david f, Harvard’s Robert Barro has estimated that the net multiplier effect of Roosevelt’s initiatives was not significantly different from zero (WSJ 22/1/09). That is, his interventions did not increase GDP, and the US recovery was later than in many other countries. In any event, our circumstances, and the causes of the recession, are different. I have argued before that Rudd’s “splashing-the-cash” will be extremely costly in terms of higher medium-to-long-term interest and tax rates, and that spending should be directed in ways which improve the structure and functioning of the economy. Interestingly, New Zealand is taking that approach, treating this as an opportunity rather than a disaster.

Re Alan’s points on GST and public service salaries, the Queensland Government blew the GST windfall, with QPS salaries and employment growing far faster than in the (wealth-creating) private sector (on top of a no-redundancies policy), with no commensurate improvement in services. (Probably a decline, given the tendency to appoint and over-promote apparatchiks.) So withoit drastic action by government, QPS employees are shielded from the recession, the whole burden being shifted to the non-government sector. Budget cuts will fall not on employees but, e.g., hospital equipment.

(More later, I have to do a family taxi-dash.)

Alan is right.US Congressman Ron paul thinks likewise.We are repeating the exact same scenario as the 1930's.This will only deepen and prolong the recession.

They all have no friggin' idea.

Alan Moran is on the right track but I think that's the result of an accident.

Bruce why aren't you more vocal. Your theme works.

Damn I was going sailing ... now I'll have to wait till the cyclone's gone.

One question never answered is what happened to our money .

If I took your money and invested it unwisely in the US and lost everything you would bury me , but if I was a Bank all you could do is cry .

Clearly there must be some retribution for giving money to people who had no hope of fulfilling their commitment . Why wouldn't we describe that as irresponsible . The renumeration these people have enjoyed suggests that they are the ultimate mandarins of what they do . Now we know them to be fraud's who knew how to look out for themselves then present with a cavalier attitude , apparently protected by law .

In my view these problems are to continue , I am not aware of the per Family Credit Card Debt , the Rubbity tonight agreed it to be about $16 grand , my card a Virgin turned into a Wales card via a letter and also a nice Interest rate increase advice , you would expect a decrease in these times in order to make the ex Virgin a viable Mare .
But the road ahead is paved with greed , better to sell up the now unemployed and run away with his family's pride , future and cash .

I sent a letter to the editor to The Australian in response to Alan Moran’s article when it was published there. My letter was not published, so I reproduce it here:

‘Alan Moran’s most recent attack on public sector employees (“Even FDR was keen to slash pay packets”, 25/2) has ticked the usual boxes - “generosity”, “profligate”, “bloated”. (He forgot “squandered the rivers of gold of the GST”.) However, as per standard practice from the Institute of Public Affairs, he fails to provide any salary figures to justify his claims. This is not surprising as the figures show he is dead wrong.

‘If Victorian teachers on the top subdivision were as well paid today as in 1979, they would be earning around $97,000, not the $20,000 less that they do earn. Nor is it the case that workload has improved to justify a cut to pay: the current secondary pupil-teacher ratio of 11.8:1 is worse than the 11.1:1 of 30 years ago. I expect a long-term comparison of the pay rates of nurses, police and general public servants would show exactly the same picture.

‘Given the seven years of suffering that Victoria endured under its previous government, whose program was devised by the IPA, no one should listen to its continued fact-free campaign against public sector workers

‘No one who attacks the public sector ever produces long-term pay figures to justify their nonsense and no one ever will – because the figures just don’t exist.’

I Would think it to be a rather safe option for the Country as a whole , if Kevin Rudd actually presented himself to an Elephant proctocology unit where he could be deployed as a Repository for constipated elephants; at least he will be within his element and might actually learn from the experience , instead of spraying a Nation with it.

It is not as if Rudd is about to put up his hand and admit that Mussolini and uncle Adolf are his heroes and his political bent - is it?
Of course the useless idiot is going to say FDR – and there are some ominous parallels to be known in that.