Get real Julie, President bush handed out tax breaks to people who didn't need them, then made up for the revenue shortfall he created, by funding all his military misadventures on the credit card.
The position that President Obama wrestles with, was one he inherited
Even as the American economy was going backwards under President Bush, America was shelling out over 70 billions PA, for oil imports.
Every western style economy rest on just two economic pillars, energy and capital.
And the unregulated capital market stole debt in the form of un-repayable derivatives, 64 trillions worth?
Used in too many cases; to make, [cooked,] books look much better than they really were; and or, grow too big to be allowed to fail; and, kick the debt can, a decade or two down the road.
It's so typical of conservative administrations, to create the problem, either as entirely incompetent administrations; or blame shifting road blocks, when in opposition?
They way forward for the Americans is to set aside the blame shifting and simply crack on with transforming their economy to a carbon neutral/free one, with much lower energy costs.
This will allow money currently being consumed paying for fully imported or far too expensive energy, being used to pay down debt.
It'll take two or three decades
Capital gains tax needs to be much higher, to prevent the sort of multi trillion dollar speculation; market cornering, that has driven energy prices far too high to sustain!
The very wealthiest need to at the very least, pay the same percentage of their income, in tax, as wage earners.
The top tax rate in a post war America was 91 cents in the dollar!
It was also a time, when America went through a period of unprecedented prosperity.
Prosperity that has been progressively wound back by by Republican administrations; and or, to satisfy unmitigated, unsustainable, personal greed!
Rhrosty.

We could assist the American economy to recover, and assist ourselves as well, by exploring and exploiting the massive hydrocarbon deposits that lie to our immediate north.
This will earn trillions for us in annual earnings and allow energy consumers to transfer their energy use, to a form, which creates four times less carbon, than fully refined fully imported sulphur laden rubbish. i.e. Canadian tar sands or already once refined Middle Eastern/Russian rubbish?
We could, for example, sell practically ready to use, naturally occurring diesel, [sweet light Australian crude,] for a hundred dollars a barrel, or, around 75 cents a litre?
This would generate profits of around 80.00 a barrel.
The Townsville trench by itself, as just one example, has reserves estimated as somewhere between 5-15 billion barrels, and if exploited by the govt, or govt employed tendering contractors, on the peoples' behalf, could earn 40-120 billions inside a decade.
How much are we currently earning from the tourist trade, the opposing greens continually tout?
Well bugger all, or simply not enough to stop a number of resort closures or bankruptcies!
Moreover, much larger longer equally promising trenches, lie further out. Albeit, in relatively shallow water!
The trillions we could earn on an annual basis, would pay for the complete conversion of our own economy to a progressively carbon neutral one, and the substitution by others, to much lower carbon producing fuel types, would give them the breathing space, the time and the capital, to convert their own economies to carbon free ones, without also crippling their own economies.
We could find, if we but bothered to look, that we have hydrocarbon reserves to our immediate north, to rival or even eclipse the entire known hydrocarbon reserves in the Middle East?
We should and must tap into this liquid gold or economy recovering wealth, even if it means our govt getting into the highly lucrative energy business!
Other much more pragmatically led countries and or extremely conservative administrations already do!
Rhrosty.

"Uncertainty" seems to be a word that's bandied
about so easily nowadays. And probably for good
reasons. None of us really know for certain what's going to
happen globally and how it will affect us. Australian
voters will have to take a close look at the policies on
offer prior to the next election and decide for themselves
which Party can serve their country best.

Economic experts seem to agree that when it comes to
winning in politics it's real policy debate over
economic issues that matter not silly political debates,
distortions, exaggerations - repeated over and over again.

So if Mr Abbott is elected as Australia's next PM he'll have a
complex economy to oversee. He will face issues of
productivity, labour force adaptability (WorkChoices is
dead, buried, and cremated - right?); an over-regulated
business sector, the issue of middle-class welfare, taxation
distribution between states, core roles of government, and
so on.

Nothing new there - except as we're told - the world is
moving so fast and is so interlinked that Mr Abbott is
going to need the best brains around him if Australia is to
measure up.

And that's a big concern. Mr Abbott is not known for his
policy work. He was at best a wayward minister and hiw
wild policy gyrations in Opposition on coal-fired power
stations, coal seam gas exploration, asylum seekers and
industrial relations for instance suggest chaos rather than
stability. There is no underlying sense of economic
competence.

His front bench economic team is threadbare at best.
Frequently offering us confusing, contradictory and
nonsensical sounding messages. They lack a sense of purpose.

