Rhosty,
If I had my druthers and I was treasurer, I would say no more
money for roads, it must all be put into rail.
I would reopen the closed lines in the country where at all possible,
even if they had to be run at a loss for a while.
It would revitalise the freight of harvests.

My son's father in law that I mentioned earlier was on a British
Government committee to look at changing the UK bus fleet to CNG or
hydrogen. He represented the bus building company he was MD of at the time.
Mercedes had some trial buses as they did in Perth and his company
built a number of fuel cell and NG buses, but they never were
financially a success. Getting the fuel tanks purged on the buses
was always a problem, and the hydrogen had numerous other problems.

CNG probably won't be used until there is no alternative but to spend
the big money and make the change, provided we have the money by then.
Someone in the US did the arithmetic to cost the change to CNG and
the figure was more money than the US could ever raise.

I hope that can overcome problems with fuel cells, which are mostly
financial and service problems. However I feel that in the longer run
there will be no place for individually owned cars. Perhaps we will
see ideas like the J-Pods take off. Small automatic pods on route
follower systems.

From the Resiliance web site.

The Next Domino ?
Egypt: The fuel and food situation continues to raise fears that a general uprising could engulf the country.
Egypt’s hard currency reserves have fallen to $13 billion from $36 billion two years ago, but much of this reserve is illiquid and billions are owed to foreign companies that operate Egypt’s oil and gas fields.
The immediate crisis is insufficient diesel fuel needed for irrigation pumps, harvesting this year’s crop, and transportation of nearly everything.
There are long lines at filling stations in many parts of the country. The government is attempting to install a rationing and distribution system for fuel and flour in hopes of curtailing black market sales which are running rampant, but Egyptian papers are saying this may not become effective until January.

An IMF team is due back in Cairo on Wednesday to continue the loan talks, but government insists it does not need an emergency loan at this time and still seems unwilling to impose the harsh austerity measures demanded by the IMF for fear of provoking more rioting.
The Morsi government seems to be taking the position that the country is too big to fail and that the outside world cannot afford to let the Suez Canal close, so somebody will step in and bail the country out.

The only bright spot of the week was the offer of oil from Iraq and Libya which the country can no longer afford to purchase on the open market.
Egyptian diplomats are reported to be making the rounds of the oil-producing states seeking loans or gifts. Whether this aid will be enough to allow Cairo to muddle through the current crisis remains to be seen.
Over the weekend, Egypt’s most popular television satirist was arrested for insulting President Morsi in what could be the beginning of a crackdown on anti-government dissent and another round of troubles.

JKJ,

> the legitimate function of government is to enforce the law against fraud, and the law of contract, not to “manage” the money supply.<

By the time a fraud or breach is identified the horse has usually bolted (Dot-Com, GFC?), or else drawn-out litigation ensues, enriching lawyers and leaving even less for creditors. No, the answer is better control. As to managing money, prudential assurance and guarantee is key. (GFC perpetrators walked away with buckets of money, at expense of ordinary creditors. Regulation and oversight failed or non existent. 'Loose' credit created a spending and construction orgy, with consequent inflationary pricing 'bubble', and together with trading in 'worthless' or exceedingly overvalued commodities conspired to generate an inevitable 'crash'.) Buying bonds (govt or private) is a gamble, like buying shares, so buyer-beware, and prudence and investigation of underlying 'value' is key.

As for: >monopoly government privilege to manipulate the money supply.< This is simplistic - because govt itself can 'manage' only a portion of available supply; the rest it should assure meets reasonable proven prudential assurances. (Who else could do that?)

>The idea that government magically creates benefits for society by printing money ..< No, but money supply is not static - how else did Oz' GDP go from $A300 Billion circa 1980 to over a trillion now (with similar rises all over the world)? As for 'fiat money', this is just different currencies, and there's nothing derogatory in that.

>more regulation ... how could that NOT take the form of granting legal privileges for some people to benefit at other people's expense? What would be an example of government regulation of money that did not answer that description?<

You are blaming govt instead of the actual fraudsters - who are mostly bankers, traders, company CEO's and Financial Comptrollers, and possibly Auditors and Credit Rating Agencies. Govt's have been complicit in some instances by LACK of appropriate Regulation and Oversight (eg. USSR, U.S. of A. and possibly Argentina and others - but NOT Oz). TBC>

Cont'd>
>manipulating the price of money to benefit political favourites at the expense of the productive class.<
Simplistic horse-feathers. Wage Increases + easy credit availability > price increases > inflation > GDP increase;
Productivity Increases + lower material and capital costs > lower prices > stability or deflation + GDP increase.
Balance is key. Money supply has to fluctuate with wages, profits/losses, balance of trade. Money supply should balance with net productivity; and no loans, bonds or Treasuries should be issued without balancing securities (asset and up-to-date balance-sheet values). Has this balance been adhered to? No. Result - GFC, bankruptcies, bail-outs. Where did bail-outs come from? Govt debt (issuing bonds or extending 'warehouse' IOU's) but without reciprocal assets, securities or prudent balance-sheet projections. Result: chaos, industry slowdown, job-losses, lack of credit > downward spiral.

I read enough of Murray Rothbard to realise he is stuck in a time-warp loop. Money IS only useful for its exchange value, BUT, money IS a commodity and subject to fluctuations in intrinsic value like any commodity. Money is not static, for every winner there is a loser, and, if fraudulent manipulation (see causes of the GFC) is widespread, money loses exchange value (see $US and Euro).

Henry Hazlitt (1946) suffers from a flawed belief that all govt expenditure equates to lost (and supposedly more cost-effective and beneficial) productivity in the private sector; and therefore govt expenditure (and therefore taxation) should be limited to the barest essentials. Codswallop. There has, of necessity, to be a mutually beneficial balance.
Destructive-reconstruction, broken glass: Archaic!
Fractional Reserve Banking: Inherently sound if loans are soundly based, and balanced by actual asset/security value (in current terms). Failure occurs when banks/companies attain funds by sale of 'questionable' or valueless bonds or securities/shares (based generally on balance-sheet chicanery), and either the market or govt fails to detect and/or prevent this, or is otherwise collusive.

We may agree to differ, but I believe you need better reference material; and I need a digital-age crystal ball.