In yesterday's SMH by Clive Hamilton. It really needs to be read in its entirety, but the following extract sums it up ....
The Howard Government has ridden the extraordinary debt binge to resounding political success and has been loath to spoil the party with the sobering advice and policy signals that any responsible government should have dispensed.As long as it was riding high, it was never going to warn the public that their overspending was unsustainable; that sooner or later spending more than you earn must be matched by earning more than you spend; that the price of one asset - houses - cannot get too far out of kilter with the price of other assets; and that capitalist economies have always been subject to business cycles, and always will be.
The Government has profited from the financial illiteracy of great swathes of Australians blinded by the promise of instant wealth and egged on by tax rules that stimulated massive investment in rental property.
Optimists will hope that the country can go through the coming readjustment without too much pain.
The cynics at the Sty are battening down the financial hatches.
