All well and good then interest rates at 5.5% blah,blah,blah... So how does Henry Thornton see the outlook for the unemployed, those of us on disability pensions, low paid working families paying rent and trying to survive on $12.75 per hour and old age pensioners?

I suppose we will have our usual rosy time of it, off to Bali, when winter arrives,[can't afford Rio this year] then on to New Zealand in summer,[nice and cool over there] opppps..are we out of milk again, that's the third bottle this month.....

Henry,brillient post.As I see it the economy will go on at an even keel and all will be well with the world.In my case I have invested on the FTSE 100 in speckled trout,It is rumoured they may well fetch $100.00 a pound in the next few months.This will all depend on the cost of bird seeds eminating out of the Swiss Market with influence from the Hang Seng.However my main concern is the derivites in dog buscuits,options and futures should be carfully analysed in conjunction with my self managed super funds.Of course this depends on the miracle there is any money left by next wednesday.Will that be a bullish or a bear market?What do you think Henry?Should I pay the commission free of the 2%margin requirment? Or should I demand interest rate security's?Maybe I should speculate and sell the wifes jewlery?I think I will just take the dog for a walk.

Nirvana yea right.This whole sham is about to blow up in every ones face.We are all drowning in plastic buckets and paper cups.

Economists should be allowed to join the majicians union.

So PHILL,
Basicly what you are saying is "Who the hell has any money, and if they do, who cares what Henry thinks anyway" do I read you correctly mate?

Shonga.How astute you are.How did you work that out?must be sumfing I wrote.Last week I couldn't spell economist now I are one.

On a serious note.I don't take anything I read on O.L.O.to serious most of the sh#te on here cries out to have the piss taken out of it.Have you noticed that most of the commentry comes from writers that are a little to the right or am I to cynical you be the judge.What I truly love though is the use of words used by some posters to show how intelligent they think they are.I spend half my life looking in the dictionary.I have an Oxford and some of the words aint in it.I reckon it must be a secret code you can only learn at uni.I mean sh@t before O.L.O I never even heared of the word bottomry, look it up.Maybe it's just to keep the working class confused.I love being ignorant it keeps my feet firmly planted on the ground.

As soon as I saw the word" wage restraint" in Henry Thornton's piece.My imagination went into overdrive.Of course you will find that little faux par in anything you read from an economist.T.T.F.N. That's code for ta ta for now.

Continued economic growth is simply unsustainable. The world's population had exploded since 1848 when the first oil began to flow from wells. Prices skyrocket as the price of oil ratchets ever upward. Simple fruit and produce required to maintain a decent standard of health are slowly edging their way out of the financial grasp of struggling families. Those on limited income are even worse off. The whole monetary system appears to revolve around the principles of "more people = bigger profits," but the time is fast approaching when the human population will reach an unsustainable level too, if it hasn't already. As a result, the financial markets will top out and we'll be plunged into major depression. It could well happen this decade as the price of oil soars. The cost of fertiliser rises along with that of oil, same with transport and produce. The CPI rises along with produce giving utility companies an excuse to raise the price of their services. Inflation never seems to end but let me assure you it will. The world economy is like a house of cards and one puff of wind will bring it crashing down. Be prepared people. Pay off your debts and dig up the back yard. The vegies you grow today might be the only things keeping you alive tomorrow. Oh damn. I forgot about global warming. Since our industrialised world has destroyed the environment, they'll be no water for the garden. Never mind. Johnny Howard will fix things. He'll further destroy our lives by completely doing away with social security, working longer hours for less pay, raising the pension age to 100 and by raising taxes so that when the starving take up pitch-forks and sticks (he's already taken our guns,) he'll be able to run off the the USA and live happily ever after with his mate Bush using the money he stole form you and I to fund his lavish lifestyle. De-population should happen quickly, but it won't because of greed for the mighty dollar. Best fiction writers can't see a way out of this one.

wild cat

You say in regard to population;
"Best fiction writers can't see a way out of this one"

Well here are four answers, which are non fiction:

1 Starvation
2 Bird Flue
3 Wars
4 Combination of abov

Hey Wildcat!, slip in a few paragraphs mate - it makes the text easier to read for us with failing eyesight:

I think Henry's criticism of the reserve bank is fair enough but the policy environment established by the last two regimes has seen the development of an exposed and brittle economy - but to listen to ourleaders you would think we are rock solid - Inflation is in check, unemployment is low (ish) interest rates are on hold and company profits are up and commodity prices are booming. We are also ranked in the top ten most competetive nations economically in the world. However - give us another drought and a down turn in mineral prices and we are dead in the water -

Underlying the veneer of prosperity are some other key indicators that should give rise to concern - we have a cohort of young people leaving the education system with the burden of a debt for example

That same group as are the rest of us are moving into the most expensive housing market, relative to income, in the world; the average house now costs 7.5-8 times the annual average wage - 20 years ago it was about half that.

We also have a negative national household savings record - so an interest rise or two will again blow countless people out of the water and probably whip squillions of the assets most of us carry as a form of indirect savings

Our reliance on over seas produced Info Tech stuff - a key element of trade, manufacturing capacity and efficiency has contibuted 19bill to our trade deficit and we have an appallingly low, in OECD terms, record in R&D - we are not even thinking about a means to insure ourselves against a change in conditions - let alone save for a rainy day.

keeping with water based metaphors we are sitting ducks economically.

While the reservce bank is the instrument controlling some of these developments it aint all their fault.

Sneeky,
You are obviously much better with the descriptions than I. The economy to me is a fairly easy topic, although my education is poor, it really doesn't doesn't require a rocket scientist to work things out, merely an interest. The most important economy is our own personal economy, the one we survive, or are lucky enough to actually LIVE with.

Those of us trying to live with disabilities on a pension, raise children and survive are living in poverty, don't get me wrong, I am grateful for the pension, and all of the opportunities Australia provides, as I have helped provide them for others from my tax for 40 years. My disability has been thrust upon me, rather than being born with it, so at least I have my own home and am debt free, I feel for those who are not in the same position.....