Australia's growth - 2.4%. America's growth under Trump- 4.3%

'This time last year, almost nobody forecast that the US economy would be growing as strongly as it is.'

of course hatred blinds. the abc and other Marxist detest the fact that Trump has overseen the creation of record numbers of jobs for African Americans. seems like the pseudo economist have taken the same consensus economics path as the pseudo scientist or push the gw lie. Facts and truth seem to mean little.

runner,
I'm holding my breath what the rent-a-critc crowd from the hangers-on brigade will have to say about this.

ttbn,
Countries have a choice: they can go for growth or they can try to balance the budget.

America's attempts to balance the budget (driven by the Republicans in Congress) hampered their recovery from the GFC. Now, thanks to Trump's tax cuts, Uncle Sam is putting far more money into the economy, creating more opportunities for business and spurring the growth that should have happened years ago.

Australia initially reacted wel to the GFC, but then fell for the Must Balance Budget meme, and growth has been quite sluggish ever since.

Isn't it about time the word Growth is removed from economic management ?
Sustainability has a much more sound & logical ring to it.
Profit in double figures of % is what causes economies to stall & kills local employment.

individual,
>Isn't it about time the word Growth is removed from economic management ?
Not at all. Increasing the value of the work done in the nation is not only one of the important measures we have, but also a worthwhile objective.

>Sustainability has a much more sound & logical ring to it.
If you mean environmental sustainability, that is also very important, though far more difficult to measure.

If you mean economic sustainability, that's not something that can be reliably measured without the benefit of hindsight.

>Profit in double figures of % is what causes economies to stall & kills local employment.
No it isn't! Whatever gave you that idea?

A lot of this growth comes from debt funded spending and quatitative easing that in Trump's America, knows no bounds.

Bilions poured into corporate America to increase productive capacity, has by and large, been diverted into share buy backs and higher debt funded dividends/corporate bonuses. A house of cards built way too high and about to tumble with the very first puff of economic headwind!

And the very reason Emporer Trump now wants to fire the federal chair, given this sane directer is increasing interest rates along with ncreasing economic activity.

My opinion for what it is worth, is far less optimistic than the hyperbole of the Author. And because we just don't have a leader willing to lead us into the 20th century, (let alone the 21st) the nuclear age and power prices as low as 2 cents per KwH.

And because it's the only card we have to play, that may prevent us joining the likes of the Phillipines as another Banana republic, with way too much debt, both public and private and facing the spectre of rising interest rates with debt that simply becomes unrepayable?

Unless there is a relief valve for an overstressed economy? That releif valve is the lowest energy prices in the world. And not just any energy but proven MSR thorium energy!

Why energy?

Simply because, there's an energy component in all goods and services and that component cascades up through the supply chain.

Moreover, worrysome for some conflicted pollies whose personal fortunes depend on the status quo and their pecuniary involvement with coal or coal fired power?

This statement edited and corrected by Grammerly.
Alan B.

No it isn't! Whatever gave you that idea?
Aidan,
Everything that has been done in the name of Growth economy thus far & failed gave me that idea.

Individual,
I think you might be answering the wrong question. I didn't ask you why you were suspicious of growth; I asked you why you think "Profit in double figures of % is what causes economies to stall & kills local employment"?

But in response to the answer you gave, I remind you that people are responsible for what they do; what people do it in the name of is seldom to blame.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Alan B.,
>A lot of this growth comes from debt funded spending and quatitative easing that in Trump's America, knows no bounds
I think the QE's officially over. A lot of spending is debt funded but that shouldn't be a problem - the way money works, someone has to be in debt.

Trump has denied wanting to fire the Fed chair (FWIW) but he still has good reason to. Despite Trump's tariffs, inflation's still low. Far too low to justify the recent interest rate rises. They're making the same mistake that the RBA did in the Gillard era.

We are not in any danger whatsoever of turning into a banana republic; Paul Keating made various reforms to prevent that outcome, including floating the dollar so we have unlimited credit. We have plenty of cards left. And despite your usual spiel, MSR technology has a long way to go before it's commercially viable at all, let alone able to produce electricity for 2c/kWh, and that figure wouldn't be the world's cheapest anyway.

