It's amazing to find that anyone really expected Rudd to do anything but the totally stupid economically.

Rudd clearly does not understand the Australian economic model. When you eliminate food, and comodities from our economy (which , by the way, the stimulus has done nothing to help) and look at the balance which is primarily the retail sector some manufacturing and construction. The stimulus does nothing for retail whose model is (1) buy from overseas, (2) sell at a markup and (3) buy some more overseas.
How about manufacturing - well, rudd and his merry band have been handing out millions to the auto industry ever since he has been in power. There has been no improvement. They still are not making the cars the public wants at a price the public will pay. Maybe more cash incentives are needed from our rapidly declining public purse - doubtful it will help though. Rudd also almost destroyed our fledgling solar panel industry when he wiped out the Howard initiated stimulas (only to reinstate it -sorta).

And then there is construction - rudd is throwing huge piles of money around here. But what is he stimulating? The besa block companies? And what will happen when all the school libraries and town halls are built? To paraphrase a Wall Street Journal observation when they studied rudd's stimulus package; there will be lots of new town halls and school libraries where the unemployed can sit and reminisce about the jobs they used to have.

It is all about jobs, to prevent us going into a recession, Rudd's job should be about creating jobs for the next 5 years.

A tax cut means people have more to spend and can plan to spend more in the future. This creates jobs in the economy.

Building rail projects, increasing port facilities, building of infrastructure will create construction jobs now and keep people employ in the future.

This will keep people optimistic and keep people spending.

However Rudd had failed in both his package. The packages does not create jobs, Rudd keep telling people it is a really bad recession (ie tell people not to spend)

And he now wonder why people are losing their jobs. Rudd has done an attrocious job with the economy, including lowering expectation and lowering customer spending and not creating enough jobs.

Australian will suffer in years to come

All rhetoric/dogma no substance. Par for a spear carrier.

BTW re the question on the author’s web site: nothing Australia can do will stop the recession to suggest otherwise is disingenuous

GrahamY,
Can you get the butcher to write his policy arguments (with depth) and not the 'block?' it might have more credibility

And it is coming from China- Watch that space. The Motherland of Socialism since Russia disintegrated.

The best way for an economic correction at this time – is a Royal Commission into the Labour Party. Period-

It appears the government asked for the treasury to prepare a stimulus plan to there specification. With the majority of the government in the lower house the vote was a mere formality. In the upper house the government does not have an majority and needed upper house members to vote for it stimulus package. The fact that only minor changes where made high lightens that the process of legislation cannot be changed as no upper house member would have the resources to formulate there own stimulus package.

Therefore, we have a stimulus package that belongs solely to the government.

While it is easy to suggest more appropriate changes the simple fact is that 42 billion will be spent and the government does not have these funds. To therefore rush the process through without the support of the business community, small business, non Payroll taxpaying business seems to reflect more that something needed to be done and that something needed to be felt immediately by the public and not by business. As the recovery is now recognized as a prolong event, some time in the distant future, the short term gains by this stimulus package seems to be in-appropriate. Further more the infrastructure problems are not going away, even if governments sell them. Infrastructure Partnerships Australia has identified that Sydney loses 4.3billion a year through traffic congestion not to mention the impact that has on green house gases. Yet the well know areas that need attending to have been ignored and the population, immigration, growth strain not abated.

Does any government have the ability to change this, unfortunately no, we have spent the money and things are not going to get any easier for governments that resists changing there own landscape for political gain.

OK, so "the intervention of government" is not on here in this situation? Who ya gonna call instead? Some PPPs run via Macquarie (hah)? HSBC (ditto)? Soros (double-ditto and hahaha)?

But hey, I've got an idea! How about we throw say 850 bill at the mostly bankrupt merchant banks?

- Oh, done that...

Well how about a neat trill or so?

- Um, doing that...

Well, like Bernanke said, that money stuff is so cheap and efficient to print after all: what say a cool QUADRILLION to get the good times rolling again?

- Oh, they've already got that planned for down the track...

Rudd talks a great deal about jobs and keeping unemployment levels low. And that's great. But if Rudd is so concerned about rising levels of unemployment, then why is his government importing 200,000+ immigrants into the country this year?

Can anybody answer this?

I mean, do Rudd and his immigration minister, Chris Evans, not understand that swelling the size of the labour force during a time of shrinking employment will only result in higher national unemployment levels?

I think I can answer that Efranke. From what I can see, the situation hinges on two main factors: demographic decrepitude and age imbalance, and; a prostituted education sector.

Without migrants, many more of this country's baby boomers, older and disabled would fast find themselves - literally - in deep poo (of their own doing). Nursing homes would turn into chaotic "dying sheds", and there'd be serious problems of widespread malnutrition and other mass dysfunction. From the critical logistics chain to basic food retail, fruit picking to fuel supplies, hospitals to child care, migrants keep the country operating as near to normal as we could hope during this ongoing systemic disintegration of the globalized monetarist economy.

The education sector is a related explanatory aspect, because most of it depends on enticing migrants in order to turn a buck. The visa system here compels many from overseas to pursue courses, however irrelevant, shonky or unattractive to the migrant. Such visa conditions then allow a migrant to work, usually in order to just survive. It's a kind of double-parasite deal: migrants get zilch in tax feedback, medicare, etc., but have to feed the education sector too.

