That moron thinks a weaker A$ would benefit the economy.
We've run a trade deficit for ALL of 2012.http://dfat.gov.au/trade/balance/
Let's not even get in to what a stronger A$ will do to inflation.
Well you would think if the Australian dollar goes down a few things will happen.
Firstly our exports will become more competitive internationally, so exporters can sell less or drop their price and receive the same amount of Australian dollars they currently do.
Secondly imports will be more expensive. So unless we have to import the item, we will be less likely to.
Thirdly and relately import replacement industries will pop up.
All this sounds pretty good. However on the downside is the fact if there is debt that has to be paid back in foreign currency, it will be harder to do so. Inflation should rise so interest rates will rise.
To me macro economics like this is pretty circular. Australian dollar goes down, inflation rises. Interest rates rise. Australian dollar goes up. Inflation goes down. Interest rates go down. Australian dollar goes down.
Its the micro level where the real action and change happens. Unfortunately on the micro level big government fails. It has always failed and will always fail. Too much interference in the way of subsidies, taxes, all sorts of laws. All of this makes it more difficult to be enterprising and to make a difference.
We're so not a resource based economy.
looky here:
www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Lookup/by%20Subject/1301.0~2012~Main%20Features~Value%20of%20goods%20and%20services%20produced%20by%20Australian%20Industry~240
Select to expand quoteevlPanda said..
We're so not a resource based economy.
You're right, but currency traders consider Australia resource backed... so that's how they trade.
We're so not a currency trader based economy.
...I'm gonna bail out of this one now because I don't pretend to understand macro economics, apart from an understanding that a weaker $AU helps sell Australian goods and services, and they are the sectors that have been hurting of late, and they make up the vast bulk of the economy. More money flows into those sectors equals more employments and higher wages, means less personal debt (%) and more expendable income which means more money for even more sectors and so on, with the risk of over inflation. I guess it's all a bit like trying to stir up the economic wind to a nice 22.2 knot seabreeze.
Other things can make our exports more competitive, not just the value of the AUD.
Fuel prices. Been ****** transport and manufacturing for a few years now. We have our OWN yet we import and are tied to other's pricing (Singapore price). We sell our gas at BS prices to overseas yet companies here pay a fortune and we bemoan manufacturing costs.... WTF?
Labour cost. No we don't want to be like asia with bamboo scaffold and no PPE etc.... but seriously... hundreds of dollars for a safety sign, with 1000 required to be installed on site... and overly tight procedures at workplaces. Billions made by OH&S people and nothing happens without a JSA. Some softc0ck pricks his finger with a staple and suddenly a company is in the red. Stuff like that has been allowed to happen slowly slowly to the point it has made everything ridiculously expensive.
The Govt can fix the former easily, and we can all fix the latter by pushing back a bit and the Govt showing some balls. Won't happen though.
Australia has become so risk-averse (in part due to political correctness, EO and overly pushy OH&S) that nothing can proceed. When it does proceed, it is held up by red tape or a lack of covered walkway to the dunnies.
Select to expand quoteTurtleHunter said..
I would have thought what we export would be more what our economy is based on. ie minerals
Depends how u look at economic activity... services is by far the biggest sector bcos that's mostly internal (Government, Medical, Transport, etc) BUT if you look at things that affect the A$ and trade balance it's resources and agriculture... with a little industry and services.
But we import more than export, and have a very large external debt.
China/Korea/Japan/Germany are considered export economies, ours is considered Resources, even though it doesn't account for anywhere near the most economic activity.
He doesn't need to count do you think he actually comes up with economic policies? maybe you should be questioning his advisers who will more than likely be advising Hocking in the future.
If you take politics out of it and look at statistics, we currently have a set of economic figures the entire world is envious of. 3 x AAA credit rating (never achieved before), low interest, low unemployment, low inflation.
Nothing quite so amusing as a seabreeze thread where some nobody thinks they know economics better than an actual economist. A man who has been running the country's economy superbly in very difficult times. A man voted "world's best treasurer" by peers.
Who's the real moron?
Select to expand quotekiteboy dave said..
If you take politics out of it and look at statistics, we currently have a set of economic figures the entire world is envious of. 3 x AAA credit rating (never achieved before), low interest, low unemployment, low inflation.
