proftournesol

I had a chat with Wayne Swan on Saturday at a protest meeting about the Qld State Government selling off school land. Did we talk about the budget or the economy?

No, we talked about our vinyl collections!

 

Where else in the world could you talk on the footpath about Led Zeppelin, Iron Butterfly and Deep Purple with the deputy prime minister! That's what's great about our country!

 

Geoff

I suppose the next thing is that we'll find out that he's a member of StereoNet posting under the pseudonym of Mustud or Art Vanderlay

Get Smart

Lost in Space

The Three Stooges

Monty Python

Thunderbirds

Astro Boy

Monkey

The Samurai

Batman (TV series)

Doctor Who (the old ones and the new ones)

Just go with what feels right. Your brain will be sifting through lots of information without you really being aware of it. People have got a lot more sense than the Lattes of both sides give them credit for. Remember, there is no wrong or right, just a view on what you think makes more sense to you.

Well that's the problem, when you are bombarded with 30 second sound bites and a policy and long-term vision vacuum, its much easier to sell a message of short-term self-interest than it is to sell a vision of the national interest and how the national interest is ultimately the same as self-interest for the vast majority.

I thought it was a about 85 years after when they got rid of that pesky cult leader?

yes, it was getting rid of the cult leader and regular deficits that made the Roman empire great

The Australian debt to GDP ratio [both private and public] is distorted by a much higher rate of population growth than found in similar economies.This creates economic activity[largely paid for from overseas borrowings] but the bulk of this activity is non-productive.It revolves around building new houses and infrastructure such as houses, hospitals,schools,sewage systems,water supply,telecommunication services etc that are directly linked to the arrival of each new family.A much smaller percentage of it relates to wealth creation.If our population growth rate dropped to typical European levels our GDP would drop enormously and as a result our debt to GDP ratio would look much worse.In short we a deluding ourselves if we think our debt levels are not of concern.When the mining downturn comes our population growth will slow,GDP will plunge and tax income will sharply decline which will in turn cause a cut in government spending which will further reduce GDP.

We have had perfect economic conditions [ with export income from mining almost doubling] to reduce government debt [and even save for the future] but instead the Labor government has drastically increased it and at the same time allowed private debt to blow out.

Of course niether branch of Laberal really care about a manufacturing future in this country, it's the race to the bottom and somehow we are supposed to get by as a service economy and a mine. Hence the need for a huge building industry

That post deserves to be duplicated!

Of course the best days of the Roman Empire were the 250 years after that!

I think that the music threads end up costing me more money than the hardware threads. It's the way that it should be too.

On a recommendation from 'Currently Playing', this is one sexy double LP with ground shaking bass. Rare. great fcuking music I reckon

I just need to add the allmusic review of the album that is as deliciously exquisite as the album itself

Germany's Bohren & der Club of Gore are a black metal fan's lounge jazz act. Or, for those driven by the more extreme side of noir-ish ambient material, these cats lay it out with musical instruments (and a Mellotron), painfully slow and muted tempos, and a relentlessly gloomy atmosphere worthy of the first Black Sabbath album. Originally issued in 2002 on Wonder and now re-released by the great Ipecac label, Black Earth is, by the very nature of what it is, a classic. Black Earth is a wrenching, turtle-like crawl through the vast darkness of jazz balladry and unreservedly bleak nihilism. The song titles say it all: "Midnight Black Earth," "Crimson Ways," "Maximum Black," "Vigilante Crusade," "Grave Wisdom," "The Art of Coffins" -- you get the idea. All of that said, however, this music is infectiously delicious, darkly sensual, and the only tonic for a lonely brooding night. The quartet of drummer Thorsten Benning, saxophonist and pianist Christoph Closer, Mellotron operator, pianist, and Rhodes piano king Morten Gass, and double bassist Robin Rodenberg began life as a death metal hardcore act in the 1980s. Seeking a more original sound, they gradually gravitated to this incarnation of musical brilliance and mysterium organum. On most tracks, a shimmering Rhodes piano plays repetitive lines and chords and receives a deathly kiss from snares, cymbals, and the occasional bass drum before being adorned with the sparsest of Mellotron lines, paced with an excruciatingly tense groove by a low-tuned plucked or bowed double bass, and finally sung over with mournfully sensual tenor saxophone à la Ben Webster. The tunes are all long, drawn-out affairs, with aural images of abandoned streets and buildings on foggy nights, or steamy sewer grates inviting only the most desperate lovers and recreational killers and thieves out to roam through the blackness together. It's so delicious, so overwhelmingly intoxicating and sickly sweet that it suffocates the listener with the twin scents of sex and death. Indispensable macabre listening.

