commonwealth

yes of course. earth itself is unsustainable. eventually it will be unable to support its tens of billions of people. all fossil fuels and minerals will run out and we will be f--ked up.

maybe financial derivatives and museums and history can sustain the future.

commonwealth

saudi will probably run out of oil before australia runs out of its stuff.

at that point we're fu-ked up.

commonwealth

that's why africa, with all its vast mineral wealth, is at par to the living standards of australia

Turban Explorer

er.... Yeah. <in the fashion in which one might speak to a relative with Alzheimer's)

commonwealth

good. forgot to say mining doesnt even make up 30% of the economy

commonwealth

and the other countries are so highly skilled they invented the great recession.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

...and yet Western style democratic government gives you the right to make bullshit claims like that, without the chance of you disappearing into some dark hole in the ground, never to be seen again.
Funny how people ignore that when it suits them.

commonwealth

wow the US marines are about to attack china from darwin.

the troubadour

A lot of other considerations are required to be taken into consideration before any comparison can be made between a rich industialised nation like Australia and countries on the African Continent........

the troubadour

Well some say America is in slow decline. You know what they say about a wounded bull....

commonwealth

including, perhaps, the skills of its people?

commonwealth

well i'd rather be low-skilled and selling really needed stuff to people and earning good money, rather than be a high-skilled financial derivatives trader who sells paper profits that caused a crisis of financial markets resulting in potential poverty of the unsuspecting masses.

Turban Explorer

Because as we know....selling carbon is morally acceptable as man made climate change doesn't exist...

Do you seriously think BHP, Rio, Fortseque etc don't trade derivatives or employ high skilled derivatives traders!?

Amazulu

I just thought I'd let you know before we did.

slapphead_otool

So the IMF made a grave error in its two year assessment of the Australian economy, and should have said:

"Australia is doing OK right now, but God help them when Europe collapses, bringing China down, and as China won't allow internal demand, the demand for minerals will drop".

You know the reason why the IMF didn't say that?

Because is all hypothetical codswollop, and even if it all happened, the chances are Australia would STILL have the strongest economy in the Developed World.

People think I am being negative about the UK, but really, lets be realistic. If Europe collapses in any way, the UK goes with it:

!. Its tied in by Debt. British banks are horribly exposed to al this crap.

2. Its tied on by market. About half of British GDP comes for the Eurozone.

3. Its tied in by political agreement.

If Greece goes bankrupt and the Euro collapses, the UK will have to bail the sorry mess out, millions of displace persons will turn up looking for a better life, and the British economy built on financial services will fall over - either through direct exposure or by perceived contamination.

A Eurozone collapse will be a setback for Australia, but a catastrophe for the UK.