"About right"? Dead wrong.

Handing out pocket money that people overseas are also getting. Handing out up to $25,000 to first home buyers who then use it to go into housing they don't have any equity at all in, and will lose everything when interest rates go back up. Jobs lost hand over fist when the idiots are still claiming that they will create jobs. Continued population growth. Mining stuffed. Manufacturing stuffed.

And, worst of all, people like Bill Richmond let loose in a university to tell students that Rudd has got it "about right"

Rudd was left with a strong economy which is why Australia has done as well as it has to date. Unfortunately the Labor party line is spend, spend, spend and do what I say or else we will bitch and scream and call you names. Parliament is a joke, nothing gets sorted out it's just an hours long mud slinging match at best. The government should be there to listen and consider the arguments of all before they rebut with taunts and verbal abuse. I would personally like to see an independent speaker take control the house, not a party appointed person (for any government present and future).

What happens when there's no money left? Higher unemployment, lower wages, more strikes the list goes on. Rudd might be good at the talk but the team around him particularly the treasurer are poorly lacking in credibility and skill. Where are the promised jobs going to come from when unemployment is rising? Hopefully it's not in the public service!

'...advised it must be acknowledged by economists in the public service, the Reserve Bank and academia - though sadly probably not many in the latter.'

Hopeless. The only section of the community not advising the Government ... are?

Here's a hint;

They create most of the jobs in the community, are not falling over into their own toxic debt, are prudent economists and probably know more about the operation of the economy than this author and all of this authors abovemention esteemed 'mates'... who btw created the stuff-up in the first place with their ponzi style economic answers to everything, their meddling central banks and their cockeyed bailouts/subsidies.

But what would I know? I am just going to quietly and unobstrusively go on creating weath ... as usual. That'll get us out of this mess ... and I don't need anyones 'advise' or 'help'.

While the author endorses the correctness of Hugo Rudd's answers ... spend, spend, spend ... they've been rejected by the vast majority of Austrlians who, statistics are showing, recognise saving, paying off debt and cutting spending, as well as working harder, more efficiently and productively are the appreopriate actions for harder times.

Jeez academic's ... up their towers ... so totally oblivious to small business.

And just to show the idiots are still running the show.

The FDIC, a US Federal Government agency overseeing the insurance of deposits in US banks has recently criticised a US bank for ... 'not lending enough.'

No, no, not for not lending to small business, as you'd suspect in these tight credit times, but for not lending enough to anybody and particularly because it hasn't lent in line with the provisions of the Community Re-investment Act.

This bank has survied in the US, has no toxic debt and no provisions for such.

Astonishing, admonishing a prudent bank! But there you go ...

http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2009/03/16/story3.html?b=1237176000^1793570&page=1

speakup,

Rudd wasn't left with a strong economy but a rather weak one, the country is basically still a quarry with an enormous foreign debt that fueled that phoney "prosperity" of the Howard-Costello years. As the author suggests there is not much Australia can do except ride out the crisis as best we can. Of course the Rudd government will be blamed for the recession caused by incompetent capitalists and the deregulation fantasies of economists in the US.

Is that right mac ;

I had a job and so did everybody else .

The Fed's had a huge surplus as responsible Govts do .

7 people , my family , were fine .

7 people , my family , are not fine now .

We were importing people to satisfy demand .

Like us they are now unemployed .

Keatings dept , crippling as it then was , chicken feed compared to Rudd's .

How will we pay it back ? 30% GST ?

Like all socialist Gov'ts the fun times end when they run out of other peoples money .

Wack that in your pipe and smoke it Mac !!

I enjoyed keith's comments. I guess those "academic's" don't know much. Even with their degree's they can't tell apple's from orange's. Went all the way to year 12, did we, keith? I have great faith in your opinions...sorry, opinion's.

ShazBaz001,

So,you don't care about private debt,it's harmless ask the Americans. Do you really blame the Rudd government for the present crisis?Amazing! Have you ever heard of the post hoc,ergo propter hoc fallacy?
I've long suspected that a significant proportion of voters would follow this line of "logic", it's what the Liberals are hoping. It's probably due to the, one week time horizon, many people seem to employ.

Imagine a world where everyone who could work, and wanted to, is given work or the capacity to create work for a living wage.

That's my vision for mankind. The Millenium goals of the UN seek to bring billions of people out of poverty through fair trade and well targetted infrastructure investment to boost productivity.

But is it achievable? Boom and bust cycles highlight the consequences from blind greed. 1929 and 2008 have a lot in common. The 'great recession' gives our national leaders the opportunity to address the root causes of catestrophic systems failure. But any likely agreement will be to the lowest common denominator around which a concensus can be found.

Sadly it will take many more boom and bust cycles before the global community has the kind of governance that the world so desperately needs to meet the many global challenges to our quality of life.

The author asks: Can we do anything (other than devise a “stimulus package”) to more effectively address the present problem?

The answer must be: Yes we can. Rudd could initiate a structural overhaul of our wasteful, overgoverned federal system. The savings would be $30 billion each year without state governments, saving a long suffering population from their conflicting laws and bloated and unsustainable bureacracies that produce sub-standard service.

Can we do anything to stop a global financial crisis recurring?

The answer could be: Unless the G20 deal can effectively deal with the root causes of the crisis, the answer will be no. The next bust will be just around the corner.

