Not sure but makes you wonder how he even got on the socials inside NK.

-PB

VPN

There are some north koreans who do get online.  Plus the politcal class can get anything they want . 

I had a few saved on youtube, I just looked and they are all deleted.

Yep, we’ve seen what they did to that American, I would hope Australia would take a hard stance on this.

idiot or not, we shouldn’t let one of our countrymen be subjected to that.

apparently the brits are acting as a go between.

Yeh right!

As if North Korea is going to negotiate with us...

Knowing what sort of a regime it is, one that would even kill their own family members, you'd have to be bonkers to go there without acknowledging the risk.

https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-01/the-economy-is-weak-and-heading-down-economic-review/11261704?pfmredir=sm

Sobering.

-PB

From the leftist ABC, lol.

Everyone already said there was going to be economic head winds with world downturn, however Australia is still amongst the best  OECD performers.

From all the economists listed in the article lol

-PB

Actually I retract my previous comment. looks like Trump is doing a great job with North Korea in opening some lines of communication.

I think trump is worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize. Then see all the left brains pop! It will sound like NT cracker night!

Should have our next interest rate drop in the next hour or so (judging by market trends on the futures).

Wonder how the surplus is gonna go in coming years with a faltering economy.

-PB

I reckon the Liberals will stick to their surplus fetishism, even if it tanks the economy. They're banking on people being too dumb to know why it's a bad idea to cut spending in a recession, then they'll blame Labor for it. 

When times are tough you got to tighten your belt. It really is that simple.

The debt will have to be paid by someone so we can't afford to not be disciplined here.

Thanks largely to the governments fiscal restraint we are in a much better position than most countries in the OECD to fight off a recession with mild stimulus spending. This is contrary to Labor who would go nuts with the national credit card, mailing dead people cheques, throwing money away on school halls and dangerous insulation schemes, and then claim they are economic wizards when a technical recession is avoided.

But the lesson in all of this is that countries with low debt to the GDP are actually able to starve off a recession unlike those left wing governments who have a fetish for debt and spending.

We did that during the Depression and it failed spectacularly. Anyone who has studied Australian history would know that cutting spending during a recession is a path that we should never go down again.

Kevin Rudd on the other hand spent during the Great Recession and as a result, the recession didn’t hit us hard.

I wouldn't bother responding to anything Mr. "the RBA sets the exchange rate" says on macroeconomics. Pretty much all economists agree that austerity is disastrous and only serves to exacerbate recessions. 

I don't disagree that low debt-to-GDP is beneficial to enable us to afford stimulus spending (although I disagree that Labor is the one who runs up the debt, but that's a discussion for another time).

My main point is that I believe that Liberals will opt for budget surpluses over stimulus spending, even though most macro-economists and the RBA will tell you that's an extremely stupid idea. It's pure ideology.

Tighten the belt how? Cut expenditure but give out tax breaks?

-PB

No I think you’re wrong there.  Hockey and the Libs actually supported the first round of stimulus spending under the then Rudd government.  But then things got weird and Rudd basically went nuts with the credit card and debt skyrocketed very quickly throwing our AAA credit rating into jeapordy.

So the LNP is not ideologically against spending and debt raising when the economy needs a bit of a kick in the butt, but they are wedded to the idea of paying off debt and running balanced or surplus budgets when things are going good to sure up our economy for those times when things are bad.   Those countries that think they can plod among carrying large debt and are too concerned with the political consequences of cutting spend are the ones who run into big problems when shit hits the fan.

This country owes a lot to our former Liberal PMs and Treasurers, had they been soft and taken the easy road of competing with Labor on their spend-a-thons then our country would be a lot weaker than is our.

If you pay less tax you have more money in your pocket to spend. Why wouldn’t this contribute towards stimulating the economy?

In contrast the Labour wants to tax people even further so they can fund an increase to an already bloating public service who votes for them, universities who accumulate further revenue with taxpayer money by favouring leftist ideology and pumping money into schools without achieving any advancement in the quality of education. Supporting this type of wasted spending is not what I wish my tax dollar to do.

At some point you have to cut out the inefficiencies and work towards reducing the debt (currently around $600 Billion) that if allowed to continue will send the country bankrupt.

Coz it means fuck all if the cost of living keeps increasing and wages are flat lining as well.

-PB

Well that would be an independent matter from tax cuts.  If those things were happening then keeping tax rates the same would contribute to a reduction in real wages.  

Rather than trying to take a dump on every LNP policy as a matter of habit, try to properly understand things occasionally.

LOL

How would it contribute to a reduction in real wages?

-PB

LOL

Cos inflation might rise faster than wages meaning a real reduction in wages if there’s nothing else offsetting it 

LOLZ

I think the real wage problem is happening in developed countries simply because in the age of the internet, developing countries can get the same or a similar job done for a fraction of the cost. As a government, there really needs to be policies of creating new jobs in growth industries.

Tax cuts will help to a certain degree but there also needs to be specific policies by the government.

But inflation isn't rising, that's the problem ffs.

Do you even read RBA releases?

-PB

100's of thousands of the former 457 and skilled migrant visas help keep wages down.

A tactic employed by big companies is to advertise a role, particularly FIFO work, at rates below what locals would expect for that work.  When applicants don't apply, because the money is shit, they run to the government and say 'look we've advertised but can't get workers'.  


From my perspective if I were to apply for a senior role on wages in the field I'm in (I'm on contract) it would pay roughly what I was getting in 2001.  (And that's with 18 years more experience.)  Speaking to other blokes I graduated with and colleagues I know I'm not the only one.

At the company I work for, they can hire a skilled worker in an overseas location at 1/4 the cost. 

Pretty disillusioned with Australian politics at the moment. We don't even have an opposition party. Just a couple of independents in the lower house representing a decent percentage albeit regrettably not a majority of our society's views.