The author has been described by News Ltd as an "iconoclast", "Svengali", a pollie's "economist muse", and "pungently accurate". Fairfax says he is a "Renaissance man" and "one of Australia’s most respected analysts." Stephen Koukoulas concludes that he is "85% right", and "would make a great Opposition leader." Terry McCrann claims the author thinks "‘nuance’ is a trendy village in the south of France", but can be "scintillating" when he thinks "clearly". The ACTU reckons he’s "an enigma wrapped in a Bloomberg terminal, wrapped in some apparently well-honed abs."

Friday, July 30, 2010

The one chart that shows you Australia has *not enough* government debt...

A great chart from UBS's Matthew Johnson that shows Australia has an extraordinarily low fiscal deficit combined with exceedingly low sovereign debt. That is, radically less than almost any other comparable country. You know all those infrastructure bottlenecks and the congestion that people keep on complaining about...This slides teaches us that Australia is arguably underinvesting in its future given the 60% plus expected increase in our resident population within four decades assuming the current population growth rate more than halves to just 0.9% pa by 2050...And remember, the Commonwealth Government can borrow more cheaply than any other public or private entity in the country.

at 7:51 PM