walk faster johnny...

mood: even more content.
state i'm in: ok, should be getting to bed.
tune: beatles 'hide your love away'.


ok, something to talk about.

as the liberal party slumps further in the polls, prime minister john howard still doesn't seem to get it; or if he does, he certainly won't admit it. in response to the latest poll, mr howards reply goes:

"i think one of the reasons is that the labor party has successfully created the impression that the economy runs on autopilot and it's got nothing to do with good governance. that, of course, could not be further from the truth."

i think that the impression that the people have, an impression essentially free from any influence by the labor party, is that the behaviour of interest rates seems to be on autopilot, very little to do with good governance, and even less to do with the empty promise of 'keeping interest rates low', made at the last election, heavily upon the back of which the liberal party returned to power. as the part of the economy that the average aussie-next-door pays closest attention to, with their highest-ever levels of consumer debt, this is a concern that does not bode well.

i really doubt that further nonsensical rhetoric such as this, much less mud-slinging, will garner mr howard and his government a great deal of support.

mr howard goes on to say that "i will certainly be focusing very heavily on the risk that labor represents to the australian economy, particularly in the area of workplace relations".

correct me if i am wrong (as an individual fired under the new legislation, less than three weeks after its introduction last year, i may be a little biased), but there is a large upswelling of contempt for mr howard's handywork in the area of industrial relations.

let's have a look at some other rather interesting points concerning the state of the australian economy, and some other influencing factors:

• record highest levels of foreign debt (both public and private)
  
• a balance of payments crisis - more than 5 years without a surplus - and this is in the middle of the largest minerals and resources boom in human history
• record lowest levels of R & D investment
• desperate skills shortages
• record highest levels of under-employment
• record highest levels of education costs
• declining levels of quality of primary and secondary education in OECD comparisons
  
• record highest levels of consumer debt
• record highest levels of depression/suicide
• highest interest rates in the western world
• record highest REAL interest rates
• very low level of home affordability
• a decade of wasted opportunities to rectify environmental wrongs
• fighting a very expensive war declared on false grounds
• declining levels of 'trustworthiness' in international business polls, post-AWB kickbacks
  

looks like an economy on autopilot to me.

---

image: public