I have heard that the business community has been pushing both parties for this handout so they can move the christmas stock they have purchased and avoid the need for a series of mysterious warehouse fires in january. They will be more circumspect next christmas, and only purchase depression level stocks. So this one should signal the end of the party for all, and the start of a long period of austerity. The younger generation have never known a downturn, and now they are going to get one in spades.

We should also look at the positives.This will knock the BS out of Govt,the legal system ,insurance companies,banks and greedy corporates.It is time to look at the true wealth in our society.It is our people and not just the insecure excesses of a minority who want to subjugate the masses just to feel important.

The free market is the way to go,but internationally we do not have rules that are fair.Would we play the world game of football as we play the globalised game of economics?Not likely.The level playing field is a delusion perpetrated by those who want the maximum profits for the least amount of effort.Coles and Wollies in Aust presently practise preditory pricing,both the Rudd and the Howard Govts have failed to address the laws which Canada has enacted.We have the highest food inflation in the Western World yet both our major parties are toady boys to the Corporates.We call this Democracy!

Ajay,

We have been drifting away from the Free Market for decades towards State Capitalism opposed to Market Capitalism. Governments working for the Corporates is at the other pole to having Unions run the place. Ordinary people are what really matters in a true democracy, not the powerful.

It does not take much imagination to see 600 oliarchs around the World pulling the strings of government, not aways in the best interests of the other 6 billion inhabitants.

"An asset can be illiquid for several reasons, including genuine uncertainty about its underlying value. If private institutions took on additional liquidity risk, confident that the central bank would always help them out if liquidity conditions tightened, they could easily end up taking on more of these other risks as well. This would leave both them and the central bank in an awkward position at some future time should things take a turn for the worse. And for the central bank to act as a market‑maker of last resort in markets for more exotic instruments would be a very big step, potentially with many unforeseeable consequences." - Glen Stevens (RBA) 4/2008

I never thought I would side with Turnbull against Rudd, but the idea of the Government guaranteeing all lenders, good & bad, is a dangerous step. This silly idea promotes the possibility of exploitation, without penalty, foolhardiness and risk. The sharks will milk million dollar salaries and when all goes bad cry help to the Government.

The Sir Eric Neal Board, at Westpac, c. 1990-1992 were poor business managers ignoring the risks of lending to high profile Western Australian entrepreneurs against its own credit risk and assessment policy. Look what happened there, and it took years to recover. The government giving a guarentee to every little tinpot lender is mad