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Is Australia The Next Greece?
Australian consumers are more worried about the medium term outlook than at the peak of the financial crisis, and rightfully so.
Source: @ANZ_WarrenHogan
As The Telegraph reports, by the end of the first quarter this year, Australia’s net foreign debt had climbed to a record $955bn, equal to an already unsustainable 60pc of gross domestic product, and is set to rise as RBA's bet that depreciation in the value of the country’s currency would help to offset the decline in its overbearing mining industry hasn’t happened to the extent they would have wished.
Furthermore, as UBS explains, China's real GDP growth cycles have become an increasingly important driver of Australia's nominal GDP growth this last decade. With iron ore and coal prices plumbing new record lows, a Chinese (real) economy firing on perhaps 1 cyclinder, and equity investors reeling from China's collapse; perhaps the situation facing Australia is more like Greece than many want to admit, as Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest woman and matriarch of Perth’s Hancock mining dynasty stunned her workers this week: accept a 10% pay cut or face redundancies.
The government in Canberra and the Reserve Bank of Australia, The Telegraph explains, had bet that depreciation in the value of the country’s currency would help to offset the decline in its overbearing mining industry. However, that hasn’t happened to the extent they would have wished.
Last month Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest woman and matriarch of Perth’s Hancock mining dynasty delivered an unwelcome shock to her workers in Western Australia: accept a possible 10pc pay cut or face the risk of future redundancies.
Ms Rinehart, whose family have accumulated vast wealth from iron ore mining, has seen her fortune dwindle since commodity prices began their inexorable slide last year. The Australian mining mogul has seen her estimated wealth collapse to around $11bn (£7bn) from a fortune that was thought to be worth around $30bn just three years ago.
This colossal collapse in wealth is symptomatic of the wider economic problem now facing Australia, which for years has been known as the lucky country due to its preponderance in natural resources such as iron ore, coal and gold. During the boom years of the so-called commodities “super cycle” when China couldn’t buy enough of everything that Australia dug out of the ground, the country’s economy resembled oil-rich Saudi Arabia.
However, a collapse in iron ore and coal prices coupled with the impact of large international mining companies slashing investment has exposed Australia’s true vulnerability. Just like Saudi Arabia, which is now burning its foreign reserves to compensate for falling oil prices, Australia faces a collapse in export revenue.
Recently revised figures for April show that the country’s trade deficit with the rest of the world ballooned to a record A$4.14bn (£2bn). That gap between the value of exports and imports is expected to increase as the value of Australia’s most important resources reaches new multi-year lows. Iron ore is now trading at around $50 per tonne, compared with a peak of around $180 per tonne achieved in 2011. Thermal coal has also suffered heavy losses, now trading at around $60 per tonne compared with around $150 per tonne four years ago.
For an economy which in 2012 depended on resources for 65pc of its total trade in goods and services these dramatic falls in prices are almost impossible to absorb without inflicting wider damage. The drop in foreign currency earnings has seen Australia forced to borrow more in order to maintain government spending.
The respected Australian economist Stephen Koukoulas recently wrote of the dangers that escalating levels of foreign debt could present for future generations. Could a prolonged period of depressed commodity prices even turn Australia into Asia’s version of Greece, with China being its banker of last resort instead of the European Union.
As UBS further explains, China's real GDP growth cycles have become an increasingly important driver of Australia's nominal GDP growth this last decade.
The property-driven slowdown in China's GDP growth is continuing to having a disproportionately large negative impact on Australia's economy. This is because China clearly remains Australia's largest export destination, having peaked at a record high ~? share of total exports last year (equivalent to ~7% of GDP), but more recently retracing sharply to the current 28% share. This reflects the >20%y/y drop in Australia's nominal exports to China in FY15 – which is on track to subtract ~1¼%pts y/y from nominal GDP.
In contrast, FY14 export values surged 26%y/y, adding 1¼%pts y/y to nominal GDP. Notably, this turnaround entirely reflects collapsing prices, which more than offset surging volumes. (Indeed, this overall fall in export values is despite a boom in Chinese tourism arrivals which are currently growing ~20%y/y.)
