Last Monday's Four Corners program has Steve Johnson back on the
debt-binge bandwagon. Don't read on if you don't like to worry.
The question is not if, but when, this country's own credit crisis is
going to catch up with us. If you missed Monday's 'Debtland' episode of
Four Corners, you can watch it here. Be warned, it's disturbing (if a
little sensationalist).
It is a fact that we're in the midst of a debt binge of unprecedented
pro****tions. The ratio of credit to disposable income in Australia is
north of 180% - one of the highest of any country in the OECD (in the
US, that ratio was 140% before the crunch).
The most common argument you'll hear professing that we don't have a
problem is that debt is high, yes, but so are household assets. But if
there are so many assets, where's the income those assets are producing?
Houses yielding 3% net rental returns on their supposed value don't help
service debt costing 10%, or 20% in the case of personal credit cards.
So how can this go on so long?
--
Warmest Regards
Bonzo
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"...and I think future generations are not going to blame us for
anything except for being silly, for letting a few tenths of a degree
panic us"
Dr. Richard Lindzen, Professor of Meteorology MIT and Member of the
National Academy of Sciences
"What most commentators-and many scientists-seem to miss is that the
only thing we can say with certainly about climate is that it changes"
Dr. Richard Lindzen
[most of the current alarm over climate change is based on] "inherently
untrustworthy climate models, similar to those that cannot accurately
forecast the weather a week from now." Dr. Richard Lindzen


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