Nothing quite so amusing as a seabreeze thread where some nobody thinks they know economics better than an actual economist. A man who has been running the country's economy superbly in very difficult times. A man voted "world's best treasurer" by peers.
Who's the real moron?
The real moron is anyone who believes in the credit rating agencies. Personally I'd put more trust in Robby Waterhouse. In any case both the agencies and Robby are trying to offload smelly crap their nearest and dearest no longer want.
You would have to be a moron to believe the statistics for inflation and unemployment. Both are way higher in reality than what the ABS publishes. The reality is so far away from the stats that the federal Treasury actually compiles its own figures that it keeps secret.
Select to expand quotekiteboy dave said..
^^^ ain't no facepalm hard enough.
So you think inflation is low when an essential to modern life like electricity rises by about 15% a year? Is unemployment low when officially you are employed if you work one hour are week. The official figures are bogus. It's as simple as that. If unemployment was as low as the official figures and the cost as living as low as why the ABS says then perhaps people here would be more confident than they are.
Do you believe what the ratings agencies say? After the sub prime fiasco it's amazing companies like Standards and Poor are still in business. Triple A rated securities ended up being a big pile of stinky poo that cost people who trusted the agencies.
Wow a facepalm. So intelligent.
Well you obviously have wonderful grasp of economics, straight out of the Jones/Bolt school of logic, which generally involved cherry picking one little snippet of out-of-context information, ignoring all the incovenient truths affecting the situation, puffing up your one little snippet, and presenting it as an irrefutable fact. Put 3 or four of them together and hey it's case closed.
There's little point arguing with you even though I think virtually every sentence you've written in your two posts above is wrong.
I pity the fools who think punishing labor at the election is going to result in a better economy for this country. Eleventy Joe has trouble counting past his fingers and abbot has nothing to offer anyone now he's not allowed to say No anymore. We're in for sour times. 
Select to expand quotekiteboy dave said..
I pity the fools who think punishing labor at the election is going to result in a better economy for this country. Eleventy Joe has trouble counting past his fingers and abbot has nothing to offer anyone now he's not allowed to say No anymore. We're in for sour times.
Sadly, I think there will be a lot of people that will do this. Maybe the Liberal strategy of not saying anything is the best one. The people that have little grasp of economics will just quote for 'the other party'.
Take FlySurfers reference to Keating above. Devoid of any context and showing a lack of understanding of economics. The airwaves are full of listeners like this.
Hmmm.. I wonder what was happening in other countries around the world when Keating was in charge?
Select to expand quoteMark _australia said..
Labour cost. No we don't want to be like asia with bamboo scaffold and no PPE etc.... but seriously... hundreds of dollars for a safety sign, with 1000 required to be installed on site... and overly tight procedures at workplaces. Billions made by OH&S people and nothing happens without a JSA. Some softc0ck pricks his finger with a staple and suddenly a company is in the red. Stuff like that has been allowed to happen slowly slowly to the point it has made everything ridiculously expensive.
Related. I literally spilled my beer when a project manager told me how much he paid for the stop/go Lollipop guys.
I'd say the average person should pick a number and multiply by about 4.Select to expand quoteMobydisc said..
So you think inflation is low when an essential to modern life like electricity rises by about 15% a year?
Yes, because it's only a small percentage of what people spend.Select to expand quoteIs unemployment low when officially you are employed if you work one hour a week?
If you work one hour a week you aren't any more unemployed than a child. That is, you're obviously working so casually you shouldn't be considered part of the work force. Situations will vary but there really are a lot of people that would love to work 4 hours a day and would consider it fully employed; mothers that are in charge of picking up kids after school et al.
Select to expand quotepweedas said..
The mind boggles.
Throw them out!
The problem with throwing them out is the other mob are exactly the same. Tax and spend.
Select to expand quoteMobydisc said..pweedas said..
The mind boggles.
Throw them out!
The problem with throwing them out is the other mob are exactly the same. Tax and spend.
Agreed. However, you realise that's pretty much the government's job right, tax & spend? take money, do stuff for common good that no-one would stump up for otherwise. That's why we have government. 
Howard was a big spender. He loved spending taxpayer money, probably still enjoys spending taxpayer money in a more limited way. Costello had an anecdote of the Howard way. Back in the late 90s Howard and Costello were negotiating with Meg Lees from the Democrats, remember them? Howard was trying to get the Democrats to support some legislation, most probably taking away personal rights or flogging off Telstra, through the senate.
