"Assuming that the global financial system isn't on the cusp of another meltdown - and that seems a reasonable assumption" etc etc.

Dear Saul,I know from hearing your prognostications previously that you live in that conventional economist's cornucopian paradise down at the bottom of the garden with the fairies.

But what on Earth makes you think that we have had a "meltdown" already? It should be obvious that we are still in the early stages of a crash and burn of the global economic system,and that did include Australia last time I looked at a globe.We are still hearing the first bars of the overture for the opera and,dear boy,it ain't over till the fat lady sings.

Simply put,Saul,it is impossible to have continual growth,particularly exponential growth,within a finite world.This applies especially to population but also to resources.As growth is an integral part of our current economic system then without growth there has to be a drastic change.

Or are you denying that we live in a finite world?

I would like to see the Australian dollar about 5% the value of the US dollar. Since the bulk of my income comes from the US - HOOBOY! The lower the Australian dollar goes relative to the US dollar the more purchasing power for me.

I fail to see how you can talk about "Parity".
There must be "Trust" before you can make comparisons .

How can we trust an economy that has no ethics .

Oz is not much better , madness prevails , how will Billions of Dollars worth of tin sheds at schools lead to produce eg. Dollars ?

All that money should have been spent on Water Production , our greatest need .

Viable Teachers are our second greatest need . Not tin sheds .

Then we need to address our attitude towards our Countries Banks and Companies whose Ethic is similar to the Eating habits of Pigs .

How can we bear to advance Parody as a elixir while in the Weekly Times we find our Huge Station Properties being bought up by Yanks ditto the MIS schemes .

saul, you are concerned about asset bubbles developing from capital inflows. this is more likely if the reserve raises interest rates as your previous article suggested. when will you admit that monetary policy utilising price of money (interest rates) has been a dismal failure. if we want to stop excessive speculation on particular asset classes then we need fiscal policy to correct market failures. therefore we need to be looking at moving from royalties to resource rent taxes that tax supraprofits hence reducing speculative activity. raising interest rates increases carry trade, this leads to hot money in the economy, when will you economist admit the failure of the monetarist religion and do some evidence based policy analysis (sorry that may be mistaken for populism)