2010 Federal Election

[Mofra]

Here's the guy who didn't make it onto the 7:30 Report, and as you read what he said, it may give you a clue as to why:

Not sure what he thinks the Future Fund is, but you get the general idea. Mind you the Future Fund is fairly narrowly targeted to public servant superannuation.

Cheers for posting Logique - I would suggest both major parties are guilty of frittering away the proceeds of the mining boom without using the funds particularly well.
The level of waste in the Defence Force alone is abysmal and in my experience has been that way going back past the recent Labour and Liberal giovernments, back to the Keating years at least.

 

[moXJO]

Rudd saving the country from the GFC is now part of Labor folklore, and will soon go into school history books, along with all their other propaganda.

lol What happens to the national school curriculum if liberals win? I would hate to see the amount of lefty spin the teachers must have inputted

 

[nioka]

It became obvious that Stiglitz was a biased clown when O'Brien was so obviously pleased with him.

Rudd saving the country from the GFC is now part of Labor folklore, and will soon go into school history books, along with all their other propaganda.

We all see what we want to see. I thought it was a well conducted interview with a good explanation that there were some benefits gained from the spending and that there would have been more waste if we/they had not wasted as they did. At least Rudd can claim that we did better than the rest of the western world....... because we have.

 

[trainspotter]

It is better to do something and fail then it is to do nothing at all. Fifty percent of something is better than one hundred percent of nothing.

As we do not know what the Libs may/may not/should/should have done during the GFC they were not in power at the time to spend the monies. I agree that the stimulus was totally necessary for the good of the country. My objection was that it should have stopped after the second wave thusly reducing the waste and rorting of the system we now have laid before us.

 

[trainspotter]

Any thoughts as to why Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd have dropped their affiliated party logos from their advertising propoganda? Their spokespeople are telling the story that the people in their electorate already know who they are so they do not have to "brand" their advertising. Are they setting themselves up for a fall or are they paving the way to become *SHOCK HORROR* ...... dare I say it ...... Independents?

 

[Logique]

. I agree that the stimulus was totally necessary for the good of the country. My objection was that it should have stopped after the second wave thusly reducing the waste and rorting of the system we now have laid before us.

Stimulus spending was necessary, I doubt there'd be an argument from anyone on that score, and certainly not from the Coalition. I think the discussion is about the targeting of the programs, and the efficiency and quality of management applied. And whether it was a little panicky, going too far and for too long.

 

[Happy]

... I agree that the stimulus was totally necessary for the good of the country. ....

I don't agree, as consecutive interest rate raises were caused by artificial boom using borrowed money.

 

[trainspotter]

I don't agree, as consecutive interest rate raises were caused by artificial boom using borrowed money.

Interest rates were at emergency levels to stop the country from hitting the wall like a bug on a windscreen. Had to be done otherwise there would have been massive foreclosures and bankruptcies, floundering business's etc etc.
While it has succeeded in jump-starting the monetary base it has failed to increase the money supply or velocity (the ratio of economic transactions to the money supply). Thus, while the banks now have the ability to make new loans, not enough qualified borrowers are interested in borrowing money, and banks are not willing to loan money to anyone that is not a prime borrower. What we need to stimulate the economy is "velocity" which measures the rate at which money in circulation is used for purchasing goods and services.

Debt is a problem only when it becomes unserviceable.

 

[Julia]

Any thoughts as to why Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd have dropped their affiliated party logos from their advertising propoganda? Their spokespeople are telling the story that the people in their electorate already know who they are so they do not have to "brand" their advertising. Are they setting themselves up for a fall or are they paving the way to become *SHOCK HORROR* ...... dare I say it ...... Independents?

I've had exactly the same thought in both cases.

Stimulus spending was necessary, I doubt there'd be an argument from anyone on that score, and certainly not from the Coalition. I think the discussion is about the targeting of the programs, and the efficiency and quality of management applied. And whether it was a little panicky, going too far and for too long.

Agreed. And it seems weird that following several interest rate rises to contain the expanding economy, they are continuing to borrow money to continue to stimulate the economy!
We'll never know, but I think the Libs would have been more likely to have targeted the spending better, and had more controls to prevent rorting.

 

[Happy]

....

Debt is a problem only when it becomes unserviceable.

We were conditioned to include debt into our way of life.

Crafty, and tricky and all those in a BANK love it and all the lemmings that go this way.

 

[wayneL]

Stimulus spending was necessary, I doubt there'd be an argument from anyone on that score...

There is an entire school of economics that would argue that it is exactly the wrong thing to do. I agree with them.

 

[trainspotter]

We were conditioned to include debt into our way of life.

Crafty, and tricky and all those in a BANK love it and all the lemmings that go this way.

I concur Happy wholeheartedly !! I prefer NOT to be in debt but the odd occassion you HAVE to for tax purposes etc. What boils my blood is that we are supposed to be in the worst GFC on record blah blah blah but the banks are still making record profits. Commonwealth Bank is ranked one of the safest and most profitable banks in the world !! DAMMIT, ANZ first half profit up 36% to 1.9 BILLION $$$$$$$ GOSH !!!!!

*pulls out mirror and has good look at oneself*

 

[Happy]

There is an entire school of economics that would argue that it is exactly the wrong thing to do. I agree with them.

For a while I thought better not stick my head out as I might be all alone.

Than heavens you are here!

 

[trainspotter]

You are not alone in thinking this Happy.

Private consumption did increase minimally in the December 2008 and March 2009 quarters, no doubt due in part to cash handouts.

It was a dramatic loosening of monetary policy and an exchange rate depreciation of nearly 30 per cent on a sustained basis throughout the crisis interval that best explains how Australia avoided a narrowly defined recession.

In other words, the floating dollar, not fiscal stimulus, really did the trick.

Paul Keating, Bob Hawke, Peter Costello and John Howard can all claim some credit, the first pair for the float of the dollar, and the second for making the Reserve Bank more independent.

Also China continuing to buy our mineral wealth as well as low foreign debt all played an integral part as to why we scraped through shinier than most.

Ummmmmmmm another reason was the big 4 banks had very little debt compared to "others" as well as NO toxic debt ie non performing or non recourse loans.

RBA dropping interest rates to emergency levels helped.

Many reasons can be thrown up but I am not sure if the "exclusivity" of one particular reason would suit the hypothesis.

 

[Calliope]

. At least Rudd can claim that we did better than the rest of the western world....... because we have.

Yes, we did better because we started off from a much sounder base. No thanks to Rudd.

 

[trainspotter]

Did anyone see the Chasers on ABC last night? Julie Bishop can stare down a concrete garden gnome. Julia Gillard said this "I am looking forward to going forward with the Australian people going forward." ........ I just lost it.

 

[wayneL]

http://blog.mises.org/?s=stimulus

 

[IFocus]

Liberals' double counting staggers

OUR first campaign lesson in economic comedy comes from Tony Abbott's 1.5 per cent cut in the company tax rate.

He is pretending to pay for it by scrapping Labor's 1 per cent cut to the company tax rate -- a double counting exercise that has to be seen to be believed.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...ounting-staggers/story-e6frgd0x-1225898204648

 

[gav]

http://blog.mises.org/?s=stimulus

I subscribe and get their emails daily

 

[drsmith]

One of the little-seen rituals of Australian politics is occurring around the country today, with election officials drawing balls from mini lottery-style baskets to determine the order names will appear on ballot papers.

http://blogs.abc.net.au/.a/6a00e0097e4e688833013485da2f0d970c-pi