Foyle should apply this to himself." Too many people on this site write nonsense about a subject that they understand little about."

The Govt creates only cash and coins which is lucky to be 1% of the total money supply. Nearly all the money supply is created as debt by the private banking system.As James Rickards notes ,after 40 yrs exponentially more debt must be created now to pay for the debt of yesterday. Our system is now in the last stages of total collapse, that's why they are bringing in the IMF special drawing rights but most people will lose most of their wealth when our currencies collapse.

USA money supply. Cash = $ 1.3 trillion. Deposits = $8.7 trillion. Stocks = $20 trillion. Bonds =$38 trillion. Credit market = $59 trillion. Derivative gambling = $220 trillion.

Our economies are all based on debt and gambling.

Aiden, while I confess I'm no expert in this field, there is little doubt Rudd caused far more harm, than good.

Firstly the stimulus.

While on the surface it seemed like a reasonable idea, the reality is far too much of that money was wasted, and it was wasted because it was able to be wasted as recipients were handed unconditional cash splashes, repeatedly despite evidence that it was being wasted.

What should have occurred was the stimulus should have been by way of a restricted debit card, similar to that used for the 'tools for trade' bonus, whereby restricted goods, along with cash could not be purchased. Many of the poor flushed it down the pokie, grog cigs toilet, while many of the better off reduced their mortgages or stashed it away. Neither of these really stimulated the economy and in fact, once gone it led to hardship in many cases.

The other thing was, it should have had a use by date, a 'use it or loose it' clause as that would have seen it all spent here in Oz, and on essentials. How many newborns all of a sudden owned plasmas.

Then there was the insulation debacle. Again, nothing wrong with the idea, just poorly managed and despite repeated warnings from industry experts,Rudds arrogance assisted in the deaths of four people. In fact, had he been a CEO, we would still be caring for him as we are, only he would likely be in jail.

And of cause his greatest failure, the one that has caused the most harm both here and abroad, his border protection debacle for which we are still paying for and will do for decades to come.

So which part of that is wrong Aiden?
Continued

Continued
This debt you say is never going to be a problem has mostly been incurred during boom times, the likes of never before and now we can't even pay the interest, at a time when rates are at record lows.

While I agree that surplus is not the be all end all, spending on infrastructure, if poorly managed, ar la Rudd/Gillard, will have to come back to bite us one day.

Of cause you and I will be gone when that day arrives, but is that really what you want to leave for future generations to deal with?

We have far far more noses in the trough with far less income and you say, don't worry.

Sorry, but I do worry.

rehctub,

What's your opinion of the govt dolling out $1.4 million "a day" to abuse people on Manus and Nauru?

(Considering the the ADF is now fulsomely chasing away any boat that appears on the horizon)

Reminder of Australia's low low low debt to GDP at the time of the last election - and which you all bang on about as if it was a disaster...look at the graph.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/linkableblob/3727694/data/possum-graph-8-government-debt-as-gdp-data.jpg

Compare it to the rest of the developed world.

Of course, Hockey and Co bumped it up a bit (and didn't even have a GFC as an excuse)...but then he was a particularly dud treasurer in a particularly crap govt.

Butch, it would help if you could get a very basic understanding of economics, instead of simply blaming Labor based on your anti Labor bias. I do not know what you were doing during the 'Global Financial Crises' of 2007/08 but if you were in employment or running a small business at the time, there is a likelihood that it was government action that saved your bacon.

" The election of the Rudd government in 2007 coincided with the global financial crisis and the worst recession since the 1930s.

‘The weakness in the global economy just meant that government revenue, the tax receipts from companies who were no longer making any money, just fell away sharply,’ says Koukoulas. ‘We did have this period of very low inflation, which meant that price increases and therefore spending and profitability were also hampered.’

‘It was obvious that the world economy was going into a very nasty slump, the banking sector was grinding to a halt, banks were failing around the world and Mr Rudd, with advice from Ken Henry as treasury secretary and Glenn Stevens as RBA governor, decided to spend money to try to limit the fallout from what was obviously just horrendous global economic conditions, it was just a miserable time for the world economy. What they did was of course very costly in terms of dollars but obviously very beneficial in terms of economic growth and jobs. A couple of percent of GDP was pumped into the economy and it caused the Budget deficit to blow out to the highest deficit that Australia has ever seen."

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/a-history-of-australian-budget-surpluses-and-deficits/5446434

ABC got it wrong again.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/linkableblob/3727694/data/possum-graph-8-government-debt-as-gdp-data.jpg Our Govt debt to GDP is not 11% . Govt debt is over $700 billion. GDP is $1800 billion which is about 40% of GDP.