Fozz

If you read my post, I at no point equated gov debt with private debt.

Having majored in Economics and Analysis I would hope that I don't suffer from the general ignorance to which you refer.

However, your statement: "As long as any debt they have volunteered to take on – mostly for monetary policy reasons – is in $AUSD, they can always pay it. In today’s fiat money economy, federal government does not need to finance it’s spending. It has no need whatsoever to tax or borrow or earn $AUSD in order to spend any sum of $AUSD it sees fit."

Is breath taking in its naivity.

There are facets to gov debt that contradict your platitudes:
- Interest needs to be paid on debt which come out of the fiscus, (as do repayments),
- The interest rate paid is strongly influenced by the magnitude of the debt, (the larger the debt the higher the interest compared to prevailing rates)
- This rate then is directly passed on to the banks and to business and private customers.

The propensity of labor governments to spend is directly the cause of resulting high interest rates and low economic growth.

In the event of higher than usual unemployment, debt incurred to employ people and build infrastructure is justified, a cash splash spent on imported products is not.

As I have said before: The higher the boom, the deeper the bust. When there is a boom, people behave as if it will last forever. Then there's a bust, and all this surprise at what happened and they struggle to 'fix' it. Why? Because they don't understand the basics: Boom follows bust, follows boom. Take a look at history, it does repeat itself.
The trick is: Minimise the booms (which we never do), to minimise the busts. When will we learn? Are all deficits bad? Of course not, but we could decrease the magnitude of them, and use them as a tool to get back to boom. But, getting back to boom is a force we can't fully control. We cannot fully control the economy. There are far more factors at work, than are enumerated in economic theory of any kind. At best, we can have a memory and behave in a rational manner, in order to have SOME control. But - we are not very good at that, either.
How about this? How about THIS time we learn something? How about we recognise that ever-increasing booms are not the way to go? We do need to get out of the hole, and do our best to do so; but don't ever make the mistake of thinking we are ENTIRELY in control. That is the mistake made continuously. It is frustrating to watch.
Wish I had some influence and could use my common sense to the benefit of our economy. People like me are never in charge. I once tried while studying at University to draw a flow diagram, to cover all the aspects and elements of economic activity. Try it: And then you will see what I am talking about.
Live simply and don't be greedy. Ha! How can we get people to do that? They will only do what is 'in vogue' at the moment.

why should everything be left up to the stupid politics , they are not doing anything about the enviroment . stop mining on the liverpool plains all together no gas wells .
www.ccag.com.au look it up to protect one of the biggest food sources .

whats going to happen to this country in 30 years time after miners leave .
stop mining on the liverpool plains

www.ccag.com.au