Vuk11 wrote on Apr 23^rd, 2014 at 6:54pm:



And, given the length of "normal" Economic cycle, the next "crunch" is due about now!

Supreme Court Calls Lying by Politicians an Expression of Their Religion

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court of the United States declared on Tuesday that lying by politicians is protected by the First Amendment because it is an expression of their religion.

By a 5–4 majority, the Court struck down an Ohio law that would make it harder to lie in political ads, arguing instead that

with many saying that the Justices’ recognition of lying as a religion was “long overdue.”

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts argued, “For politicians, lying is a religious observance akin to attending a church or a synagogue, except that they do it seven days a week.”

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2014/04/supreme-court-calls...
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As any Politician word say, that is just another example of Political -
Credible
Reliable
Abundant
Paradoxes

However, in my opinion, it's simply more absolute Political CRAP & of course, OZ Politicians are all tarred with the same brush!!!

Some Economic Realities!

Following is a list of countries, by Tax Revenue & Government Expenditure, both as a % of GDP.
These countries are those at the upper end of the Revenue & Expenditure area & I have taken the liberty of deleting some of those "lesser light countries", who may have figured in the report, but are not that significant on a Global scale.
I would suggest there are a few apparent trends and few issues which are relevant to the current OZ Budget discussion/crisis?

Country      Tax burden % GDP      Govt. expend. % GDP
Cuba      24.4      66.7
Libya      1.0      66.6
  Denmark      48.1      57.6
France      44.2      56.1
Finland      43.4      55.1
Belgium      44.0      53.3
Greece      31.2      51.9
Sweden      44.5      51.2
Austria      42.1      50.5
Italy      42.9      49.8
Netherlands      38.7      49.8
Hungary      35.7      49.4
Portugal      31.3      49.4
United Kingdom      35.5      48.5
Ireland      27.6      48.1
New Zealand      31.7      47.5
Germany      37.1      45.4
Spain      31.6      45.2
Iraq      1.9      44.6
Israel      32.6      44.6
Norway      43.2      43.9
Poland      31.7      43.5
Czech Republic      35.3      43.3
Japan      27.6      42.0
Canada      31.0      41.9
United States      25.1      41.6
Argentina      34.6      40.9
Algeria      10.0      40.4
Venezuela      12.5      40.1
Brazil      34.8      39.1
Angola      6.1      38.6
Kuwait      0.8      38.5
Oman      2.2      38.3
Romania      28.0      36.9
Kyrgyzstan      18.5      36.4
Belarus      24.7      36.0
Russia      29.5      35.8
Australia      25.6      35.3
Saudi Arabia      3.7      35.1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_spending

In addition, the following is a list of countries, showing their National Debt to GDP% in 2011.
Obviously most of these figures will now be "somewhat" higher, as Debt in most countries has continued escalate following on from the GFC.
Again,  I have taken the liberty of deleting some of those "lesser light countries", who may have figured in the report, but are not that significant on a Global scale.

Country               Debt % GDP
1   Japan             229.8
2   Greece               163.3
6   Italy               120.1
8   Portugal       106.8
9   Ireland               105.0
10 United States      102.9
18 France              86.3
19 Canada          85.0
20 United Kingdom  82.5
22 Germany         81.5
39 Spain             68.5
56 Norway           49.6
90 New Zealand   37.0
119 China           25.8
124 Australia      22.9
http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/774/economics/list-of-national-debt-by-country...

The above highlight some realities & some Political spin, But only some.

Australian Federal Budget 2014: Treasurer Joe Hockey declares all Australians must endure hip-pocket pain

ALL Australians must endure hip-pocket pain in the national interest, Treasurer Joe Hockey has declared, as the nation contends with a harsh Budget the Government accepts will be deeply unpopular.

Declaring that “the days of borrow and spend must come to an end”, Treasurer Joe Hockey unveiled a barrage of short-term hits, such as the fuel excise that will add up to 3c a litre, a $7 co-payment for GP visits, a reining in of welfare and the debt tax.

What does the Budget mean to you?
South Australia has already benefited from infrastructure spending with almost $1 billion for the north-south corridor, but is set to miss out on its share of the $5 billion extra cash that is on offer for those states willing to sell their assets.

Mr Hockey has asked Australia to get behind his first Budget, saying his measures would bring down the deficit from $50 billion to about $30 billion next year, and then to a slender deficit of $2.8 million in 2017-18. The year after that, the Budget should be balanced, with a surplus by the end of the decade.

The Government blames the previous Labor Government for its struggle to fix the Budget.

“The challenge is not of our making, but we … accept responsibility to fix it,” Mr Hockey said.

The headline savings measures in the 2014-15 Budget include:
A FUEL excise increase, adding 3c to the price of petrol, with money to go towards infrastructure.

REDUCTIONS in family tax benefits, a push to get people off welfare and into work and indexation freezes for a range of programs, as well as savings from pensioners and the removal of the Seniors Supplement for health card holders.

CUTTING 16,500 public servants and abolishing government bodies and bureaucratic programs for a “smaller, less interfering Government”.

