…And Pedro, trying to speak in a civil tone will get you no-where here, you’re obviously a Nazi, Julius proved it!….We’ll fix you too, once the department for the abolishment of no left-wing critical posts is formed!

honestly, why do all the left-wingers get so up tight ? You won the election, Malcom is smashed every direction he turns, the coalition is as unified as a pack of rabid cats, Australia’s wealth has been squandered and we’ve got massive levels of debt…I thought you’d all be happy……

On the other hand what Rudd has done is a disaster in the making and has had very little positive impact. And all for short term political gain! But I certainly notice the hate coming through in your little pious rantings adrian. As if you aren’t simply pushing the left agenda by attacking someone who dared critique Rudds approach.

I’m still trying to work out what ‘hole’ my good mate ray is talking about though. No one else can work it out either, it’s turning into quite a sport. Come on ray, give us another pearler to play with, we know you can’t help it.

Up to them of course, but not what I come to Crikey for. Also it has nothing to do with the usual simplification of ‘right v left’ that you seem to like indulging in.

Like all your points ray, they can’t have gotten far.

You always know when someone has no arguement, they cease arguing real points and begin ranting against the man, because the intellect is limited, isn’t it ray. Oops, I just did a ray.

are you a school principal ( god forbid ) or do you mean principle? i need to know so I can pull any and all students related to your educational institution immediately!

The sheer opulence of it will cost Australia for decades. Can you imagine future generations thanking us for lumping them with $300 billion worth of debt just so we could spend $900 on ourselves (I know some of the money went elsewhere as well).

Their reaction when they are told they should thank us for it will be well worth noting. I wonder how many courageous left wing defenders of the Rudd/Swan bribe (that is in reality what it was) will still be defending it then? Would the lefts reaction be the same had the Howard/Costello delivered it? Would the academics reaction have been the same?

No, I have no doubt future generations will look at this and correctly recognise it as one of the worst wastes of public money since the Whitlam days.

So where should the money have been concentrated? On developing and encouraging small business growth in Australia. This provides jobs, keeps money circulating in the economy and provides a platform for the future.

Sinclair Davidson observed that State payroll tax would have been the correct starting point for the government. Unfortunately it does not buy many votes as it is not as politically sexy as a cash handout to the voting public.

I believe Davidson was right, the Australian economy has been resilient, due in no small part to both the previous coalition and labor governments (shock, horror, but credit where it is due and Hawke and Keating did a lot to set up our economy). But I don’t believe the ‘stimulus’ to be anything other than a false idol.

Now that Rudd and Swan have maxed out the credit cards, the gains of the previous 26 years have been wiped. It is quite likely that for the next decade at least, we will be, to quote a former ALP MP “up to our necks in shit sandwiches and chewing furiously”. Thanks Rudd and Swan.

You predict that interest rates will rise and they don’t, no problem you’re an economist after all.

You predict the mother of all recessions and it doesn’t eventuate, no problem you’re an economist.

The only odd thing about all of this is that people even bother to ask your opinion in the first instance.

(((Any piece of legislation can be interpreted as social engineering. In a democracy, the people elect the government based off their platform - what they believe - and yes, once they are in government they will go to work putting that platform into place. If you don’t want party X’s social vision, don’t vote for them. )))))

I must be on a different planet. There are exceptions, but we all know that as soon as politicians get elected, out goes their back-bone and in goes party policy. Just ask Mal Meninga…. and maybe Peter Garret.

“HAhaha Jeebus been reading the american blogs i see, this argument is used a fair bit over there. “

He’s not the only one, apparently.

THANK YOU FOR SHOWING ME HOW TO BLOG IN CAPITAL LETTERS. NOW MY ABUSIVE BLOGS CAN LOOK THOUGHTFUL AND INTELLIGENT - JUST LIKE YOURS.

CHEERS.

JULES!!!!!!!!

I remember the early 90’s recession well, the guy with the halo on his head and the worlds best treasurer (Keating lol) put us into it before the rest of the world!

Well referenced Evidently, the RBA was spot on. One of the problems of the stimulus, highlighted by Sinclair, was the ‘create a job….. any job!’ philosophy at the time, this was too short sighted and those jobs will eventually turn to dust. More should have been done to support the engine room of the economy, small to medium business.

I also think history will not be so kind to the quality of the stimulus package, I for one spent it overseas on scuba diving and lots of alcohol in a Balinese hotel.

Keith Bedford, are you really serious - Rudd Government promoting the economy?? Maybe now however I still firmly believe, as do many many unbiased commentators, that the ALP put the ‘fear of god’ into too many companies and drove confidence levels down further than where they needed to be (a political strategy, of course). I don’t think too many unbiased commentators would disagree with this!

All we heard from the Rudd Government was that this was an ‘unprecedented’ global catastrophy (amongst other Rudd’isms), which ABSOLUTELY killed confidence - he was too scared to say anything else unless it backfired on his popularity.

As a very basic example - I never once heard “this is an ‘unprecedented’ global catastrophy…. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT, we are very well placed to ride through this storm as we have no debt and because of A, B and C”. Even still, our big 4 represent 50% of the remaining banks in the world with a AA rating (I believe…).

Sure the GFC was unprecedented in recent times but Rudd was certainly more prepared to throw petrol, understandable when you are worth over $200M!

MadeInAustralia, you’re correct, I do follow American politics, and I used the example of Somalia to test your response, because your angry rantings sound very similar to the angry rantings I read from American Republicans on blog sites.

I don’t intend to misrepresent you, but it’s difficult when you contradict yourself half the time, and make meaningless blanket statements the other half of the time.

‘i want no social engineering’ - Any piece of legislation can be interpreted as social engineering. In a democracy, the people elect the government based off their platform - what they believe - and yes, once they are in government they will go to work putting that platform into place. If you don’t want party X’s social vision, don’t vote for them.

‘it’s not a government’s job to redistribute wealth’ - Well sorry, that’s just what governments do. Whether it’s socialism for the rich bankers who are ‘too big to fail’ like they do in America, or handouts for the middle class like they do it here in Australia.

‘But, I want little government, not no government’ - Name me one country in the developed world that passes your definition of ‘little government’?

‘I would have had no problem with the stimulas package, if only they (the government) did not give away my money in the form of cash handouts.’ - So are you ok with the government spending money when it’s on the things that you want?

‘Don’t be dramatic’ - Great advice!

Dont be dramatic.