Weak Chinese demand remains a key downside risk for not only Australia's economy but also the RBA & AUD outlook. The weakness in Chinese growth is having the most obvious negative impact on Australia because our basket of exports is (almost) uniquely concentrated in commodities (back down to ~? share), where China is generally the marginal price-setter. Indeed, after iron ore alone reached a 30% share of total Australian exports in 2013, the recent renewed collapse in iron ore prices saw its export share drop back closer to 20%. The price effect has been a key driver behind Australia's terms of trade collapsing by ? since its peak in 2011.
This negative income shock is weighing heavily on Australia's fiscal position, which has seen its deficit consistently worse than expected over that period; as well as leading to a 'capex cliff', which has seen the RBA cut rates and drag the AUD/USD down to a 6-year low. Indeed, an ABS survey of the outlook for mining investment in FY15/16 implies a ~37% collapse which could directly subtract a massive 2%pts y/y from nominal GDP. As such, weak Chinese demand remains a key downside risk for not only Australia's economy but also the RBA & AUD outlook (with the latter still expected to depreciate further to 0.70USD ahead).
* * *
As The Telegraph concludes, rather ominously,
The problem is that Australia, after decades of effort to diversify, is looking ever more like a petrodollar economy of the Middle East, but without the vast horde of foreign currency reserves to fall back on when commodity prices fall.
Instead, Australians must borrow to maintain the standards of living that the country has become accustomed to, which even some Greeks will admit is unsustainable.
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Kneel Slaves, and I will throw extra chocolates off the balconey.
Is (insert country from planet Earth here) the next Greece?
Probably...
So when will Sydney property prices start to collapse and why have they not already done so?
But Fuck yeah Aussie house prices!
We must be close to #1 globally, but no bubble here, move along, they always go up, blah, blah, blah.
That'll save our arses.
(The amount of RE junk mail I receive in a week, probably helps keep Australia Post 'barely' afloat these days).
We're in awesome shape, have you seen the amount of new places that keep on popping up selling single origin coffee, gourmet burgers, craft beer....Internet sales are booming...
Surely we can be the first, first world economy that's GDP is soley reliant on staggeringly expensive houses and good coffee & burgers...A plate of eggs & bacon, not much change from a $20.
There must be a billion dollar app that we can develop that combines the above.
The expression "The Lucky Country" was coined by Donald Horne decades ago to mean Australia was lucky to have prospered in spite of its appalling political leadership.
If you have seen Prime Minister Tony Abbott in action at the G20 you will know not much has changed.
The Opposition Labor party practically invented modern Australia but local Tories love nothing more than running up house prices and giving away unsustainable tax cuts eg multimillionaire retirees pay absolutely no income tax. Nuts
Sounds much like the UK?
I have never liked Australian politicians of all parties as there is a "Mean-spiritedness" about all of them. They are all content for Australia to be a Vassal of The US and sacrifice all National intresests accordingly. The latest, most appalling, example being the MH017 incident. It is becoming increasingly obvious to any intelligent observer that the aircraft was, in fact, shot down by a Ukrainian jet fighter and not brought down by Russian separatists. The latest sanctions on Russia were, therefore, entirely misplaced. But that isn't the important thing which is that those on board were predominantly Australian and Dutch (Holland being a member of NATO). It is absolutely appalling that the loved ones of those killed are being denied any closure simply because the Australian AND Dutch Governments (And of course The UK who were given responsibility for decoding the Black Boxes) are pandering to (Totally unjustifiable) US policy towards Russia which would suffer should the truth about MH017 come out. So much for Western "Democratic Governance". Absolutely appalling.
You just have to get used to reality. There is no "Decmocratic Governance"; you live in the Fourth Reich; it just takes a while to get used to it. Remember, everything they tell you is a lie. Everything.
Spot on....the big lie is now unfolding under the apo-calypse (un-veiling).....
In exchange for the Dutch deaths on MH17 the empire allowed repatriation of Dutch gold.
One Canadian died on that plane but we cheer the Ukonazis.
Austrailia is far from being the next Greece. Things are going quite well down under. The beer is cold, and the babes are beautiful. Deal with it.
Negative gearing, halved the capital gains tax now the cunts want to bang up the GST
They'll be a one term wonder if they do.I'll give Labor one thing - they know how to open a door for Abbott to walk right on through and raise GST to cover Labor's prolific spending. Morons.