A $7 PAYMENT for a visit to the GP, more expensive medicines and the abolition of Medicare Locals.

A 2 PER CENT tax on people earning more than $180,000 to bring in $3.1 billion.

The spending measures include:
AN $11.6 BILLION infrastructure Growth Package for projects including SA’s north-south corridor.

A $20 BILLION Medical Research Future Fund, which Mr Hockey said would be the world’s biggest within six years. Health savings, including $5 from each $7 GP co-payment, to fund new medical research.

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott’s controversial paid parental leave scheme, capped at $50,000 a year instead of the original $75,000.

$820 MILLION in support for more than 80,000 higher education students, and $524.8 million for the Restart program to encourage employers to hire people aged 50 and older.



It is not yet clear which measures will make it through the new Senate, where the Government will need the support of crossbenchers if Labor opposes any of them.

Mr Hockey emphasised the need for the states to do more of the heavy lifting, and figures show that in a decade, they will effectively strip $20 billion a year out of education and health funding.

The Treasurer did not resile from that shift in focus, telling The Advertiser there was “no free lunch out of Canberra for the states”.

“States run schools, states run hospitals. It’s gotta get fixed,” he said.

The emphasis on states taking responsibility sparked questions about whether that would increase pressure for GST changes, and Mr Hockey said the GST would be considered in the Government’s tax reform White Paper as well as a Federation White Paper.



http://www.news.com.au/national/south-australia/australian-federal-budget-2014-t...
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YES, there is a crisis, But Business is promised a 1.5% tax cut!?

READ MY LIPS -
YES, there is a crisis, BUT the crisis is not now, however it is coming!
YES, there is a crisis, BUT neither Liberal nor Labor are truthfully explaining what the real crisis is, nor when it will come, nor how long it will last!

Politics, Economics & New Realities!

Whilst there is more than the usual amount of comment, on current the current Liberal Budget and the previous 6 years or so of Labor budgets/Deficits, there are some issues that should also be clarified & understood, because they clearly impact on some of what happened over the last Labor period in power & what is happening & will happen, during the current Liberal period in power.

To start with, Australia is not currently in a Financial crisis, although we are heading towards a financial crisis, along with most of the rest of the world, which has already been hit hard by the GFC and hit harder than Australia, so far.

Whilst Australia’s Debt increased during the recent Labor period, the Australian position pre GFC & now, was & is still considerably better than most other countries. Some would argue that the Australian position pre GFC, was due to the good financial management of the Howard /Costello era and I’m sure to some extent that is correct, But something similar could also be argued for the Hawke/Keating era, which brought in quite a few significant Economic changes.
 
However, whilst I’m sure that both Political camps could argue that it was their sides Policy actions which were better & the others were worse, the over-riding reason for the difference between the two outcomes was that the Howard/Costello years happened to also largely coincide with the Peak years of the Baby Boomer Economic Boom, which went from around 1995-2006. 

That said, Global share markets Peaked in October 2007, just before Labor were elected in November 2007, the GFC started impacting markets and the US DOW JONES, for example, bottomed out around February 2009, after dropping nearly 50%, with a 16 month period.
https://au.finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=^DJI#symbol=^DJI;range=

The DOW has picked up since then, in a much similar fashion, to how it has picked up, after most other marker declines/crashes, certainly those after WW2.    
http://stockcharts.com/freecharts/historical/djia1900.html

But, that’s about where standard comparisons cease!

Whilst the US share markets have recovered & past their pre GFC highs, they did so, only due to massive stimulus efforts, both from the US government & the US Federal Reserve, but that has also raised both “official” & unofficial US Debt to levels never seen, except at the heights of the Great Depression.


However, for all of the additional US Debt and it is now over 100% of GDP, compared to Australia which is only about 25%, it has not rejuvenated the US Economy. Whilst the US Population has since grown by some 8 million, its Total workforce has since declined by about 500,000. 
http://www.ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1277536490/1026#1026

Oh & btw, Debt has almost always been a part of the US system!

However, whilst US share markets have bounced back, other markets, such as some in Europe have not, with the French CAC still down some 30%, the Australian All Ords still down some 20%, but none of the top 20 Global Economies have bounced back, in terms of the usual Economic Growth resurgence, as would “normally” be the case in the modern Economic era AND THEY WON’T!

The fact is that Economic Growth trend of the modern Economic era, is now dying and neither Globally, nor from an Australian perspective , can that trend be stopped or prevented, at this late stage of proceedings.

To be Continued.

perceptions_now wrote on May 21^st, 2014 at 10:23pm:

 

So your suggesting abbott and hockey has been wrong on all fronts with the hated budget ????? Mr perceptions

perceptions_now wrote on May 21^st, 2014 at 10:45pm:



If you have noticed the negative reaction to this so called tough budget, anymore than that would produce anarchy  now i believe it didnt go far enough in terms of cutting to spending, in fact it was redistribution of spending and some trimming to many government departments to programs, but just the small cuts themselves and extra taxes that was pledged not to come in has put abbott in a bit of a hole at the moment but i believe his policy is right on reform of the entitlement culture