Aust government debt the highest ever - NOT!

Leftofcentresalterego · Post by **Leftofcentresalterego** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 8:18 pm

With all the wankerous debt and deficit hysteria being bandied about by the opposition and right-wing commentators at present, it's time to put things in perspective.

Labor! Debt! Scary! BOO! The highest government debt in history! So is it? Well, yes.........in absolute terms. But what about in relative terms - relative to the size of the economy as it is today.

This graph of historical public debt was composed by treasury officials and is quite telling. It' s actually running at the lowest level since the outbreak of WW1.

http://www.treasury.gov.au/documents/14 ... 1_Debt.pdf

Leftofcentresalterego · Post by **Leftofcentresalterego** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 8:30 pm

If that link don't work try here:

http://www.bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog?p=3416

Jovial Monk · Post by **Jovial Monk** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 9:07 pm

That one doesn't work either

Leftofcentresalterego · Post by **Leftofcentresalterego** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 9:23 pm

Bugger - must be a coalition plot

Try googling "billyblog" (pages from Australia). Thread is "D for debt bomb; D for drivel". Scroll down that thread, you will see the graph and the link source.

Leftofcentresalterego · Post by **Leftofcentresalterego** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 5:42 am

Here it is again at Peter Martin's blog, with refferences to the professer.

http://www.petermartin.blogspot.com/200 ... -debt.html

Leftofcentresalterego · Post by **Leftofcentresalterego** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:10 am

And here is the comparison between government debt and private debt in Australia. If the data is accurate then private debt has almost exceeded the level of government spending that occurred during WW2 as all resources were put towards winning the war.

http://www.petermartin.blogspot.com/200 ... -debt.html

The thing I find interesting is that it shows government debt falling off a cliff while private debt rises towards the stratosphere like Mount Everest from the beginning of the neo-liberal period.

The implications seem pretty clear to me - neo-liberals believe that government debt used to advance the public purpose is inneficient and wastefull while private debt, no matter how it is spent (including pumping up giant asset bubbles) is always good and can expand forvever as a proportion of GDP. We know now that private debt expansion in the US (quite a bit higher than even ours) appears to have reached it's limits and is unwinding.

The thing that concerns me is that this huge private debt expansion has been a major driver of economic growth and the de-leveraging taking place in the US especially may necessitate a helluva lot more public spending yet to fill a widening private spending gap. The US government runs a modern fiat monetary system and is perfectly capable of doing this but the political pressure to not do so will be immense.

Jovial Monk · Post by **Jovial Monk** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 10:03 am

Peter Martin is always good value.

The reason govt debt is high here is the neocon politics which saw huge cuts to top tax rates. In our case it was financed by the mining boom but the mining boom is over and the tax cuts are no longer sustainable--I was going on about that even before the 2007 election.

Fucking Costello the innumerate economic dill and disaster as Treasurer.

Biff O'Hara · Post by **Biff O'Hara** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 5:25 pm

Leftofcentresalterego wrote:With all the wankerous debt and deficit hysteria being bandied about by the opposition and right-wing commentators at present, it's time to put things in perspective.

Labor! Debt! Scary! BOO! The highest government debt in history! So is it? Well, yes.........in absolute terms. But what about in relative terms - relative to the size of the economy as it is today.

This graph of historical public debt was composed by treasury officials and is quite telling. It' s actually running at the lowest level since the outbreak of WW1.

http://www.treasury.gov.au/documents/14 ... 1_Debt.pdf

Let's not get carried away with our very own Treasury, otherwise known as the Department of Hot Air.

Treasury motto: if you guess wrong, double up
Terry McCrann | May 16, 2009

TREASURY has got its budget forecasts significantly wrong every year so far this century -- erring most spectacularly in the year just coming to a close.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/bu ... 43,00.html

Jovial Monk · Post by **Jovial Monk** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 5:47 pm

Terry McCran! Now there is an authoritative source, muwahahahahahahaha

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