MOTR wrote on Jan 11^th, 2013 at 10:34am:

It is not my mission to get you up to speed on the IMF and I am pretty sure you know the end game of your ideology, but that depends on just how much of a mushroom you are.

This thread epitomises why EVERYTHING the Coalition says, and MOST of
what the 'Govt' says about the economy goes in one ear and straight out
the other.

As do SOME (not all) of the discussions here on the economy.

I look to independent assessments, and they overwhelmingly (and often
begrudgingly) acknowledge that OUR economy is one of the best.

Unlike many, it IS growing (if slowly).

There are MANY things about this country that are going pear-shaped.

The economy is not one of them.

Do I think a better job could be done?

Shyt, yes.

Are the CURRENT Opposition the ones who can/will do it?

smack, NO!!!

What I'd LIKE to see?

Peter Costcutto as PM/Treasurer, and Turnbull as Deputy.

And get rid of ALL those who rode to the front-bench on
Howard's coat-tails, and, sadly, remain there.

The WHOLE Cabinet/front-bench MUST be new blood, and
not from the extreme right of the Party.

THAT, I'd vote for. Not much else.

NOT Labor. NOT Green. NOT the Coalition as it currently stands.

In its final year in office, the Coalition boosted the AusLink national roads program by $2.3 billion and announced grants for water conservation and water buybacks worth $10 billion over 10 years.


Oh, how horrific....

Howard rejects IMF's 'big spender' tag

Date
    January 11, 2013


    Howard the king of loose purse strings

Former prime minister John Howard rejects the charge that his government spent wastefully, saying that ''the reason Australia dodged the global downturn was due to the strong fiscal position of the Howard government''.

Mr Howard responded through a spokesman to an international study that found Australia's most needlessly wasteful spending took place under the John Howard-led Coalition government rather than under the Whitlam, Rudd or Gillard Labor governments.    


The International Monetary Fund examined 200 years of government financial records across 55 leading economies.


It identifies only two periods of Australian "fiscal profligacy" in recent years, both during Mr Howard's term in office - in 2003 at the start of the mining boom and during his final years in office between 2005 and 2007.

Mr Howard defended his record on Friday, saying that government spending as a percentage of GDP declined during his term.


Finance minister Penny Wong says the IMF has endorsed Labor's stimulus spending.

''According to none other than the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Australia's fiscal position is the envy of the developed world,'' the former prime minister's spokesman said.

But the Grattan Institute economist, Saul Eslake, argues that Mr Howard's statement about spending declining as a percentage of GDP, while technically true, is irrelevant and misleading.    

''The Howard government in its last two terms was rolling in cash,'' Mr Eslake said.

Mr Howard rode two booms - in mining and household spending - and as a result raked in ''extraordinary'' amounts of income during its last two terms.

During that period, Mr Eslake said, the Howard government increased spending ''in real terms'' at a faster rate than any other government since the Whitlam years.

Mr Eslake did say, however, that he was ''gobsmacked'' the IMF did not judge Gough Whitlam's government as profligate.

''That they didn't regard the 40 per cent plus increase in government spending in 1974 to 1975 under the Whitlam government as profligate . . . [that's] far worse than anything the Howard government undertook,'' Mr Eslake said.

The Minister for Finance, Penny Wong, said the IMF study endorsed the current Labor government's ''responsible spending decisions'' while diminishing Mr Howard's record.

''The study shows the Howard government clearly missed opportunities to effectively use the mining boom and strong global economic conditions to invest in Australia's future, and it debunks the myth spouted by Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey that the Howard government exercised spending restraint,'' Ms Wong said.    

''Rather than investing in key infrastructure projects like the National Broadband Network, which this government is rolling out . . . the Howard government made spending decisions that made the budget unsustainable''.    

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/howard-rejects-imfs-big-spender-tag-20130111-2ck3z.html#ixzz2HdYlUUHn

Howard was a great economic manager..we had interest rate increases DURING the election campaign..thats how in control of the economy he was 

adelcrow wrote on Jan 11^th, 2013 at 2:44pm:

philperth2010 wrote on Jan 11^th, 2013 at 10:52am:


to misquote Keating: 'the recession we never had'

how did Rudd deal with the worst recession in 70 years since that was 1983? hasnt been a recession in australia since keating.