More bullshit. They'll be a one term wonder but nothing will change because the same team will be in power. They're on the same team! They're stealing wealth from you and making you work for their benefit. Nothing more, nothing less. They're endebting you to a life of serfdom. You are a Greek but don't seem to get it. Yet. You're being fucked from both sides but enjoy being the meat in the sandwich. Because, awesome politicians reside only in Australia and they would never sell us down the drain like that 'cos Aussies don't do that shit to each other, only those dumb reffos, right mate? There's two dogs fucking alright but you seem to enjoy being the pack's bitch. It's not a rarity amoung the masses.
Douche. Labor increased government spending by 70% in just 7 years. And all they practically invented was union rorting. Get a grip.
Enough of this imbecilic "he said, she said", bullshit, schoolyard blame game will ya. Fuck me roan, if I hear this shit one more time, I'm going to strangle some cunt. Liberal and Labor have fraudently endebted us all into the ground. They all do it. IT'S WHAT THEY DO! It's a global corporation led by fucking blood sucking psychopatic inbred, murderous, European royal scumbags. Fuckin retards fall over themselve over some nazi-loving, German of origin von- fucking- "Windsor".
All over the fuckin world they asset strip us, the hard working honest man and pay us with their own IOU scrip. Haven't you noticed Greece? Are you going to tell me the people there had a vote that counts or are paid in money that is no one's debt? Get your head out of your arse , wipe the shit out of your eyes and take a look around. They're promising the world without a cent to their name. They don't spend money, they strip wealth and asset strip the nation by expanding the fraudlent currency base, They're IO fuckin Us that dickheads like you vote for so that your latest champion for your team can strip the wealth from some other poor turd and pass it on to you. They don't tax you to deliver this shit, they borrow counterfeit money from some other criminal IOU creator and then force you to work for these valueless peices of shit paper and use your labour to imply value to them. Keep begging for another champion to save you from those awful Labor cunts, so that you can feel good about the good social and infrastructure programs that the Liberal cunts will ply your vote out of you with.
Ah, fuck this shit. I'll get straight to it; You and the rest of you fucking retarded political dwarf cunts need reaming. Fuck. No, let me expand; fuck you, you're to blame because you keep voting for these arseholes. Dead-shit.
Al, in Australia, voting is mandatory. How's that for liberty. Or otherwise.
No it's not. Turning up for roll call is but you don't have to and are not required to cast a ballot. Ask the CEC. I got that straight from those horses arses by the way.
How is that for liberty, you ask? It's galling to find out that the cunts demand that you tug your forelock in subservience to them. Yeah, real awesome being an oarsman on their cruise ship. Dirtbag bastards. What was your point again? Oh yeah, you're stuck with them and so I guess you had better vote for the lesser of two evils. Or otherwise. So, how's that Lucky Country vibe going for you? For we are young and free. What a fuckin demorolizing joke that's been played on all of us. Get angry and fight this shit. They do not own us. Cock-sucking pedophiles.
Unpatriotic dumbass.
Not the conservative Abboled folks but the useless cunts of Rudd/Gillard/Rudd that decided it was a good thing, in the midst of the GFC to make sure house prices remained stable by introducing the "first home buyers bonus/grant", then increasing it, thus saddling the lowest earners with the most unstable jobs with the largest debt to equity ratio in OZ. ATM, they're thanful for the debt they've been ecouraged to load up on. Maynot end well, but just so you know your comments dont make much sense.
First home owners grant was a bad piece of policy, introduced in the early 2000s by the Howard govt after the GST hit the housing sector. Howard also allowed super funds to use leverage, thus giving investors an extra hard start over owner-occupiers. Also the CGT 50% discount was a Howard/Costello initiative. Granted Labor didn't do much to wind these back, but would you expect any politician to once the largesse has been handed out by the Tory scum?
Selling our arse to the Chinese
Because interest rates are low and regulators have an iron grip on land availability and high immigration.
Because interest rates are low and regulators have an iron grip on land availability and high immigration.
Stupid crackers
Australia the next greece? - at 60% debt to GDP? How many other contenders around the world have debt to GDP over 200%?
Australia is fucked but get a sense of proportion.