Solar power will ensure cheap energy is one of our advantages, but we will (and do) have plenty of other advantages as well.

I won't reply to Adians commentary and his view, you cannot have too much debt. Suffice to say we were once the third wealthiest nation on the planet and a ceditor one at that.

Borrowing always comes with cost. Namely interest payments! All of which have to be paid for somehow. And out of shrinking revenue, given recent tax reductions. And those interest payments always rise as the debt burden increases!

Adians economic recipie (whim and caprice of a madman?) has already been feild tested in Zimbabwe. And the result? A loaf of bread costing thousands of Zimbabwean dollars!

He just denies that there can be anything cheaper than his preferred solar power! And consequently rates his economic nous ahead of Ivy league Professor, economist Rbert hargreaves. who states on
Utube google tech talks, in reference to his book, Thorium, cheaper than coal, that MSR thorium could come with power prices as low as a dollar and ninety eight cents PKWH. Quote unquote.

And backed by prize winnig investigative Journalist and science writer, Richard Martin in his book, Thorium, Super Fuel, subtitled, green energy.

This comment corrected by Grammerly.
Alan B.

Alan B.,
Why do you feel the need to post lies about my position?

I have NEVER EVER advocated what Zimbabwe did. Indeed I specifically mentioned that Paul Keating's reforms (including floating our dollar, which gave us unlimited credit) that saved us from the possibility of banana republic status. Whereas Zimbabwe didn't float their dollar; instead their government kept control of its official value, but ran out of the resources to keep it at that value. At which point they devalued and repeated until eventually giving up and abolishing it.

If Zimbabwe had floated their dollar when they had the chance then despite their economic lunacy (which included declaring war on their main export industry while discouraging foreign investment) they would have avoided hyperinflation.

Do you now understand that my position on Zimbabwe is almost the opposite of what you seem to think it was?

I'll get back to economics in another post. Meanwhile:
>He just denies that there can be anything cheaper than his preferred solar power!
That's another lie of yours. I fully accept that in some parts of the world they have abundant hydroelectric power which is cheaper.

>And consequently rates his economic nous ahead of Ivy league Professor, economist Rbert hargreaves. who states on
>Utube google tech talks, in reference to his book, Thorium, cheaper than coal, that MSR thorium could come with
>power prices as low as a dollar and ninety eight cents PKWH.
ITYM one point nine eight cents per kWh.

I'm not sufficiently familiar with Professor Hargreaves's positions on economic issues to compare our economic nous. But I concur with him that it may eventually result in prices below 2c/kWh. I just don't share your assumptions that MSR thorium power is achievable immediately, not that the 2c/kWh price would be achievable straight away, nor that solar power won't be able to do the job cheaper sooner.

And I've tried to explain that all to you, but you just deny there can be anything cheaper than your preferred thorium power.

Paul Keating's reforms (including floating our dollar, which gave us unlimited credit) that saved us from the possibility of banana republic status.
Aidan,
Fast forward to 2018 & we have unlimited debt & being in the Commonwealth we're not yet a republic.
Pay demands for no improved enterprise in return got us here.
No amount of jargon can change history.

individual,
>Fast forward to 2018 & we have unlimited debt
No we don't!

>& being in the Commonwealth we're not yet a republic.
The two aren't mutually exclusive. Not that being a republic is a prerequisite for a country's economy to be at banana republic status.

>Pay demands for no improved enterprise in return got us here.
Then we're obviously not where you think we are, for wage share of GDP is at or near its lowest since records began - see http://www.futurework.org.au/infographic_the_shrinking_labour_share_of_gdp_and_average_wages

>No amount of jargon can change history.
Nor can any amount of hyperbole and conjecture.

I stand by previous comments and note. Hydro electric needs thousands of miles of wires as does solar or geothermal or tidal hydro. One cannot make miracle cancer cure bismuth213 with photovoltaic solar, geothermal hydro. etc. Every year brain cancer alone claims more victims than the annual road toll!

