Et tu, Jase?

Nobody was a bigger booster of the idea that Peter Costello should become Prime Minister than Jason Koutsoukis. Now he's suddenly realised that his career's work - no, its very aim - has turned to dust.

If ever there was someone who had a lot to be modest about, it's Jase. At the time he was putting Peter Costello's pocket lint into words, stuff like this was eminently foreseeable:

Unfortunately for future generations, not many jobs and industries will be generated by money tied up in houses.

He must seriously think people will believe guff like this:

The principal architects of this mess are John Howard and Peter Costello

He's tried to counter this by borrowing someone else's credibility:

According to University of Western Sydney economics professor Steve Keen, one way to do that would be to link the amount of money banks can lend to a certain multiple of the property's estimated rental income ... Introduce a policy like that overnight and it would cause an instant crash in the property market, so, Keen says, it would have to be introduced over a long period of time.

Oh well, at least you tried Jase. Shame about the lack of analysis of the very sort of idea that every experienced journalist knows will be doomed in Canberra.

Then, Jase tries the generational warrior angle:

If cashed-up baby boomers had been less crazed in their pursuit of property over the past decade, we might have avoided the housing affordability crisis ... In the meantime, today's generation of wage slaves can get on with the task of paying off the mountain of debt bequeathed to them by the baby boomers.

This column is about five years too late, in contrast with last week's exercise in premature ejaculation. Jason Koutsoukis has no credibility, yet The Age gives him a run: I dissect his articles like this for the same reasons that medical students practice on cadavers: you can develop a sound opinion by refracting it off something - like Jason Koutsoukis' credibility - whose viability has long passed.