Including The US with an Official 100%+ using Government "On Balance Sheet" debt, over 300% including unfunded iabilities. Actually, 60% ollok very conservative in comparison to MOST other countries, except Russia!
Yes. However, before 2008 all was similarly good in Portugal, Ireland, Iceland...not look !
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF...
Ireland, Iceland
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF...
Greece
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF...
Those were my first thoughts.
They may be in poor health, but not nearly as bad as a lot of the rest of us are.
Tory newspaper editors in London hate us for our sunshine
Ahhhh, thank gawd; only 60% debt to GDP (a figure that is fudged and invented by governments to hoodwink you into believing that it measures some quantifiable wealth generation), I'm feeling better already . We're measuring the velocity of debt based currency issuance here, generated off the backs of the worker so that some fat and ugly cunt like Gina the Hut (fucking hut, she's a full blown skyscraper) Reinhart and her bastard offspring can sap the common wealth of the people and direct their profits to some off-shore to some tax haven and stockpile the wealth of the nation into the hands of foreign corporations (ie the Windsors and their blood sucking ilk). We're all going over the falls but at least we're going to be one of the last to land on the rocks. Heartening. It makes the waiting for the event that litlle more soothing.
The term is "bogans."
What just happened to gold?
Gold plunges 5.5% in morning tradeGold abruptly dropped through $1,100 an ounce for the first time since March 2010 and is lining up for its second-longest losing streak of the year.
The price of the yellow metal plunged sharply in morning trade, dropping as much as 5.5 per cent to a low of $1,072.35 an ounce from Friday's close of $1,134.47.
http://www.ft.com/fastft/362251
I logged in to ask the same thing. WTF?
How many billion dollars worth of gold did the Fed sell in a second? Inquiring minds want to know.
One thing I know is no physical traded at that price...
True. But, fuck, this thing is hitting the shitter. How many fuckers have backed up the truck over the last year? Poor bastards. I stopped backing up the truck in 2013. I concede defeat...but will not sell.
Chinese are getting margin calls.They can not sell stocks, that is illegal, so they sell what they have, gold. And i bet a millon dollrs Goldman is going to buy it.
Yeah maybe they might trigger the inevitable Oz property correction if they start dumping all their RE investments down here.
Some morons I work with truly believe 10% yoy gains are sustainable while real incomes are declining?
The first salvo at a final washout? Settle in Crimex force majeure paper. Probably just a glitch. Whole lotta glitches going on.
When the fuck is there gonna be an upside glitch?
They're super-speedy at fixin those!
The USD/JPY is flat. WTF, Tyler? Any thoughts?
I bought the DGLD as a hedge on my physical last week. Its good to be lucky. Protect yourself fron the crazy mother fucking CB'ers. THey will take it to 900-950
Good for you, No sarc, I just hoard cash, Fuck the casino. House paid...car paid. No debts. If it hits $1000 an ounce I might just buy some more. That, or the equivalent in Whiskey....no sarc.
You can't drink gold... oh wait...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldschl%C3%A4ger
Australia's housing Bubble is astronomical compared to the USA:
New South Wales, especially Sydney, has the most expensive housing in the country, with the median house price at AU$ 760,000 (US$ 591,962), about 33% above the national median house price of AU$ 571,500 (US$ 448,313), according to ABS.
http://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Pacific/Australia/Price-History
I think these prices are based on their 2014 census but the numbers have only gone up since then! Their collapse will be collossal! My friend there just sold his condo for USD$1.45 million ... he bought it back in 2001 for USD$245k
I am seriously starting to feel like the clip, "I feel like I have been taking crazy pills"
WTF is wrong with people. If the problem is really rich people from China playing monopoly, then just fucking wait until they are finished and move on the next thing FFS.
It is obviously a bubble - just fucking wait. I TRULY DON"T UNDERSTAND THESE PEOPLE PAYING THESE PRICES.
Father-In-Law told me that his son just paid 750K for something that is an hour's drive from his work (in Sydney) because it was all he could afford and as close as he could get... WTF??!
i had a third of an average melbourne house paid off. sold it 2 years ago, got PM at $1250-$1300 oz . im still up 10% given that I bought at $US/Aus parity, even with todays crash.