As Norman Abjorensen says, "The scattergun tactics in
Opposition which can and do rattle a government simply
do not translate well in office.

Whether Mr Abbott is what he appears to be, a "One
Trick Pony," is yet to be seen. Unfortunately the voters
might learn this fact a little too late.

Well currently the US & Oz [& the EU for that matter], have government leaders about as bad as it is possible to get. At least we can believe it can't get any worse from here.

What a lot of those commenting don't appear to realise is that the nation building phase here & in the US occurred with mere existence wages, no health & safety, no welfare state, no state health care, & minimal state schooling.

We have socialised so many costs that we simply can't afford them.

Look at any state that has such a social welfare system, & you will see another failing state. It is simply beyond the capacity of a society to have so many taking without contributing in return.

Yes I know the bleeding hearts will call me all sorts of things, but I am just telling it as it is.

Those now receiving have done very well, but what will be left but debt? We have just about sold all the farm to pay for our indulgence, so where now?

It is nice to have free medical treatment. Thanks for treating my 3 heart attacks for me, but we can no longer afford such generosity, even for me. It is not practical to stick replacement hearts & lungs into recipients who will merely be a continuing drain there after. That warm & fuzzy feeling is just too expensive.

We have encouraged many to become just a waste of space. If we don't demand a suitable return for our generosity, it will not be long before it bites us beyond recovery. We are just going to have to say to folks like me, pay for your own treatment. Sell your house & move into a tent if necessary, our kids future welfare requires it.

Democracy has failed...susceptible to curruption...tits fundamental flaw...and we have arrived at this point of world population consumption energy balance/imbalance within parameters effected by combined democratic process of countries of the world, most countries have democracy as its governing process as its image to world...

http://m.guardian.co.uk/politics/2002/mar/19/usa.world?cat=politics&type=article

Democracy continues to be promoted and enforced by power if required worldwide...latest is Egypt lybia and soon Syria...countries which on close look works....food, education, health, law, stability...

And similar pattern of attack is developing....world corporate media starts a demonixing campaign...at some point UN joins in....country starts getting destabilized from within(NGO's usually used by American Got as it doesn't have restrictive legal barriers official govt bodies....why Egypt closed all of them down)...then highly televised 'population uprising....and voila democracy...

Democracy or whatever then it is...the effect to country is total disruption of existing culture morals and behaviour...live for now, I'm only important, consume consume consume...and magically countries policies become aligned with western countries...

To how is democracy corrupted to become a tool of enforcement? ...dats an big book...basically...the elected representative of the population are not the ones effecting the democratic control over us...eg....carbon tax(tax on air we breath effectively) was rejected by majority of Australian population but legislated anyway which by definition impossible in an democratic country...yeah?

So what now? Well...to me I see this...we have an enforced image of democracy within which we are expected to be productive citizens...extrapolating....the end is...population is totaaly monitored and controlled on an individual basis by unknown all powerful figures.....just waiting for the required technology to develop...hmmm...what a world...

Sam

Hi Julie,

Well, there you have it! If you really want to know how the world really works and where the world is going, all you have to do is post on OLO and read the words of advice from the resident sages.

I’m old enough to remember the scorn my parents poured on the introduction of credit cards, I remember how long we had to have a savings account and a sizable deposit to get a mortgage, I remember values such as if you want it bad enough save up for it, I remember the risks associated with debt and the need to have backup in the event of the unexpected. In particular I remember the dread associated with the prospect of losing your job.

My three kids and our grandkids think of us as old fashioned however, all of them have come to us at some stage for advice or guidance in relation to financial issues. The reason for this is because the way they do their finances and planning (sic), is very high risk.

At a macro level, I think there are direct parallels with the way the western world has developed its socio-economic policies, particularly in the last 40 years. It “sort” of works for them, it “looks” OK on the surface, they “seem” to be financially sound and hey, this is their world. But they keep screwing things up.

Today’s generations socialize all their problems. They blame it on lack of equity, social justice, gender, corporate greed, capitalism, peak oil/population/food production, persecution of the poorer nations, and on and on they bleat.

They have lost their reference points and have an excuse for everything and guess what, it’s never their fault. What they are completely oblivious to is the fact that in the grand scheme of things, nothing has changed since humans first started swapping flint spear tips for dried fish.

The post WWII generations, recovered, rebuilt, created wealth and helped drag much of the third world out of poverty.

Now we have a bunch of well educated but not intelligent whiners running things.