Rudd hints at 3rd stimulus in Budget

[Jovial Monk]

Far out!

[JW Frogen]

I hate blue collar workers.

I hate them more than I hate Millie Cyrus.

They are troglodyte scum!

My water heater just burst, but I have put silicone on it for one month, every day patching it, because it will be a cold day in hell or in my shower before I call some WA Cyclopes, mutant rip-off turtle to fix anything in my home!

Pride before comfort!

[Jovial Monk]

Yeah we rely on tradespeople and they rip you off knowing we rely on them.

[Leftofcentresalterego]

I hate blue collar workers

We hate you too Frogen

[Rainbow Moonlight]

Sounds like a good idea. If it is going to be infrastructure spending i go for funding masss scale alternative energy infrastructure and improvign the flow to the Murray Darling by piping from wetter Northern areas. They are teh national scale projects I'd go for. You coudl also do lots of small scale local ones. I guess you could also invest in human infrastructure- pay for the education of a couple of thousand extra doctors and 12000 or so apprenticeships.

[Jovial Monk]

Doctors and teachers places were increased very early on by Gillard, to give her due credit. Also childcare places--Howard & Costello were happy for your children to be looked after by untrained amateurs!

[JW Frogen]

I hate blue collar workers

We hate you too Frogen

This explains your economic theories.

Brought to you by the guys who brougt the Winter of disconent.

[Hebe]

Leftofcentresalterego on Sun Apr 26, 2009 8:02 am
The winter of our discontent is only just beginning

We can't use ever-increasing private debt to power economic growth forever. We in Australia are already carrying far more household debt as a portion of income than we were just before the Great Depression struck. An era of austerity will return people to saving once again (a good thing) but the decreased spending will blast holes in aggregate demand, resulting in higher unemployment. Well-targeted deficit spending by government can help overcome this.

Leftofcentresalterego

[Hebe]

Leftofcentresalterego on Tue Apr 28, 2009 6:27 am
Household consumption spending is a huge component of GDP. In December, national accounts recorded it as well over half of total GDP. As we would then expect, the composition of the labour force reflects this - retail trade employs almost 15% of the total labour force. Add wholesale trade, transport and storage, and around one-quater of all working Australians are employed in the sectors involving buying and selling stuff.

The "cash splashes" then, were a wise short-term measure because infrastructure projects take time to kick in. The unemployment rate would probably have skyrocketed without government underpinning consumption spending.