[QUOTE="Oddjob, post: 1123254, member: 37571"To be fair, Howard squandered big bucks on successive tax cuts over a couple of elections given the strength of the economy at the time, rather than locking away those surplus $'s for a rainy day in a sovereign fund as was done with the Telstra float.[/QUOTE] I disagree. It was a smart move by Howard. It poured liquidity into the markets and by the time he was booted out he’d overseen Australia’s GDP double. Sovereign governments don’t need rainy day funds nor do they need to save on behalf of the people. Leave the saving to corporations and individuals by ensuring policy encourages it. Governments need to juggle between public debt/surplus, which is exactly the same thing as private surplus/debt. Taxation is one of those fiscal policy tools. Balancing the budget or having budget surpluses are not fiscal policy tools.
A very interesting video about how the Corona virus crisis can push the Chinese economy into collapse/crisis:
If a little virus can crash things then they just arent printing fast enough. In this case it will only crash if they want it too. Hint hint. If america can pump 100 billion into the markets daily theres no reason china cant print a trillion to keep it afloat. It's the advantage of mmt and central banking.
Bro, what's happening in China is going to affect the export of goods. Not just flashlights, but also various food products, materials, vital components of machinery etc. The keyword here is FOOD. In China, Hong Kong, many shelves are already empty or near empty. The quarantines and transportation interruptions are interrupting the supply chain. Which is global... Printing money won't help hungry people. It's irrelevant. It's like scratching your left ear hoping for the rain to come.
These disruptions will provide the opportunity for manufacturing companies to establish or reestablish themselves in the first world. The plastics recycling industry is an example, acknowledged it wasn’t a shock, but China’s decision to halt imports of plastic waste has had huge implications for the supply chain. Nike et al is not upping their use of recycled plastics in running shoes because of a higher regard for the environment, though it makes a great marketing strategy. The printing presses could assist that disruption. Not in Oz though as our pollies swim with single-cell protozoa.
I know the printing wont really help but it could prop up the ping pong index or whatever it's called. It's only about stock markets anyway. The real numbers dont really matter anymore they say.
http://leozagami.com/2020/02/10/a-1...X95bQVWI0Ncyo4mukwJo-LTzomV1TtN70kEYLjVFUVxGc A 1981 book by Dean Koontz predicts a deadly bacteriological weapon called “Wuhan-400”
This goes here too, because it is about 'THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE STUPID'. U S Mental Meltdown RIP Newspaper Biz Gerald Celente
The Simpsons predicted coronavirus? Predicted some flu originating from Asia, but not necessarily corona virus.
Not sure about world economic collapse but there are talks about China banning many Australian foodstuff as retaliation for Huawei Ban, like seafood, wheat, dairy and meat. This helps China meet the new USA demand for more primary access for trump supporters in American wheat belt and seafood along the coast. At first I thought AS IF than realised why couldn’t China tariff Australian produce out of China. It is an easy way to make room for USA, by saying it’s because of Huawei. China banned US Beef (mad cow so for ten years) recently lifted, Corn and Seaford was recently Tariff out of China and with “thawing” of trade war, which is forcing China to buy much much more US foodstuff .... Australia is on the chopping blocks. remember there is plenty of alternatives to Australian foodstuff.
I agree that there are alternatives to Australian produce although Australia has a reputation for extremely high quality food, our high standards are like no other we have lots of producers who grow organic (meat, grain, dairy, fruit and vegetables) and entire states that are GM free, Sothern Blue Fin tuna from Australia fetches some of the highest prices in the world along with other seafood from Australia, Japan can't get enough ... there is little alternative to those factors. There will be speedhumps in the road but The Australian food quality image cant be beaten and will always maintain a good demand.
Despite those two roadblocks to efficiency we have a dry land competitive advantage over many other countries.
This is classic. Australia in USA's pocket but we know that they don't actually have our back, so we have to pander to China as well. But when it's crunch time, they don't have our back either. It's about damn time our country thinks about what is best for itself.