Solar panels may not get cheaper, given a 30% annual wages growth in China, unless It's done via automation? And then highly energy dependant. Most of which is today provided in china with coal fired power, ditto wind turbines.

And in the case of the former, acompanied by mountains of toxic waste, simply dumped.

Coal-fired power in a carbon contrained economy not completely out of the question. But done very differently. No boilers, no steam driven turbines, but rather, giant industrial ovens.

Where all the methane is cooked out, run through water scrubbers then piped to the end user. A national gas grid possibly costing no more than a new, clean-coal, power station?

Where it could be bladder stored at delivery point, then used on demand via ceramic fuel cells. And as a combination, with an 80% energy coificient.

A chemical proccess, not combustion, produces mostly pristine water vapour.

Given little if any transmission or distribution losses. Nor brownouts or blackouts! Able to provide dispatchable, reliable, mostly carbon-free-power, for possibly less than 3 cents per KwH? Unsubsidized!

If solar could match that with any unsubsidized formatt? I'll eat my hat!
Alan B.

All the way with Donald T!

Trump may well win the US 2020 Presidential Election due to:

- higher than expected US economic growth. Americans mainly love the buck!

- part caused by US tax cuts

- manly brinkmanship against North Korea, Iran, China, NATO and especially against democratic UK and Western Europe

- brotherly love for Putin and Russian authoritarian toughness generally

- bringing many US troops from Syria and Afghanistan (though quietly backfilling using the with CIA paramilitary Special Activities Division in

= Syria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Syria#War,_2011%E2%80%932017

= Afghanistan http://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/22/world/asia/cia-expanding-taliban-fight-afghanistan.html

All this augurs well for the Donald, the US's and therefore the world's chief Tweeter-in-Chief.

All thinking Australians love the Trumpster. Don't they?

Dear Pete,

Are you serious?

I'm currently reading the Bob Woodward book -
"Fear: Trump In the White House." It's
scaring the heck out of me.

CORRECTION:

All the way with Donald T!

Trump may well win the US 2020 Presidential Election due to:

- higher than expected US economic growth. Americans mainly love the buck!

- part caused by US tax cuts

- manly brinkmanship against North Korea, Iran, China, NATO and especially against democratic UK and Western Europe

- brotherly love for Putin and Russian authoritarian toughness generally

- announcing in December 2018 that he is bringing HOME many US troops from Syria and Afghanistan (though quietly backfilling the troop drawdown with 1,000s of EXTRA CIA paramilitary Special Activities Division in

= Syria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Syria#War,_2011%E2%80%932017

= Afghanistan http://www.cbsnews.com/news/leaving-afghanistan-would-cause-greater-problem-says-former-senior-cia-paramilitary-officer/

All this augurs well for the Donald, the US's and therefore the world's chief Tweeter-in-Chief.

All thinking Australians love the Trumpster. Don't they?

Bob Woodward
Education Yale University (BA)
George Washington University
Occupation Journalist
Foxy,
So you take a professional hanger-on serious ?

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Happy New Year Foxy [at Monday, 31 December 2018 12:50:06 PM]

No I'm not serious.

I'm just stirring contrarian about Trump, in a cynical way.

That said. The vocal US left and Center are still only a small minority in the US. Most Americans are to the right of most Australians.

Also Americans generally prize economic performance as the most important trait in a President.

In that sense positive economic growth and economic protectionism of old industries during Trump's First term may well win Trump the 2020 Elections for a Second term until 2024.

Regards

Pete

2019 will be better than expected

What if Labor gets in here when the rest of the world's turning conservative ?

individual,
> What if Labor gets in here when the rest of the world's turning conservative ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9lkQQEVqv8

More seriously, we'd be a trend setter. Conservative governments don't last for ever, and Britain's Conservative government looks increasingly in danger of collapsing. I'm sure plenty more countries would follow in time.

Aidan,
How did you manage to find these pillars of society ?

Conservative governments don't last for ever, and Britain's Conservative government looks increasingly in danger of collapsing
Aidan,
You're right there. Rats desert the ship rather than contribute to saving it. Progressives are deploying the same principle with conservative Govts.