Adventure Ausrama Blog

According to the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey we have never been able to buy so much with our income. Over the last decade income inequality has hardly changed, Wages have risen faster than inflation. Of course, we know that announced inflation is lower than real price rises. Although Australia's debt is low compared to other developed countries, less than half of Australians believe this. Despite the good times, many are feeling down and depressed feeling that the country is not doing well economically. This is probably due to the negative political arena at the moment with any bad news being blown out of proportion, with political blame and counter denials being kept uppermost in people's minds. We should be happy but the minority, politicians, are pulling us down. Things are certainly changing now with Chinese demand for primary products falling as well as prices producers receive. The new government, in September, will have to deal with

Negotiation between Thailand and the EU for a Free Trade Agreement in isolation from other Asian countries seems odd to say the least. What possible gain could there be for the EU? Yes, Thailand could flood the EU with cheap products thus helping European consumers, but the EU needs more jobs now to lift their economies out of recession. It seems counter-productive. Another thing is Thailand will have to abide by EU rules which are very draconian and arbitrary in some respects. The EU is a bureaucracy out of control. Microsoft had to pay millions of dollars in compensation for not pushing rival search engines enough. This really doesn't make sense, with Google shipping its Chrome only Android. Thailand allows cheap generic drugs to be sold to its citizens. If it wins a Free Trade Agreement this will have to end as medications fall under the umbrella of EU intellectual property rights. Paying more for drugs will reverse all the gains made in Thailand's health system.

Why is Australia in such a bad way? The country is exporting at record levels. China is paying up front for these exports. Interest rates are not too high. Remember the Keating days of 14 per cent? We do have a "dual" economy with manufacturing doing it tough due to the high dollar, but Australia never has been a strong exporter of manufactured goods. Retailers are saying people aren't spending. You would think that people can only spend what they earn and no more. However, due to the multiplier effect, according to economic theory, when a person spends a dollar that one dollars turns over about five times. In other words the money supply, the real paper dollars out there, is actually only about a fifth of the money on the books in an economy. So what happens when a consumer saves? Think about it. The money in circulation "shrinks" by four more dollars. This is what is happening in Australia. We all envied Japan in its good years when they had very h