I figure the high percent of aussies on ZH is in fact a result of our property bubble. Its got so many scratching their head as to why it wont burst (in 2008 it was chinese fundamentals supporting commodities. now its crashing commodities and chinese real estate forcing chinese to scramble fro real estate abroad)
we surely are the lucky country in that regards, but im betting on the luck running out such that my PMs can buy me a house outright. I dont wanna be paying rent when i head to retirement - no-one does. Thats why all western populations are suckers and keep paying through the nose for R/E thats totally unreasonable
Sigh. It's the money, stupid.
aud/jpy flat. Trader tip> eur/jpy
There will be only one upside glitch, but it's going to be a doozy.
We always have hope I guess. I bought all of this shit for my wife and kid. I enjoy working so...fuck it...I am never going to sell.
Buy more at 900. They will shake a lot of people. They need to refill their vaults
I'll start accumulating at 1000, if it hits 800 I'll blow all the dry powder I have. The idea that gold will be at 800 after 7 years of post 2008 QE1, 2, 3, N is insane.
Me too!
they'll probably introduce new trading laws to cap daily gains in gold to $1. Still it can fall $100 without triggering a downside cap. No absurdity will go unutilized.
It is already capped at exactly 1% most days
And the aftermath won't be denominated in dollars. Taking possession IS the upside glitch. To have and to hold, so in the epilogue you can convert it back into whatever confetti they will surely dream up to replace the FRN.
Me too. That's a lot of paper or electrons.
Ouch! I hold this shit....so....yeah...this is getting worrysome. This one day it will explode bullshit is getting old.
I guess in one sense us Aussie gold-holders are lucky to have not been battered as much as you guys in the USA, with the Aussie dollar at US$1.10 in July, 2011 and down to around US 73.5 cents today.
Fat tentacle.
This is a finance site. Go to a politics site if you want to talk about Hillary.
holy shit
sheeit must be getting real....
What happened?
Manipulation !!
(What prize did I win?)
She'll be right mate. NOT
Can we just have a global reset and be done with this drama.
Reset...RESET...WORLD WIDE RESET NOW!!!!!
Wow. There is going to be blood in the streets soon. It's getting ugly. Gold is going to have to get up and fight or we are going down for good. I made up my mind 3 years ago. If I go down at least it's in my own terms. A horrible Death to ever is doing this.
zerohedge, I am not sure what your plans are, but rest assured that you will have plenty to write. If the global deleveraging kicks in then there has to be someone after Greece.
Waltzing Matilda . . . . . and they looked on in horror after being bludgeoned by the jolly Swagman . . .
Holy shit, look at the gold open!
Harry Dent seems to be right -so far. Must admit, I did not believe him...but here it is, looks like heading south-at least for now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9gnBe37k34
China just waiting for the shit-show to begin in Australia, so it can acquire the entire island "for a song," as they say.
The Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is a nut job - on the pay of China
He was a boxer and people think he got one hit too many.
He struck a secret trade deal with China which basically enables the Chinese to buy Australian land for cheap, and approved a major open cut coal mine SHENHUA inthe middle of the best agricultural land in the country. The mine is OWNED BY THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT, I mean talk about stupid, and will irretrirevably destroy the water table which irrigates the land upon which Australia depends.
the secret "free" trade deal also enables Chinese workers on low pay to work in any chinese company which buys out an Australian Company. So many more Australian workers will be pushed out of jobs.
It also enables large amounts of residential anchor real estate to be bought. The Chinese leave mom and dad and son in the apartment so the parents can get the once excellent free health care and son goes to uni basically for free where he cheats his way into high grades.
Then Tony Abbott says they need toraise taxes to pay for the health system or better yet privatize it so that it has the same problems as the US.
The opposition party are old crooks, and Tony Abbott a red neck punch drunk fool.
That is why the OZ dollar will sink to 68c next year.
SHORT.
$Oz will be $65 be end of september
Aghhhh! You beat me to it.... but I give it until the end of October.
Agree Abbott is a complete WANKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I dislike Tony Abbott so much I would almost vote Labor... except then I would risk the current batch of Labor fuckheads being in power...
Hey at least the Labour Party actually gets a few things done.The Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric,compulsory superannuation(now @ 2t)Structural reforms to the economy in the eighties which resulted in the longest growth run in the nations history,the broadband network,record spending in health and education as compared to what.
