China stimulus package good; Australian stimulus package bad! Shades of George Orwell.

All economic activity carries some risk. China has, I believe, far more cement production capacity than it can possibly utilise and I suspect the same applies to steel.

Australia's financial position is capable of supporting another round of stimulus spending if that becomes necessary.

The Coalition has been critical of some waste in the stimulus packages but it has never criticised the waste attributable to major companies. BHP spent billions on a direct reduction plant which was a failure and through tax reductions the public carried a significant proportion of that waste. I wonder how much the failure of ABC Learning due to poor management has reduced the potential tax income. There are many other examples such as RIO's takeover in the aluminium industry.

The maintenance of employment, not any earlier action by Howard and Costello, is what saved Australia from a housing market collapse although the activities of Howard and Costello contributed to the over-inflation (bubble) of house prices which has denied many young people the opportunity to own their own home. Money for first home owner schemes usually disappears into the pockets of speculators and builders.

In the H and C era bank creation of money was about three times the inflation rate and while H and C kept their boots on the neck of wage earners the inflation caused by the banks activities went to capital assets or, in affect, to the well off.

You have to laugh at the tories and their "save for a rainy day" crap.
If the global financial crisis was not a rainy day I dont know what was.

oh it's all so easy, you just borrow some more money

future generations won't mind paying for the follies of this generation

More Liberal banner waving.
neither objective or accurate.

Yes Amicus, it's all so easy, at least for those who can't add up.

Foyle, that is quite right, for Oz at least.

China stimulus package, Chinese spending.

Oz stimulus package, Oz debt.

It is pretty obvious which is good for oz, & which is bad. If you look at the total expenditure in each case, it is again obvious which one did the job, & did it without burning down any Oz homes.

WHat did save Oz from the recession? Yeah, we know Artie. Show us your Lib membership card and then say "Johnny and Pete"!

You're a fool Artie. You're actually saying Rudd should have done nothing in case there was worse to come. Read your stupid argument. So when does that rainy day come? In Lib terms, never. They sock it away in a future fund which could have been used for the spend on jobs.

Instead, what's that money doing? Sitting under Costelloe and going backwards with the market. Excellent plan.

Get a life Artie and thank goodness all don't think like you do.