Sancho

I have only five words for you. Go figure.

George Bush, Yale and Harvard Degrees.

I have rarely read such a demoralising, defeatist article by an University of Queensland tutor of Economics. As a true-blue Rudd apologist, his integrity and academic independence compromised, his article is skewed-wiffed. All of which is understandable - his future depends on Govt largesse. Universities are one of the greatest beneficiaries of Kevingate's " educational " splurge.

In gross denial, he should be teaching ethics instead.

The Wizard of Oz - Keveingate"s $10.4 B orgy in Dec,followed by a bacchanalian $ 42 B this semester. Presumably to assuage poverty, burgeoning employment, failing Business's, and abysmal consumer confidence etc. It just didn't end there as Richardson rightly knows. His hastily conceived Bill floundered in the Senate. Xenophon was awarded $ 1 B for the Murray / Darling river scheme. Senator Fielding $ 500 M, and the Greenie's Brown's cabal wrangled $ 800 M to build Aust's most enviornmental hazardous Pulp Mill. Tasmania's 12,000 unemployed received bogus ' mickey-mouse ' job creation schemes and enriched Theresa Rein's employment services big time. Brown's party was guaranteed certainty in the next Federal election. Greenie preferences always go to Labor. What a sham. Our spen-thrift populist messiah squandered $ 54.7 B already. In the pipeline for more-of-the-same are Labor States, Qld, NSW, TAS and WA. Broke, deficit laden and severly in hock, their economic survival depends on it. Rudd promises $ 250 M to boost Anna Bligh's election survival this Saturday.

It doesn't take an Economic guru to throw money willy-nilly when it isn't yours. Specially when his predecessor JH created a $ 20 B surplus. Any clown can big note, rain manna from Heaven.

Richardon claims US Banks were forced to lend home owners money etc ? His naivete makes me blush. The Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac debacle is the quintessence of unbridled greed. Puts ponzi fiend Madoff to shame. The Security Exchange - America's Fiscal watchdog were in cahoots with Wall St tsars, aiding / abetting the creation of wealth through myriad unheard of transactions, the likes of which our Banks would never condone. In Oz, the Banks retain your mortgage, collateral, deeds until settlement. F & F bundled thousands of loans into attractive packages which were sold off, not once, but 3-4 times again, generating unheard of profits. The SEC permitted and even sponsered the shenanigans in the name of American entrepreneurship !

BR:
. Can we do anything other than devise a stimulus.
. Can we do anything to stop it reoccuring
There is such a thing as priorities. Infrastructure is paramount. Since Federation, we have been appalling negligent because of self-seeking egotistical Leader's lacking vision. Two WW, Depression, recessions,pretentious immigration policies, and internecine Political squabbling.
The Defence Budget is a drain on resources. Our deficit 9% of GDP and exacerbating like a loose cannon. Our annual growth 1.2 %. Govt spending 48 % of GDP and substantially increasing ( ABS statistics 2008 ) Our National and personal credit debt exceeding $ 138 B.Funds can be injected into the Economy in myraid ways.
Q2. Depends on what BR is referring to. Is it the Recession or the Wizard's charitable freebie ?

" Oz is powerless. If China doesn't want our coal, there's not much we can do about it ?."
Any school boy will tell you, to succeed, one has to diversify. Don't put all your goolies in one basket.Secondly, international contracts are subject to vagaries of the market. Thirdly, there's the derivative market, where big business, ie Qantas, Virgin,etc hedge their bets.

Aust's RBA have been hedging derivatives for decades. The aussie dollr has been hedged in the exchange market for yonks. If Aust posessed the nous,they could have hedged against our export commodities.

Hey Sancho

Where you gone?

Have you realised intellect and intelligence have little to do with the degree you've attained and more to do with the reading you've done and the life experience you have... or more accurately self learned experience as opposed to the shovel feed employed by our politically correct teachers, at not only secondary schools, but also our universities over the last couple of generations.

Where do you sit in comparison with George W. Bush. If he with his education is as dumb as the academics and 'intellectuals' say, then using your thought and logic just how dumb are you?

The critisim by the academic and 'intellectuals' of George W. merely re-inforced my beliefs. I used to laugh as one academic after another derided him, for using my logic they were denigrating themselves.

NB In case you haven't worked it out, I don't believe attaining a degree or any academic qualification is any indication of intellect or intelligence.

It's time to think differently and not the time for mouthing the traditional crap like 'the wealth is created at the end of the economic process' and other irrelevant Keynesian stupidities.

Mate 'I've been around' and seen it all before. You and people like you merely represent the usual thick thinking and acting within the square, like Richmond and Rudd and Swan. That doesn't and won't address our problems nor the economic crisis we are facing.

It's time to start listening to we, the self educated people, who have read more widely and who think laterally. We know the solution to the current malaise and are laughing at the 'well' educated but blinkered experts. We know what they cannot acknowledge what we know ... just like you.

It's us that will eventually 'fix' the economy regardless of your and their verbage and hinderance.

We'll proser while everyone else is suffering under the inane stupidity of the 'educated elite's' solutions.

ps I've doubled my personal wealth in the last 12 months. Show me one of your 'experts who has achieved that?

It's no bloody wonder I prefer to go sailing.