Australian economy

[HBS Guy]

Yup, saw that, Parkinson pushed out to make way for the present austerity lover.

[HBS Guy]

Lowest wage growth in 20 years:

http://www.msn.com/en-au/money/news/com ... ar-BBi8c53

Applying the Big Lie technique, or outright stupidity, Hokey reckons this was “good news” and even had a back bencher ask a Dorothy Dixer on it FFS!

[Lefty]

Hokey is a complete phukwit. With wage growth stalling, the last thing the economy needs is spending cuts by government.

[HBS Guy]

The guy at head of Treasury doubtless urging Hokey along the austerity path. WRONG!

[HBS Guy]

WTF is going to happen to our economy? Nothing good I bet:

1. The idiot RBA cuts rates, idiots rush out and overcommit at low rates.

2. US Fed Reserve is going to lift interest rates—money will flow out of Oz to US. $A drops relative to $US.

3. RBA RAISES interest rates as $A drops too much. Many idiots go broke, overcommitted at 2.25% cash rate.

4. Shambles is backflipping on just about everything to make Abbott look good. Instead—he looks like a dork

We don’t deserve this massive incompetence!

[Lefty]

WTF is going to happen to our economy? Nothing good I bet:

1. The idiot RBA cuts rates, idiots rush out and overcommit at low rates.

2. US Fed Reserve is going to lift interest rates—money will flow out of Oz to US. $A drops relative to $US.

3. RBA RAISES interest rates as $A drops too much. Many idiots go broke, overcommitted at 2.25% cash rate.

4. Shambles is backflipping on just about everything to make Abbott look good. Instead—he looks like a dork

We don’t deserve this massive incompetence!

They have phukked it and will continue to phuk it.

[Lefty]

Meanwhile with the booming price of the basic human need for shelter from the elements making home ownership ever harder for our young people, genius Joe Hockey proposes a solution to the growing affordability crisis - let young people use their superannuation as a housing deposit.

All of the dumbphuk ideas around, that has to be one of the dumbest. The moment it becomes law, the price of housing will explode (further) as vendors simultaneously whack up asking prices in response to increased borrowing ability of around 20% - 25% of the market. Very quickly, any affordability gains made by being allowed to use super will simply be capitalized into higher house prices, completely nullifying said affordability gains. But in the process, superannuation as a retirement fund will have been plundered to the point that there will be phukkall left for the actual purpose it was originally implemented.

Phukking morons.

[OldMate]

Meanwhile with the booming price of the basic human need for shelter from the elements making home ownership ever harder for our young people, genius Joe Hockey proposes a solution to the growing affordability crisis - let young people use their superannuation as a housing deposit.

All of the dumbphuk ideas around, that has to be one of the dumbest. The moment it becomes law, the price of housing will explode (further) as vendors simultaneously whack up asking prices in response to increased borrowing ability of around 20% - 25% of the market. Very quickly, any affordability gains made by being allowed to use super will simply be capitalized into higher house prices, completely nullifying said affordability gains. But in the process, superannuation as a retirement fund will have been plundered to the point that there will be phukkall left for the actual purpose it was originally implemented.

Phukking morons.

What an idiot. The libs are whinging about the need to 'put aside' for retirement and come up with this. Make up ya bloody minds .

I think both the Wabbit and Smoking Joe are incompetent and just thrashing about without any clear idea of what they are doing. Both are sooooo obviously pursing the popularist vote.

[OldMate]

I just saw Mal on the ABC describing it as a 'thoroughly bad idea' and cited long standing studies confirming it......and went on to say the affordability was a well known 'supply issue' which needs addressing.

Take that Joe - a swift size nine straight to the googlies .

And he went on to critique the 'selling' of the last budget and the 'missteps' (soft Mal, soft - ya bin kind to 'em!!!) Take that Wabbit - a swift size nine straight to the budgie smugglers .

Does this mark a change in strategy for Mal. For my money he is acting as a critical alternative.

[HBS Guy]

hehehehe Mal also said the govt should be like the NBN Co

"With the NBN, the first thing we threw out was ideology, lies, and spin. We told the truth about the project -- with an independent Strategic Review completed three months after the September 2013 election. . .”

Wow, dreaming or lying?

[Lefty]

Is Mal judging that his time is almost here?

He's still bit of a dick of course, being a fib. But he clearly has something that Tony and Joe don't have one of between them - a brain.

[OldMate]

I don't know where or why Mal made the comments (was he drawn into them or was it premeditated) but it will be interesting to see if any of the talking heads or pundits comment on it tonight or over the next few days.

[HBS Guy]

It is all intensely Alice in Wonderland stuff.

The intergenerational report pinned our hopes on technology and innovation but didn’t mention the NBN.

[OldMate]

To my reckoning Joe's suing of the SMH ain't going well either. If he loses that it will be egg on the face and his judgment will look pretty shonky.

