"Patient Zero was a US Army Intelligence Officer from INSCOM at Fort Belvoir, Virginia prior to the Wuhan Games."

Well actually the Chinese government have determined that patient zero "was an elderly man who suffered from Alzheimer's disease."

But I know that in the conspiracy addled world in which you live, any unwanted facts are dismissed as propaganda. This will be so dismissed.

"You're going to have to eat some humble pie this one mhaze."

That you fall for this fact-free rubbish is rather sad.

Fin.

Aidan,

My original point was that " current borrowing [will cause] lower standards of living than would otherwise be the case?"

Its true that the inflationary hit would be ephemeral and would ultimately pass. But in the meantime it would lower standards of living and that lowering will be permanent. No matter what happens thereafter, living-standards will be lower than they otherwise would have been.

Additionally, you seem to want to pretend that the borrowing is a one-off event, the effects of which will pass and be forgotten. But we know its not a one-off event but a constant and growing series of borrowings. So a series of never-ending one-off consequences.

So again, if the consequences are minor and passing as you want to believe, why don't "we borrow enough to give every Aussie $1 million instead of a measly $750?"

mhaze,
>Its true that the inflationary hit would be ephemeral and would ultimately pass.
So you accept that future generations won't have to pay for it?

>But in the meantime it would lower standards of living and that lowering will be permanent.
>No matter what happens thereafter, living-standards will be lower than they otherwise would have been.
Completely, spectacularly and dangerously wrong!

Completely wrong because, at least in the long term, the effects of inflation on living standards are balanced out by the effect of wages. The inflation of decades ago has no effect on the living standards of today. Similarly the living standards of future generations will be determined by the work they do, not the dollar's value.

Spectacularly wrong because the money the government spends doesn't just disappear. Much of it is spent on things that improve our living standards.

Dangerously wrong because you're only considering the effects of too much government borrowing, not those of too little. The latter are worse, resulting in widespread unemployment, which has an enormous adverse effect on living standards. And since in practice most learning is done on the job, unemployment can also result in a long term decline in productivity, hence it can adversely affect living standards for much longer than inflation could.

>we know its not a one-off event but a constant and growing series of borrowings.
>So a series of never-ending one-off consequences.
Growing, yes, because the economy is growing; never ending, yes, because the economy will never end.
A series, yes, but not constant. It fluctuates with the economic cycle.
And that's important because the government should exploit the economic cycle. Countercyclical spending is better value and less inflationary (because there's less completion with the private sector for workers and commodities) and helps the private sector recover when it's weak (by providing more opportunities for it to make money).

>why don't "we borrow enough to give every Aussie $1 million instead of a measly $750?"
Because that would vastly overwhelm the deflationary effect of the private sector, and be highly inflationary; the consequences wouldn't be minor at all.

I hate to tell all those conservative boofheads on this forum who ridiculed me when I started the thread 'The Failing Australian Economy' back in November 2019, I TOLD YOU SO! Four months later in March 2020 with my latest thread sticking it up this trashy conservative government 'We're Back in the Red!' I have to repeat I TOLD YOU SO!

Warning, with the Three Stooges of Economic disaster running the show, ScumO', Friedbrain, and Cornball, I can't see any improvement in the foreseeable future. Wont be long and Australians will be crying out for a good old fashioned Global Financial Crisis, one like in 2008/9 which was handled with some degree of economic nous by the then Rudd Labor government, pink batts and all.

What's the difference economically between the GFC and the Coronavirus Cries, the CC is much bigger and much more difficult to contain than the GFC. The GFC was a Sunday school picnic compared to what the Coronavirus is about to throw at us. The big problem with this government, both on the health front, and on the economic front, to use the latest parlance, not having a clue what to do, the government is very much "BEHIND THE CURVE", health wise about 7 to 10 days behind, economically about 12 months, very dangerous on both fronts, they should be out there anticipating and making decisions in advance. This mob is being totally reactive both heath wise, and on the economic front. With this lack of understanding there is no chance of being in front of the curve with proactive decision making.

Morrison said it all last week with the statement "I'll be going to the football" .... I can think of a few places I would like him to go, but unfortunately we are stuck with Captain Clown and his motley crew steering the ship for the foreseeable future....what a Wally!

pathetic Paul still trying to twist history and make cheap political points. As a believer in the man made gw myth and being part of the Green economic vandals who oppose everything decent and productive you have zero credibility. Next you will be telling us the billions spent on renewables and wrecking our electricity supply is a good thing.

For one who believes in biblical fairy tales runner, you are rather short on credibility yourself. Amazing how without a shred of evidence you will literally believe in nonsense, yet when shown overwhelming scientific evidence about something like climate change, you refuse to believe it. Good for you