Embarrassing farce as Anthony Albanese shows total ignorance of key economic facts in trainwreck ABC interview, writes PETER VAN ONSELEN

Our Prime Minister clearly has absolutely no idea about Australias economic data. Either that or he is deliberately misleading voters.

I choose to believe he is incompetent rather than deceitful - a narrow lesser of evils.

In an extraordinary show of ignorance in an ABC radio interview this morning, Anthony Albanese suggested the US economy is growing more slowly than ours, using that (incorrect) fact to help explain away why US interest rates are coming down, but ours are not.

Asked why US interest rates are falling when ours are not, the PM came up with this false narrative as an excuse: Because the (US) economy is so slow, thats why theyre cutting rates.

Really? The US economy is growing faster than the Australian economy, by some margin in fact. 

Is Albo conceding that his government is presiding over a sagging economy with tepid growth?

Or is he simply ignorant of the data coming out of the US? Does he not get briefings on this stuff? Or does he get them but not bother reading them?

There really are no good explanations for a PM being so misinformed.

Sorry, what? Anthony Albanese made very strange observations about the US economy in a testy ABC Radio interview with Patricia Karvelas

Albo ridiculed Karvelas economic questions as not terribly clever

As Harvard PhD economist, Professor Richard Holden told Daily Mail Australia:

Its very strange for the PM to say that the Fed cut rates because their economy is so slow compared to Australias. 

The US economy grew at an annualized rate of 3 percent in the most recent quarter, compared to 0.8 percent for Australia.

So the US economy is growing nearly four times as fast as Australias economy. But the PM says US economic growth is so slow.

Thats a withering critique of the job his Treasurer Jim Chalmers is doing managing the Australian economy.

Professor Holden is correct with his numbers - whereas the PM seems lost at sea.

Which begs the question, why doesnt our PM even know the basics about the comparative state of the Australian economy alongside the situation in the US?

Believe it or not, Albos economic ignorance doesnt end there. In a further attempt to justify why rates are coming down in the US but not here, the PM added: Inflation peaked higher in the United States and interest rates peaked higher in the United States than they did here.

That statement is at least factually true, even if it doesnt help Albos argument one little bit.

The fact inflation got higher in the US than it ever did here only serves to highlight how much better America has done bringing inflation back under control ever since.

Its now just 2.5 percent in the US, and forecast to fall further. Much lower than Australias latest quarterly inflation figure of 3.8 percent, which actually went up from the previous quarter.

Professor Holden is also scathing about the PMs attempt to portray the US as doing badly managing its economy when compared with Australias handling of various economic challenges:

What is he talking about? The US raised interest rates, beat inflation, have a strong economy, and are now cutting rates. In Australia its almost the exact opposite.

The bigger question is why the PM doesnt seem to understand this, Professor Holden adds.

While Albo chose to weigh in on interest rates and inflation, albeit erroneously, when asked, in the same interview he pleaded ignorance when it came to tax policy.

Asked whether his government was considering changes to negative gearing and capital gains taxes, Albo said: I dont answer those sorts of questions.

Thats remarkable really, given that Labor is trying to claim it has the answers to housing affordability concerns in the community. I guess hes only the PM.

No wonder the Greens and the Coalition are running rings around Labor on the issue. 

Recent opinion polls show that voters have little faith in Labors ability to manage everything from the economy to cost of living challenges to the housing crisis.

As bad as a PM refusing to answer simple tax policy questions might be, it at least ensured he didnt get his facts wrong on another economic discussion point in the same interview.

Perhaps Albo should have also refused to answer questions about inflation and interest rates the same way he chose silence on tax policy?

As former US President Abraham Lincoln once said: Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak up and remove all doubt.

If you think Im being unnecessarily harsh on Albos trainwreck of an interview, I should remind you that during it he was prepared to offer some snarky observations on the quality of the questions being asked.

At one point when pressed for an answer by ABC Radio National host Patricia Karvelas, an audibly cranky Albo spat back: Theyre not terribly clever questions.

It was a sure sign he knew his spin, bravado and false narratives werent cutting mustard.

Not that Chalmers did much better. When he fronted up for his morning political interviews, the Treasurer tried to claim: When it comes to the Australian situation, weve got inflation coming off pretty substantially.

UNSW Economics Professor Richard Holden said Albos interpration was very strange

Really? As already mentioned the latest quarterly numbers were going in the wrong direction, with inflation of 3.8 per cent way above the Reserve Banks target range of 2-3 percent.

And even though the latest monthly results saw a slight improvement, as the RBA has already pointed out, its largely artificial because the governments energy rebates are distorting the data in the short term.

So whether its the PM or the Treasurer, the political leaders running our trillion dollar economy seem incapable of reading the data anyone can access and honestly and accurately conveying what it tells us.

Albo made a rather big deal of former PM Scott Morrisons poor relationship with the truth ahead of the last federal election.

Now that hes PM, Albo is increasingly no better.