Tag Archives: debt and deficit

Friday On My Mind – Another $700m In Debt

27 Apr

While most everyone else is obsessing about this Friday’s royal wedding, I’m thinking about another kind of “marriage” contract.

Til Debt Do Us Part.

You see, $189.84 Billion in debt is not a big enough ball-and-chain for the Goose.  Come this Friday, he’s signing us up to another $700 Million in the red contract.

Noone with two brain cells to rub together could still believe this government’s line that they will produce a surplus budget for the year (just 1 year, mind) in 2012-13.  Their ongoing dalliance with debt is all the evidence needed.  They are addicts, who will never go a single year without borrowing-and-spending far more than they take from us in taxes.

The simple fact is, we’ll all be paying for Goose’s indiscretions.  For decades to come.  Our creditors must be paid.

So tell us Wayne … who’s buying now?  Who Really Owns 73% Of Our Debt?

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This Little Goose Went To Market

21 Apr

This Little Goose Went To Market

With the Budget coming up, let’s take a look at how well the government has been managing our >$189 billion gross national debt “investment” portfolio.

The Australian Office of Financial Management’s (AOFM) official Overview of the Portfolio document makes for interesting reading (click images to enlarge) –

AOFM Portfolio Overview - Face Value

AOFM Portfolio Overview - Market Value

Note the difference at 31 March 2011 between the Face Value, and the Market Value, of the “Physical debt” and the “Physical assets“, respectively.

The Market Value of the debt in “our” national portfolio is now greater than the Face Value, to the tune of $7.9 billion.  And the Market Value of the assets in our portfolio is now $3 billion less than the Face Value.

Notice also the standout feature – that our portfolio is being taken ever deeper into the red.  To the tune of $15 billion (15,000,000,000) every 3 months, through end September last year.  And by a further $23 billion (23,000,000,000), in just the last 6 months.

Seems someone forgot to tell Wayne Swan that the GFC peaked 31 months ago, in September 2008.  And, that there is an ongoing and worsening European debt crisis, the US has been placed on negative credit outlook for the first time in history, and the World Bank President has warned the global economy is “one shock away from a full-blown crisis”.

Wayne must be oblivious to all this.  Because this month he authorised the AOFM to “invest” up to $4 billion more in Residential Mortgage Backed Securities (RMBS) – yes, those things that blew up America’s financial system.  Read the detail at the AOFM website, and you’ll see our Swanny is even happy to “invest” more borrowed billions in RMBS’ that hold Low Doc loans exceeding 10% of the initial principal value of the security pool.  Seems he’s never heard of “sub-prime”.

Oh yes, and to pay for these – and the ongoing mega-billion NBN disaster – he’s all set to borrow even more hundreds of millions at the end of next week.

Would you want this Goose managing your investment portfolio?

Bring on an election!

Roast Goose

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S&P Agrees – Barnaby Was Right On US Debt

20 Apr

It’s taken a while.  But the wheels of the locomotive named Inevitability grind relentlessly onwards.

For the first time in history, Standard and Poors has placed the USA’s credit outlook on “negative”, warning that the government must take meaningful steps to reduce debt.

Back in October through December 2009, Barnaby Joyce forewarned of the possibility of the US defaulting on its debts.  He was roundly mocked and ridiculed by all the usual suspects – mainstream media, “expert” economists, (now former) Treasury Secretary Ken Henry, and the ALP’s band of genii led by “Goose” and Tanner.

Now, here we are barely 18 months later.  The US credit outlook is being downgraded.  It has almost completed a $600 Billion QE 2 (“Quantitative Easing”) – which means creating literally hundreds of billions of dollars out of thin air, Zimbabwe-style. There is every indication that QE 3 will inevitably follow.

(Printing money inflates the money supply, devalues your currency, and so effectively reduces your debt burden “by default”. Devaluing your currency is the most common form of national debt default.)

