Australia's economic problems are the envy of the west

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

While the Bank of England kept borrowing costs on hold this week in an attempt to nurture Britain's economic recovery, the Reserve Bank of Australia surprised the financial markets by pushing up interest rates by a quarter point to 4.75% as it sought to prevent inflation from getting out of hand.

The RBA justified its move using words unlikely to be heard from Mervyn King for some time. Australia, it said, was experiencing a "large expansionary shock from the terms of trade at a time when there are relatively modest amounts of spare capacity".

Like Germany, Australia is a beneficiary of China's explosive growth. But while Beijing needs Europe's economic powerhouse to tool up its factories with hi-tech equipment, it also needs a bountiful supply of raw materials. Australia has metals, coal and food in abundance.

--snip--

The economic links between China and Australia have become so strong that the Aussie dollar is now used by many foreign exchange dealers as a proxy for the yuan, a guide to where the Chinese currency would be trading were Beijing to remove its restrictions. As a result, the Aussie dollar has replaced the Swiss franc as the world's fifth most traded currency and last month, for the first time since it was allowed to float freely in the early 1980s, it went through parity against its American cousin.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/nov/06/australia-economic-growth

[ProudDad]

1. And they have Universal, Single-Payer Health Care... (n/t)

[Psephos]

11. We had our chance.

I can't believe that a D House, D Senate, and D President couldn't get the job done.

;(

[Blue_Tires]

13. Corporations fight back in their own way...

What? You thought healthcare providers would cede a trillion-dollar hustle because the U.S. Government asked them to??:sarcasm:

[TheMadMonk]

14. That would be Q, Q & damned close to Q (Quisling)

There is nothing at all Democratic about telling the people "Yup, we know exactly what you want and we have the numbers to deliver it, but this is what you're getting, because if we give you any more, the "other guys" will throw an even bigger tantrum than they already are.

[Swagman]

2. get it -strict government regulations over banks

it works...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. Canada and Norway are two other countries that were spared a banking crisis,

because they keep their financial sectors on short leashes.

However, countries such as Iceland, Ireland, and Latvia, which drank the Speculation Kool-Aid, have seen their economies collapse.

[denem]

4. Australia's health system is Medicare for all, funded from general taxation.

I always have my Medicare card in my wallet and I like to wave it around when in the States.

Private insurance is available but is strictly regulated. Few premium rises over 6% have been approved during the last 10 years. Pre-existing diseases are covered after a maximum period of 12 months. Usually, Insurance companies promote themselves by offering immediate coverage for all medical conditions.

The average life expectancy in Australia is 81.2, fifth in the world, despite wide spread obesity, and an enduring love of beer.

Australia is no Nirvana: far from it, but some sanity prevails. Handguns were banned in 1996 with barely a whimper of controversy. We don't think the Feds are going to be booting down the doors at 3am on Monday morning.

Nevertheless, there is no Bill of Rights which leaves us at the mercy of the courts.

[Violet_Crumble]

5. I just had major surgery as a public patient...

It didn't cost me a cent, and the waiting period was less than six weeks. If I'd gone private, it'd have cost me thousands and I would have only gotten it done a week or two quicker. What annoyed me is that to avoid paying the Medicare surcharge, I've been in a private fund for a few years, and this first time I approach them to find out about claiming, I get told that they only cover a fraction of the medical costs. I guess I shouldn't complain, coz I'm guessing I've got it great compared to how it'd be if I was in the US, but forcing people to either be in a private health fund or pay more tax does suck...

[denem]

7. As a matter of policy Private Insurance covers only hospital charges,

NOT how much specialists may charge above the Medicare Benefit. I'm in two minds about this. Yes, it is a cost control, but NO it could not restrain the vast majority of Orthopedic surgeons going private. If you want a hip replacement it's up to two years in the public system and a couple of months with private insurance BUT yes, you pay all the premium costs of what Orthopods can get away with.

Private insurance does cover some dental costs. And that is NOT covered Medicare at all.

[Violet_Crumble]

6. Mortgage interest rates and the big 4 banks...

The more densely populated states of Victoria and New South Wales have fared less well, and are being hit by the increase in mortgage rates, now running at about 7%.

I know people who haven't had a pay-rise for nearly two years, yet are being slugged with rate rise after rate rise. Saying the economy's booming is great, but people shouldn't forget there are people who are really starting to suffer thanks to the greed of the big 4 banks, and especially the Commonwealth Bank, which nearly doubled last week's rate rise from the RBA. Greedy pricks...

[denem]

8. I lerv Banksters world wide, I really do.

:puke:

When will somebody point out that a for-profit-business will charge whatever thy can get away with?

[TheMadMonk]

15. True enough, but a good many of those "sufferers" are there by their own choices.

First of all, credit card debt is at least as much a "financial killer" in Australia as home loans.

And many homeowners are finding themselves in trouble NOW, because they borrowed very close to their financial limits when they took out loans at the bottom of the interest rate cycle.

Furthermore a good many borrowers failed to take proper advantage of "honeymoon rates" to pay down their principle.


I won't say our banks aren't greedy bastards. Of course they are. However, there are some fairly strict regulations when it comes to bank lending here in Australia, and it takes a certain amount of cooperation/stupidity on the part of the borrower to get into major financial dificulties.