Anyway Lees put the price down for supporting the legislation in the senate. Two hundred for the issue of all issues, climate change. Costello agreed, thinking in his head it was $200,000. Howard agreed too, stating $200 million was a reasonable amount.
Select to expand quoteMobydisc said..
Howard was a big spender. He loved spending taxpayer money, probably still enjoys spending taxpayer money in a more limited way. Costello had an anecdote of the Howard way. Back in the late 90s Howard and Costello were negotiating with Meg Lees from the Democrats, remember them? Howard was trying to get the Democrats to support some legislation, most probably taking away personal rights or flogging off Telstra through the senate.
Anyway Lees put the price down for supporting the legislation in the senate. Two hundred for the issue of all issues, climate change. Costello agreed, thinking in his head it was $200,000. Howard agreed too, stating $200 million was a reasonable amount.
Typical politicians... no matter what the party.
(Just out of context, I saw the special on Murdoch the other night, and it was surprising how much effect he has on political parties, both here, and in the UK!)
Select to expand quoteFlySurfer said..pweedas said..
Aren't you the guy (along with pm33) who recommended selling everything and buying silver?
How's the silver price gone since then?
No, you're confusing me someone else. I'd never recommend investing in 1 asset class.
No that's right, you've got another thread going frantically trying to buy gold but you can't find any. Before that was silver. And government bonds. And super. And bank savings. And stocks. And canola or whatever. And then you're over in the NDIS thread bleating about how horrible is is that you have to cough up 96c per day to help people who desperately need it. How about you invest one lousy dollar in the people around you, is that too hard Mr Moneybags? Select to expand quoteFlySurfer said..
Just for the ALP fanboy, I mean kiteboy....
Lol good one, very clever. If you'd read enough threads you'd know that is actually "anyone but Abbott" which is entirely different. Select to expand quoteFlySurfer said..
Some tax links
What's with the obsession with how every last tax dollar is spent? Guess what... you're never going to agree with half of what every government spends money on. I hate how much rich private schools get subsidised so they can build another air conditioned gym. I hate that cult schools get subsidised, like exclusive brethren "schools". I hate that cults like them and scientologists get tax exemptions. I hate how 5 million is getting given to some church in SA that's under a flight path to put in sound insulation - move the damn building and do it with the money you take every sunday is my attitude. But guess what? I accept that big and small decisions are made by local,state,federal government every single day and I don't like half of them. What I don't do is start internet rants about how horrible and unfair it all is and how they are all so clueless.
What you lack, in my little opinion, is perspective. You don't realise just how good we have it here in this country. Go live overseas for a bit. Live in USA with crack n guns around the corner. Live in China where you can be made to pay for your own bullet for crossing your local official. Live in Asia or India or Africa, see what life's like when you're lucky to have food, electricity, clean water. This isn't just a few poor people in pockets here and there, I'm talking about the majority of the world. You're here bleating about how hard it all is in this country. Did you have enough to eat today? Did your power stay on all day? Could you afford a non-essential like a beer or ciggie? If you opened your eyes more you'd whinge less, guaranteed.
Select to expand quotepweedas said..
They are still doing it even though we are going broke.
We aren't actually going broke, current debt level equal to that of a normal person having a mortgage of $10,000. It's really nothing to panic about.Select to expand quotepweedas said..
The money train has stopped. Stop spending what we don't have.
Austerity doesn't help a weak economy, all it does is shut down jobs, shut down spending, triggers a flow on effect that costs as much as you save. Spending locally (infrastructure etc) helps a weak economy.Select to expand quotepweedas said..
Throw them out.
It's gonna happen, no need to fret about it. Won't help the economy though.
How can a Country with a triple A credit rating possibly going broke??? Some of these comments make the mind boggle.
Select to expand quotekiteboy dave said..
Austerity doesn't help a weak economy, all it does is shut down jobs, shut down spending, triggers a flow on effect that costs as much as you save. Spending locally (infrastructure etc) helps a weak economy.
.
Oh, no, that can't be right . In the idiots guide to economics, stopping spending in an economy saves the economy... Sure... That'll work if you want to send everyone onto the dole.
