And they spent it all on stuff all. Most went to the housing Ponzi scheme (FHBG). $1.8 Trillion. All it did was make homes at least more expensive as the FHBG Now imagine every city including Hobart could have had at least 2 underground rail line metros for that much. Some like Sydney and Melbourne could have had 3. High speed rail Canberra - Sydney - Newcastle. Melbourne's underground loop fully paid for. A tunnel from Penrith to Lithgow. Submarines out the Yazoo and enough tanks to shame Russia
He's absolutely right, of course the current account deficit will balloon when industry is ramping up and exports are rising. I really question the basic intelligence of people sometimes.
Howard talking current account deficits... Nothing about govt. debt. Funny how Howard's tune changed when he left us with a $600 + billion current account deficit in 2007.
@@hotlunch4415 And under Rudd Australia was one of the best performing economies in the OECD! Even with a GFC, and the Liberals when they returned to government under much better economic circumstances have doubled the debt. The Liberals are and always have been terrible economic managers.
This increase in the CAD occurred when the economy was starting to grow, unemployment was finally starting to decrease, and most directly, businesses needed capital. It was a problem only because Australia had over 10 years of deficits and CAD's only seemed to grow. We did not have the money to pay for it, until the enforced savings of superannuation kicked in. Super took about 15-20 years to really change how banks and investors "got their money". The real problem for the ALP was that voters were exhausted with the economic talk, waiting for the economy to improve (which was going to happen, since Howard's only change in 97 would only delay recovery), and the longevity of the government. Perhaps the most ironic thing was that Keating planned on a surplus within a couple of years of when Howard did it: the two parties are substantially more similar that it would appear.
Howard had by his time under Frazer basically scuttled Australian industry. When Kennet sold the SEC he drove in the final nail. What really pissed me off is the owners of that industry still vote Liberal.
Paul Keating could make a cookie out of any liberal leader, Australia was in a much safer place economically, socially and watching Keating perform was like watching Professor Julius Summer Miller. Howard was like Quasimodo in his presence.