[Violet_Crumble]

17. None of the people I know who are starting to struggle are there out of stupidity...

Mainly it's because they're in jobs where they haven't had a pay rise in ages, each quarter of a percent rate rise adds around $50 a month to the mortgage, and things like electricty and the cost of living has gone up while their wages have stayed the same. Not to mention the big banks slapping rate rises on borrowers that are nearly double the official rate rise. Me, I'm lucky. While I've got a big mortgage, I'm in a very secure job with regular pay rises, and my mortgage is with a building society and not one of the banks...

[TheMadMonk]

24. The situations you speak of may well be true. However, there are many...

...I personally know who ARE in financial straights: because they massively overspent themselves; because they put the entire holiday season on credit card in November/December, rather than starting an X-mas club savings account in January; because they used the "savings" from the honeymoon period of their loan to furnish their home with brand new everything (including in their time $15,000 Plasma tellies now worth $200, (Which is why the repo man is after the house, rather than the telly)) instead of Mum & Dad's castoffs; Because they budget (if they budget at all) according to whatever's left of their credit card limit, rather than in their bank accounts or next week's pay packet.

Aside from their exposure to the banks, many of the same people managed to run up huge mobile phone/data bills, because like an untrained labrador on a leash, they only know their limits when the choke chain draws tight on their necks and inertia lands them square on their arses.

I am not saying your friends/aquaintances aren't doing it hard, because of bank interest rates, no wage rises and increasing utilities. However, there ARE one hell of a lot of people out there who ARE in their situation entirely because of their own poor decisions. AND even many of those you know (and those like them) are there because they banked on wage rises coming before the honneymoon period expired and because they budgeted too exactly, leaving no room for a "correction" in utility rates (something which has been on the cards since both privatisaition and when we started taking Climate Change seriously).

[pampango]

9. Great economic formula: effective health care/safety net and bank regulation, more trade, more equal

income distribution compared to the US.

Australia GINI - 33
United States GINI - 45
Canada/EU - 31 (for comparison)

Australia's international trade is about 32% of the economy. It has "free trade agreements" with the US, New Zealand, Vietnam, Chile, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Laos, and Cambodia.

US' international trade is about 20% of the economy.

Australia (along with Europe and Canada) seems to have developed a progressive society with relatively good income equality (though not on a par with some European countries: Sweden (GINI-23), Norway (25), Austria (26), Germany (27), and Iceland (28) :), it is much better than the US), a strong safety net/health care system, and high levels of trade and immigration.

[denem]

10. The GINI rose during 11 years of Conservative rule,

backed by union busting and 'workplace reform'. That "reform" has been overturned in it's entirely by the following Labor government.

[Posteritatis]

16. Pity about the freedom of speech problem there, though. (nt)

[Violet_Crumble]

18. What freedom of speech problem?

I've never encountered any problems when it comes to freedom of speech...

[Posteritatis]

19. The fact that it's not protected under Australian law, for starters. (nt)

[Violet_Crumble]

20. You mean like it is in the US constitution?

Sorry, but having watched how many Americans carry on as though that gives them an absolute right to free speech (which it doesn't), I wouldn't want something like that. We have an implied right to free speech, and that seems to work fine...

[Posteritatis]

21. Or pretty much any other country with even a semblance to rights, yes

"Implying" it isn't enough. Admiring the fact is pretty pathetic, especially since you're admiring a system that has both the desire and the power to hurl censorship around at whatever it wants when the speech is non-political, to say nothing of the attempts it's taken at controlling even that in recent years. Me, I'll take a country which does not have legal authority to screen what I can read or browse. We're better that way.

[Violet_Crumble]

22. So name all these other countries that have the same constitutional thingy as the US...

Surely yr not saying that if they don't, then that country doesn't have a semblence to rights? Because that seems to be exactly what yr trying to say, and that would be a ridiculous stance to take. Americans should cherish their constitutional freedom of speech. They can talk all they like about wanting to go to Cuba, but they're not allowed to go there. Me? Not only can I talk about it, I can actually go there. Give me the freedom we've got here over the moronic dimwittery of some Americans who flail that 'free speech' thing around, even though their right to free speech has a lot of limitations that they're just far too dense to realise...

[Fool Count]

23. As well as in any other country without any semblance to rights.

For instance, this right was guaranteed by the Soviet constitution too. Didn't help the Soviet citizens any. A couple of lines on a piece of paper
mean nothing or next to nothing. It is a political culture developed over centuries that makes all those rights possible and enduring. Given
a choice between an actual freedom and an empty declaration, even a written one, nobody in his right mind would choose the latter.
It is not an accident, how this very freedom we are discussing here, when written into a basic law of a country with an utterly corrupt political
culture, can be used by powerful interests to subvert the democracy itself. I am talking about the US and the "Citizens United" decision,
which is supposedly based on the freedom of speech. All it took is to claim that "money equals speech", and next thing you know buying and
selling politicians by corporations is guaranteed by the Constitution. Well, at least you can use your constitutionally guaranteed freedom to whine
about it.

[Nihil]

25. Interesting ...

> Me, I'll take a country which does not have legal authority to screen what
> I can read or browse. We're better that way.

You're openly stating that you prefer a country that does it illegally day-in, day-out?

And you think that this is "better"?

:wow:

[Fool Count]

12. It is also worth noting that the minimum wage in Australia is

$15 per hour and it does not seem to adversely affect businesses or cause unemployment (which remains just over 5%).
The tax burden is not that heavy either. The effective tax rate on a salary of $120k for a sole breadwinner in a family
of four is about 28%, including the Medicare levy. There are no state taxes in Australia. The only other tax is 10% GST
(sales tax) on purchases.

[Vidar]

26. Bless the Aussies. I'm glad someone is doing it right.