The fucking Tories going along with the Vietnam,Iraq and Afghanistan catastrophies,Costello selling all our physical gold holdings signing us up for those fucking F35 lemmons giving us the GST and selling us out on BS free trade treaties,metadata retention,funding school fucking chaplains to name a few.
The current Labour leader Shorten is a piece of shit I'll give you that but the fucking drovers dog would be a better proposition than fascist Abbott.
In Australia, the prices are still, as Mr Burns would say ... Exxxcellent. Now back to cutting CEO salaries that every rise exponentially... stop the whining and suck it up.
The QE's helped run it up and now down. Like paint stripper.. Bernanke Brand naturally.. Fucking Toad
http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=coal-australian&months=240
http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=iron-ore&months=240
Commodities .. Price takers since mining was invented
It was me, hedged my stack Friday.
Gold BitcheZ....I pick up pennies
Gold $AU1533
Silver $AU20.17
Should buy some more before the $AU goes down the toilet!
Australia's TARP will put Bernank's to shame. When that occurs, gld will go parabolic again.
The Lucky Country indeed. It's hard to argue with the standard of living down under. The luck has been in, OZ has only seen the up side of the Great Chinese expansion, now a taste of the down side. Did they, during good times, put away for the hard times, or did they borrow and spend with no thought for hard times? Did I really need to ask such a question, nobody uses good times to store up for bad, it just ain't in the DNA of modern finance capitalism.
One wonders, how many nations can have serious debt problems before the whole thing goes in the crapper.
We spent like drunken sailors on shore leave, let the good times roll and let future Governments worry about the consequences.
Puerto Rico is the next Australia!
The Australian economy is saddled with an "out of control" bueaurcracy which gobbles up more and more tax dollars every year.
The states of Australia were federated in order for a single government to administer the country on behalf of its population.
Currently, the population exist to sustain the government. The story, of course is the same in all western nations,
Take for example the ridiculous observer seat Australia has on the Security Council. They dont get a vote and cannot influence the debate in any way and yet still have to pay all the costs of all the diplomats and hangers-on to be in New York, stay at 5 start hotels and do what. Observe!
I just hope one day this nightmare ends for all countries and populations. It might require the extinction of human race to achieve this.
Max
Well, you got quite good at it, with the partial extinction of the Abos.
How exciting - a bash the Aussie article.... The Aussie is at multi-year lows versus the dollar even with a better economy than the U.S. And less debt. And China may slow, but until I stop seeing everything sold in America stamped with 'Made in China'...
"Australia’s net foreign debt had climbed to a record $955bn" --- and the Outback has Mrs. Wantabe to thank for that one!
Is this article a fucking joke?
Most of my friends that live in Australia think the exchange rate is a fucking joke. Most Australians understand the value of "input costs".
Australia enjoys AAA+ credit ratings with a 2.00% interest rate differential.
While those assclown "hedge find" traders are fucking with Trump, I'd be long December CL contracts. I'd also be buying some copper, lumber, ferrous metal contracts.
These ideas aren't demand based.
When they banned crossbows in Australia I knew they were doomed. How much more retarded can a government get?
You can build what~ever you want in Australia.
That's why it's so important that Australia stays untouched by bad people.
Socialism works until you run out of other people's money.
-Marget Thatcher
Tell that to the Pentagon
Very misleading article. According database from IMF website, Australia's net government debt is 14% of its GDP and tax revenue is 21.4% of its GDP. So Australia basically can pay off its net debt in almost 6 months!!
Just a point.
When the (Liberal, 10 year?) Howard government lost power in 2007, Australia was was running a surplus and from memory, was about $100bn in credit (no net govt debt). They had even paid off those idiotic bonds from over 100 years earlier that were used to build railways, rather than rolling them over.
8 short years later the incominng Labour government, and now this insane and strange Abbot govnerment have the place in a mess.
Friends there are in despair as they see what is happening.
Pity we did not have a mining Tax during the Howard years when the streets were paved with Gold, would have been nice to have something to fall back on.
Very misleading article. According database from IMF website, Australia's net government debt is 14% of its GDP and tax revenue is 21.4% of its GDP. So Australia basically can pay off its net debt in almost 6 months!!