And the World Bank President warned a few days ago that the world economy is now just “one shock away from a full blown crisis”.

Barnaby was right.

Thanks to a hostile and clueless media pack, egged on by the “expert” ridicule of the likes of Henry and “Goose”, Barnaby was blasted out of his brief role as Opposition Finance Minister in early 2010.  Despite his being better qualified than the entire ALP cabinet combined.

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Barnaby’s Quick Quiz

14 Apr

Media Release – Senator Barnaby Joyce, 14 April 2011:

Q. Who am I? Two weeks ago there were 183.8 of me, this week there is 187.3 of me.
A. Billions of dollars in gross debt.
Is there any way we can get the penny to drop on why this is not healthy for the Australian people? Look at it this way; we had all those demonstrations on Tuesday because of a prospective $400 million loss in medical research funding; in two weeks we dropped almost 9 times that amount. We could have built the Toowoomba Range Crossing twice, or we could have completed the required sections of the inland rail for this amount. We could have put slightly more money, than $1.4 million towards myrtle rust, an introduced direct threat to eucalypts in Australia.
Something smells. Ken Henry has left, Julia Gillard is panicking, and our gross debt is tearing through the roof.
Seeing as Mr Swan always talks about net debt, maybe he would like to find some of these funds he used in netting off this $187.3 billion and use it now to pay off some of the debt. I will tell you there are two things, he won’t be able to tell us where the money is and secondly, if he did know where it was, he would be terrified of what would happen if he actually used it to pay off the debt. For example, the largest section of the money used in the netting process is for public servants’ superannuation.
I have been banging on about this for about two years and I am not going stop till Wayne stops borrowing and starts paying the money back.
We have found ourselves in this position because we have got a government that spent like a person who should have been swabbed. We will look back in history and cringe as to how on earth we got ourselves into such strife. $2.5 billion on ceiling insulation, $16.8 billion on school halls and random $900 cheques, for who only knows what purpose followed by a little home cooked policy cake to cool the planet. Australia asks where do these manic ideas come from, and how on earth are you going to repay this debt?

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Same Old Labor Govt – Same Old Debt

9 Oct

Media Release – Senator Barnaby Joyce, 4th October 2010:

Senator Barnaby Joyce says that the Labor government seems to be getting back to normal. “Our gross debt went up by $3 billion last week, the week before it went up by $4 billion. The gross Federal debt is now $163.152 billion.

This is the issue that should be front and centre of Labor Government’s attention, beyond private members bills for euthanasia, same sex marriage and a bid to cool the planet with a new carbon tax.

The reality is there in the numbers. The debt is racing ahead; it is not under control, it is not going to stop.

There is no argument for this profligate waste of money. How much money do we want to owe people overseas?

This money does not include the states’ debt which is on its miserable way to $240 billion, as noted in front page articles of recent weeks.

We also have to note now that local governments too are expected to borrow money.

If we do not get on top of the debt, these debts will get on top of us.”

More Information – Jenny Swan 0746 251500

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Barnaby Rips Into Swan On Live TV

23 Aug

The highlight of the election coverage.

Wayne ‘Goose’ Swan is torn to shreds by Michael Kroger during Channel Nine’s live election broadcast.

As he lays on the mat spitting out his teeth, Barnaby lays the boot in.

If only the Coalition had got stuck into Swan like this months earlier.

Highly entertaining viewing.

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Is China Bankrupt?

3 Aug

From MSNBC:

All governments lie about their finances. At worst, as in Greece and the United States, the lies are bold and transparent. Everybody knows the emperor has no clothes, but no one want to say so. At best, as in Canada and China, the lies are more subtle – more like a magician’s misdirection than a viking raider’s ax. Look at these great numbers, the lie goes, but don’t look at those up my sleeve.

There’s a good argument to be made that if you look at all the numbers, instead of just the ones the budget magicians want you to see, China is indeed broke…

… China has a history of taking debt off its books and burying it, which should prompt us to poke and prod its numbers.

