax reforms and their implications for developing countries, (iii) unique local challenges such as municipal public finance for urbanization, and (iv) cross-cutting issues such as building a broad social contract for responsible public spending and taxpayer consent for sustainable revenue mobilization.
ENDS
Here is the Swan economic genius at work.
*FI - floppin' idiot.