Wrong, Mustud, Treasury does not provide "a range of projections", and the government did not take "the most optimistic". Do you just make this stuff up?

 

http://www.smh.com.a...0515-2jmtn.html

No he hasn't made it up, Andrew Robb made it up for political advantage and Mustud accepted the seductive fantasy without question. It was probably also repeated without question by the media arm of the Murdoch political lobbying group

Sure. That is a valuable thing for society to form some collective view on. No doubt that view will shift from time to time and that is fine.

 

Both sides are drawn like moths to a flame in constructing a fantasy depiction of what is happening, or going to happen. That is just human nature. It is not evil, just dysfunctional if taken too far. My observation is that the public is very quick to see through the various fantasies. It will tolerate just so much fantasy as being par for the course, however whenever either side takes that one extra step with its fantasy then the mood will swing quickly against it. I have seen that happen at both Federal and State levels to both sides over the years, and all the earnest defence is to no avail. The faith has been exhausted.

 

Currently it is Labor that has gone too far with its fantasy. Therefore it is finished unless the alternative is just too incompetent, which it does not appear to be. In the fullness of time the Coalition will also suffer this fate. There is no end point, just a journey.

I think that is one of the seductive fantasies trotted out by Abbott and Murdoch like a mantra is that the ALP led Government has been incompetent and is a poor manager of the economy. It seems to be generally accepted without question by many. The Government has certainly not been a shining star and like the Opposition has no vision beyond retaining power, but it hasn't been incompetent nor has it been a spendthrift Government. That many people are influenced by the message of fear pushed relentlessly by Abbott and by Murdoch in the absence of any policy or vision from the opposition shows how powerful a motivator fear and anger can be, The only party that talks about policies is the Greens, whether you agree with their policies or not is one thing but it's depressing that as a result of their determination to talk about policies they get next to no media coverage as fear and anger sells more newspapers

I see the opposition is stupidly talking about tax cuts again.

 

http://www.abc.net.a...t-reply/4692566

That's one of the fantasies that Mustud is talking about, that we can keep cutting and cutting taxes and keep cutting public infrastructure, remove Government from planning responsibility, leave all national direction decisions to the market, and somehow we'll be happy spending that extra money that we would have sent on taxes on consumer goods.

There is no investment in HSR incorporated in the current or inevitable future deficits from the Labor plan. I accept NBN as a longer term good.

 

Beyond that, pretty much everything else is current entitlement conviction spending rather than infrastructure investment. Neither of the major Parties are very strong on infrastructure investment conviction. So, let's have a society discussion on how much we are prepared to increase taxes and trim (or increase) social spending accordingly. However let's stop the bullpoo about the acceptability of the deficit to fund this area. It has nothing to do with the AAA rating. I am addressing the moral aspect, not the theoretical ability of future generations to be able to pay for our greed.

 

Remember, current Labor means an unending stream of deficits. I hold out hopes for future Labor. In the mean time we need the Coalition to bring the books back under control while we work out how much we are prepared to fund. Thereafter we will select the side that best reflects what society feels is reasonable.

Lets also include a discussion about collecting taxes but not spending the money on useful services and infrastructure for the people that have paid them (surplus). I agree there there seems to be no connection in the public debate between taxation and infrastructiure and service investment, both branches of Laberal seem to peddle the myth that you can cut taxes and increase services.

Ah, you ignored Assumption 3. Fundamental mistake.

 

Go back to Business 101, do not pass Go, do not pick up $200.

Greece borrowed money to pay public service wages (as their tax base was so poor), that's borrowing money in a way that creates 'bad debt'. Are you suggesting that a majority of public debt is for the current generation with a sense of entitlement? Do you have figures to back that up? Are you suggesting that the Global Financial Correction didn't happen because of excessive private debt for the use of the current generation with a sense of entitlement? I'm sure that you aren't but simplistic comments that perpetuate the myth of excessive public debt in Australia and that this is imminently dangerous do you a disservice.

Why did he and she so solemnly promise one so many times?

Political stupidity, but the necessity for a budget surplus at this time is...?

Because really............he couldn't do any worse.

Oh yes, both Laberal alternatives could do a lot worse. We aren't in Greece or Spain's predicament solely through luck,