John Linton .....someone's found a way to give the rotting dead the will to live - no-one will ever die. ( from a song popular before the majority of current Australians were born).
I'm not sure what to make of the financial news lately. I have no knowledge or skills in terms of understanding international finance other than 'digesting' what those who purportedly have those skills write in the international financial media - I long ago discounted what is written in the Australian financial media - it is demonstrably written by people with no knowledge at all. So couple the financial news with the 'youth arson and looting' in the UK and what do you think is really happening in our current version of globalism? It seems obvious to me. There are too many people and too little taxes to fund a large proportion of those people's social welfare lifestyles for the past 60 years so governments have borrowed money to pay people to do nothing and now cannot borrow any more - there's no-one left to lend to them....or something very close to that.
In Australia we have largely been protected from ultra socialism and its pernicious consequences because we moved from being a sheep and wheat grower/exporter to a mining exporter using the incredibly vast natural resources of a country that had very few people. Of course most of that wealth was in the hands of overseas landholders and then overseas mining companies but there was enough left to employ those Australians who wanted to work with handsome incomes and rendered even the most incompetent prime ministers (and boy is that a tough contest as to which of them was the most incompetent) and their coteries of venal thieves (Australian cabinets since federation) incapable of stealing so much that anyone had to worry.
So, in this "lucky country" we will continue to be OK for as long as China needs to buy coal and iron and there are enough European and US buyers of their exports to allow them to pay for it - probably not a long or even a medium term safe bet. So how is all this nonsensical speculation affecting Australia. According to Ms Faustus - not at all. Well, that's good news so no need to worry about anything here then.....unless you happen to be one of these 22,000 people:
http://www.smh.com.au/business/jobless-rate-jumps-in-july-20110811-1inr9.html
Apart from that statistical 'blip', I do have a few 'niggling doubts' about her statement though because it appears that some inconsequential people who run the larger commercial enterprises in Australia don't seem to be expressing the same views - in fact a growing number of them seem to be expressing contrary views....but I suppose....what would they know compared to the illegitimate current prime minister with her wealth of financial and commercial experience as evidenced by her career to date? And while I understand she filters her own pig ignorance through Treasury her political statements are of her directions to her speech writers. (by the way did you notice she now makes a serious attempt not to pronounce government as "gubmant"? It's painful but someone must have told her to do something about the way she pronounced that and other words). What a fake she is. You may be able to take the girl out of 'Footascrye' but you can't take 'Footascrye' out of the girl. (apologies for the original "country/boy poaching but I can't be bothered to look it up)
I see two things currently that indicate that times are tougher (assuming you are not driving a front end loader in the Pilbara) than Ms Faustus is saying. I see all of our suppliers reducing personnel on an ongoing basis - both by "natural attrition" and by direct action. In at least one case that has made dealing with those companies more difficult and in terms of support at least one of our suppliers has now dropped to a level where we seriously have to decide whether we continue to do business with them. That may be one supplier's particular circumstances but I see enough indications from other supplier's that it is more than a 'one off'. The other thing is the ongoing increase (small though it currently is) of payment defaults both from residential and business customers. Nothing that is in any way alarming but it is growing month on month. So I get the very clear impression that people are finding it harder to pay their debts and, in business areas, harder to retain their employees. Does that equate to Ms Faustus statements being correct? It certainly doesn't to me.
I have little enough knowledge and absolutely zero expertise in financial matters as I stated at the beginning but it all seems to indicate unpleasant financial times in Australia are more likely to occur than not over the coming months. If the Europeans and Americans reduce/stop buying from China my impression is that Ms Faustus, unlike Exetel, doesn't have a plan B.
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PS: First of the annual results: http://www.smh.com.au/business/telstra-profit-falls-beats-expectations-20110811-1iniu.html