As for "national unemployment levels", you should realize that migrants will rarely qualify for benefits there unless they've jumped through many hoops, usually over several years. So that should keep helping the Canberra spin doctors' statistics, just as the "unemployment" stats got such a nice boost from changing the definitions so that even most very part-time work gets the chronically under-employed working poor out of the stats.

Of course, none of the above is meant to dismiss or contradict your essential concern here. The mega-crash, and the mainstream parties' incompetence and cowardice facing it, will ensure that the populace - both native-born and immigrant - undergo very severe hardship including mass unemployment, whatever its spin.

Andrew's article is both succint and evocative. His summation of Aust's gonzo political leaders is a parody of the worst kind.Mindless / clueless oxymoron's cluthching at straws,and mimicking the antics of the US Administration which is hell bent on rewarding the wrong people with giant slabs of " peoples money ". All those greenbacks, meant to resuscitate that economy, has been recklessly squandered with recipients vociferously clamouring for more. Manna from heaven.
The Banks, GM/Chrysler, Housin industry defaulters, Corporate flyers and lobbyist etc, baying for encores. The cesspool abyss is still there. The ponzi stimulus is a cruel hoax. The magic cure is like booze to an alcoholic. Wall St is still abusing taxpayers dollars. Coporate governance and Presidencies have screwed up.

Sheriff Obama's rescue package is not addressing core values. It will soak up the $ 3 T, and still not resolve the crisis. Further Congressional munificence will wind up as before. The cat is chasing it's tail. His Presidency is crippled.

Create jobs, big time. Stoke the fires of manufacturing. Curtail the drain on imported Oil. Stop the phony subsidies. Rein in the massive Military budget, and the voluminous contractors bleeding the Nation dry. Beef up the SEC. Purge the 17,500 lobbyist in Washington.DC. Kill off Bush's Home Land Security with it's $55 B budget. Deport the 15 million illegals on welfare. Increase Border protection. Stop the rorts and triple duplication of security org' that are slurping the gravy train. It's a modest start.

The Wizard of Oz - Kevingate may spruik economic double-speak in his thesis in the " Monthly ", but it doesn't detract: unemploment is 4.9 % and rising. Aussie dollar's worth 63 cents. Petrol $ 1.29 at the bowser. Food costing 15 % more. Rents/rates skyrocketing. Housing affordability a myth, and geriatrics / pensioners /retirees crying out in despair. The Nation has lost confidence. Rome burns. Kevy fiddles.

Dec's $10.4 stimulus only rejuvenated the Gaming and Alcohol beverage industry. 60% went to expatriates on dual citizenship living Overseas. 15% went to servicing consumer credit card debt. Only 3% assisted first home buyers, who may

find themselves battling 40 Year fixed term mortgages, in the present climate. BTW, the ABS statisticians are 3 months in arrears.

The GM Holden bonanza, which bolstered Vic's red-flagging economy in election year, but little in the way of boosting employment. GMC stood down 20,000 workers worldwide.

Spurred by Dec $ 10.4 B benevolence, the chutzpah bloviate whizzed through Parliament $ 42 B handout,ensuring couples on $ 150,000 receive $ 900 per child 4-18 yrs. Wealthy Graziers and farmers benefited from a
" hardship " bonus. Insulation, solar panelling worth $ 1600. Solar roofing in most cases amount to > $ 4500, which was a no brainer.

The Senate fiasco morphed into brazen BRIBERY. $ 1 B for Senator Xenophon, who brokered a deal for the Murray/Darling scheme. $500 M for Senator Fielding. $ 800 M for the greenie Senators from Tassy. Brown was ecstatic, his Party guaranteed another term, and his superannuation tripled. Kevin baby hadn't done his kinder-garden sums. An economic guru ?

Spin merchant Kevin is unashameably Aust biggest handout specialist in our 221 year history. All that is missing is the pixie dust. He made the Guiness Book of Records. It will take 5 generations to redeem the deficit ' black hole '. At this rate, he's a prime-ministerial loose cannon.

It took Cossy a decade to redeem Labor's excesses ( Whitlam, Hawke, Keating ) $100 B. With GDP shrinking,deficit balooning, abysmal commodity prices and exchange rate, 4 State treasuries in recession, unemployment at record levels, Moody S & P credit rating revision AAA's to AA, our economic credentials is in smithereens.

Denuded Glen Steven, RBA Governor, assures us, the Economy's in great shape ( aside: " compared to our Asian neighbours " ) Compromised, prostituted, and in Swan's pocket his avowed policy is to support his employer's fantasies.

His 3.25% cash rate, Treasury Bills & Bonds is floundering. Banks and Foreign investment are unsupportive. Dick Smith prophetically predicts there wont be an iconic Business in Aust left, that will be native owned.

What's our end game ?

Do tell.

I think it is reasonable now to assume that it is the Western era of; The Proletariat Twilight Zoned abyss of No return; Jacinta!

Australia will now be known as The Idiot spherical Grand Republic of Proletariat- Or the short snappy name of - Ruddunnistan.

And in the words of the other great Socialist failure – You may say God Save the Queen – For nothing wills Save Australia.
It may now be said with confidence and definitive meaning - It is Over- and do what you can to save your selves.