cods wrote on Aug 6
th, 2013 at 4:18pm:
Lobo wrote on Aug 6
th, 2013 at 3:19pm:
Quote:The Labor government is deluding itself if it believes lower interest rates are a sign they have the economy well in hand, former Liberal leader John Howard says.
Is this where Abbott inherited his negativity from???
well in this day and age of self funded retirees I think he has a point..
usually its a sign that things have stalled and this they are hoping will kick start a revival of spending.
True, but it's a problem of the lack of freely available credit - foreign credit.
And this is brought on by the high price of the Australian dollar due to the mining boom.
The RBA are keeping rates low in the hope of bringing the dollar down - which, along with foreign interest in the US dollar again, is happening.
Monetary policy is to do with the value of the dollar, inflation/deflation and the availability of credit - NOT the state of the economy as a whole.
The economy is definitely slowing - it's been slowing since the GFC. Now, however, it's the end of the mining boom.
Howard knows this all too well, and is playing the old fear tactic. Remember the threat of an interest rate rise under Latham? That little Liberal campaign porkie covered billboards all over Sydney.
Now Howard wants to pretend high interest rates represent a healthy economy?
Nice try.