A must-read article. Poke and prod China’s numbers here.

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Swan Admits Borrowing $100m-a-day

26 Jul

From the ABC:

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has conceded the Opposition is correct when it claims Labor is borrowing $100 million a day to pay back Government debt.

Of course, it takes only a few seconds to keep tabs on Labor’s borrowings.

Just visit the Australian Office of Financial Management (“AOFM”) website to see the current total borrowings – listed as $150.533 million presently.

Don’t forget to add to this total, the amount listed at each link under the “Recent Tender Results” title, on the right hand side of the page. These are the extra amounts borrowed last week, but not yet added to the total.  So that’s another $1,800 million in the past week, giving us a grand total of $152.133 million borrowed up till last weekend.

Then, to see how much the Government plans to borrow in the next week, click on the “Forthcoming tenders” link, also on the right hand side of the AOFM home page. As you can see, on Thursday and Friday this week, the Labor Government will borrow a total of another $1,000 million.

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Labor Fails Infrastructure Again

26 Jul

Media Release – Senator Barnaby Joyce, 24 July 2010:

Senator Joyce said today that the Auditor General report on Infrastructure Australia’s first audit report reveals Labor’s politicised, haphazard and sloppy approach to infrastructure investment.

In the 2008-09 Budget, the Rudd-Gillard Government committed themselves to:

‘Decision making based on rigorous cost-benefit analysis to ensure the highest economic and social benefits to the nation over the long term.’

“The Auditor-General’s report today shows that not only did this Government fail to conduct rigorous cost-benefit analysis, some of the 28 ‘pipeline’ infrastructure projects which were identified did not pass a cost-benefit analysis.

This approach disagrees with the advice given by Dr Ken Henry last year when he said:

Government spending that does not pass an appropriately defined cost-benefit test necessarily detracts from Australia’s wellbeing. That is, when taxpayer funds are not put to their best use, Australia’s wellbeing is not as high as it otherwise could be.

“The Auditor-General’s report just shows another example of Labor’s wasteful and reckless approach to spending taxpayer’s dollars. After the Coalition left Labor with $60 billion in the bank and a $20 billion surplus, Labor rushed $90 billion of stimulus spending, with only 14 per cent of it spent on economic infrastructure.

“Labor seats have attracted 84 per cent of spending from the Education Investment Fund and 73 per cent of spending from the Health and Hospitals Fund.

“The result is that the Building Australia Fund has only $705 million left.

“Australia can not afford another three years of Labor.”

For more information: Matt Canavan 0458709433

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Joyce: Same Old Labor

16 Jul

Media Release – Senator Barnaby Joyce, 16 July 2010:

Same old Labor: double the announcement, half the value

Anthony Albanese was quoted in the Brisbane Times this morning as saying that Labor “supports” the $8.2 billion Brisbane cross-river rail project.

“I am interested to know exactly what this support means”, Senator Barnaby Joyce, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, said today.

“Labor certainly has no money left in the nation’s cookie jar. They have only $705 million left unallocated in the Building Australia Fund.”

“Instead Labor has wasted most of their $90 billion stimulus, investing it in insulation and over priced school halls. They only spent 14% of this amount on economic infrastructure.”

In 2008, Labor promised to establish a $20 billion infrastructure fund. It only received $10.9 billion due to Labor’s wasteful and reckless spending and the money the fund did receive came from the Coalition’s last budget surplus ($7.5 billion), money ripped out from funds to deliver broadband in the bush ($2.5 billion) and the sale of Telstra ($1 billion).

“So we are left with half the infrastructure promised but with $150 billion gross debt. Same old Labor: double the announcement with half the value.”

“This is just more evidence that Labor can’t manage the nation’s finances. Australia can’t risk another 3 years of Labor”.

More Information – Jenny Swan 0746 251500, 0438 578 402

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