Your source is imf? Real nice Clark. Use propaganda to refute what you call propaganda. AU's biggest export is mining. Period. The collapse in commodity prices is where the real economic collapse has occurred. While the idiots stare at the stock indexes, commodities, based on the real economy, have flat out collapsed. The worlds fake money created fake demand which caused fake investment dollars to pull real commodities out of the ground. Now there is a glut of supply and there is no real demand because the fake demand didnt work and has went back into hiding in unicorn rainbow happy time land. This is reality people. The last 15 yrs has been a phony Chinese bubble and everyone joined the party. The first leg down was in 2008-9. The other leg is happening right now. The thrid one will hopefully end with banker hanging in gallows.
All I know is
Every time Gold takes a dump, buying Gold in OZ becomes a lot more expensive because the Oz Dollar also takes a dump.
If Gold gets any cheaper, I won't be able to afford it, doesn't make cents does it.
quite simple
the australian dollar collerates with the gold price
No worries, we are just going to replace a mining bubble with a real estate bubble, should work out fine, it always does for us in the lucky country.
The minimum wage in Australia is $17.29.
If something happens with the economy, an Australian can always get a nice job at a local McDonald's and become rich.
Get lost. Although Australia government is pretty whacky, they have many many resources, unlike Greece.
Beware of Greeks bearing unsustainability.
Aussies have got Shirtfront Abbott, the antipodean Blair, to pull them through.
Oh well... better stay on the farm & stock up on ammo
bad news=good news
Abbott is a moron - OZ is cool - whipped the Poms at gay baseball
Your sports dictionary is on the blink... baseball is gay cricket (baseball is for pussies... batters know beforehand that the ball is going to be in a tiny 3D-rectangle; that it won't bounce; that it won't be aimed at their head or body. Batting is hard only because the bat has a small useful area. On the 'supply' side - the best pitchers only throw ~100 pitches a game: that's barely 16 overs. Even the ball is lighter and softer).
Ah Yanks.. they think that silly costumes and padding and jet flyovers make a sport manly. As their recent wars have shown, shiny shit, tech and propaganda only takes you so far... then you actually need to perform.
Yeah. Sure. I recall at one point, us pussies were doing flyovers to help you much bigger pussies handle the Nazis. Baseball probably wasn't such a bad sport to your grandpa as all of the baseballpussies dropped out of our planes into unknown soil and lost tens of thousands of lives while you whiney fuckers cowered in your closets. And, besides, crickets sounds so much more manly. Europe's number one export is faggots.
I don't care what happens as long as they pay to let me get my PhD by retirement age.
Barn Joyce just signed a big cattle deal with China, we may not be selling ore or coal as much as we were but it will be good for Australians to realise there are other industries in this country. China might have stopped building ghost cities, but people still have to eat. Who wants a bowl of rice if you can afford a steak.
This is alarmist BS. Australian government debt is around 30% of GDP one of the lowest in the world. The idiot in that article has taken the standard debt GDP ratio and added public sector debt to make it sound more scarey. Of course NET foreign Debt is more, there is no country in the world where that isnt high, if you have a credit card or a house/car loan you have foreign debt. There arent many political systems in the world where the two main parties have to get elected on their debt reduction strategies but Australia is one of them. Australia has a credible govenrment structure, an excellent rating from financial ratings agencies, a small, well educated population and control of its own currency along with significant natural reserves and a reasonable diverse economy. Its just such a stupid comparison the writer of the article should hang his head in shame. If your interested in some figures updated recently:
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/australia/government-debt-to-gdp
what does roo taste like?
halfway between lamb and chicken
"Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest woman and matriarch of Perth’s Hancock mining dynasty stunned her workers this week: accept a 10% pay cut or face redundancies."
In a properly-functioning world, the workers response would be, "Cut our pay, and you can go mine your metals your big, fat self bitch!"
She just needs to import a few hundred slutty 7s or 8s from Los Angeles. Most of the miners in WA would gladly take a 20%+ paycut in exchange for some "better benefits".
Ha ha, us Aussies ATM are selling our overpriced houses to the idiot Chinese hoardes keen to offload their ill gotten gains to a foreign country and make full use of our socialist system of free health care and easy going ways they can exploit..............It wont end well.