Bad luck Joe, sorry, but no cigar - see ya later - you maybe the PM in the next life.

[HBS Guy]

He is making a terrible witness in his trial.

Politicians don’t usually sue until after they leave politics for a very good reason. Joe doesn’t have the brains god gave to chickens.

[OldMate]

Politicians don’t usually sue until after they leave politics for a very good reason. Joe doesn’t have the brains god gave to chickens.

This case might become a case study for 'be a big boy and take it on the chin, give as good as you get - welcome to public life in Australia' .

Maybe Joe is 'from the wrong side of the tracks' as far as the LNP is concerned and he is not getting fatherly advice from Howard or Costello - or maybe he was too stupid to heed the advice and the wisdom of the ages.

[HBS Guy]

“too stupid” rings a bell with me!

[HBS Guy]

Quantitative easing and monetary policy:

http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-econ ... 4330s.html

[HBS Guy]

Debt, what debt?

That huge post WWII debt got paid off with never a surplus Budget in sight (first one ever was Whitlam 1973.) They went for growth—John Curtin’s vision while still engaged in WWII implemented by Chifley then Menzies. Now the Libs just want to protect rich bastards and flog off public assets.

[HBS Guy]

Will put this here. No certainty fat man Hokey will do anything, even with bipartisan support:

With Treasurer Joe Hockey this week inviting a national conversation on tax reform, and struggling to craft a budget amid a declining revenue outlook, Labor's Chris Bowen has offered support for a crackdown on the super incomes of the super rich.

It would likely apply to those with millions of dollars sitting in superannuation accounts from which they derive tax-free six-figure annual salaries.

"The Labor Party believes the taxation treatment of superannuation is unfair and needs to be fixed," Mr Bowen said in Melbourne.

"I pointed out that this could be a matter of some bipartisanship if the government chose to agree as part of this so-called national conversation."

The Shadow Treasurer cited figures provided by the industry body, the Association of Superannuation Funds for Australia.

"ASFA shows, for example, that there are 475 people with more than $10 million in their superannuation accounts earning $1.5 million in income and there are 100,000 people in Australia with superannuation balances in excess of $2 million," he said.

"This is a real issue which needs to be addressed. The Labor Party is prepared to lead the way."

One possibility is that Labor could support new tax arrangements for high-end super fund accounts in exchange for a commitment from the government to recommence the staged progress toward a 12 per cent compulsory employer-funded superannuation goal, which has been paused by the government.

Because of the favourable treatment of superannuation, revenue forgone in concessional tax rates - mostly 15 per cent on contributions rather than the relevant marginal income tax bracket - is extremely expensive, currently costing the budget more than $35 billion annually.[My emphasis]

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/ ... md29e.html
Then the rich can draw a handsome income from super and pay no tax on that income.

[HBS Guy]

According to the ABS 38,000 jobs were created dropping unemployment to 6.1% from 6.3%. In trend terms the jobless rate in March is the same as in February, at 6.2 per cent.

May I record my feeling that this is complete bullshit? I reckon the true position is more like 6.5%, 13% youth unemployment. The shambles caused wallets to slam shut across the country, have destroyed what would have been billions of dollars of investment by now, stopped the FTTH rollout, destroyed the car industry. Where do 38K jobs come from? Confidence (Westpac survey) dropped this month.

[HBS Guy]

Looks like the idiot RBA will cut rates AGAIN in May, despite knowing the Budget will be contractionary not stimulatory and knowing the cut will do stuff all to boost the economy:

http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-econ ... mwyeu.html

And savers get another kick in the teeth.

[HBS Guy]

Woolworths facing break up?

http://www.afr.com/business/retail/hard ... 504-1myqw1

[HBS Guy]

Reserve Bank cuts interest rates to 2pc

The Reserve Bank has cut official interest rates by 25 basis points to a fresh record low of 2 per cent.

After cutting rates by 25 basis points in February, the bank had kept the cash rate target steady for the past couple of months, despite economist expectations of another cut.

Once again, 25 out of 29 market economists told Bloomberg ahead of the meeting that they expected the Reserve Bank to cut, and this time they were not disappointed.

If passed on in full, the move would save a borrower with a $300,000 mortgage around $47 per month in repayments.

However, most analysts are now expecting the Reserve Bank to sit on the sidelines, with the majority of experts tipping the next rate move will be up, but probably not until 2016.

WTF this is supposed to do I don’t know and the board of the RBA doesn’t either. They have shot the last shot in the locker, had already when they cut to 2.5%. Iron ore prices are not as weak as they think. We need a new RBA board as well as a new government!

I fear this stupid cut will accelerate the loss of our AAA rating—have been rumblings already.

[HBS Guy]

Manufacturing:

https://theconversation.com/australias- ... ring-40639