Who can blame the average person for feeling depressed ? Turn on the television news - or pick up the morning newspaper and all we see is an unrelenting diatribe of doom and gloom !
BlueScope steel is talking about shutting the number six blast furnace and retrenching a thousand jobs. OneSteel is thinking of reducing production and shedding four hundred jobs. The SPC Ardmona plant at Shepparton in Victoria is to close it's doors and cease production, sending one hundrd and fifty workers to the dole office. Now Qantas is looking to restructure and take it's main operation to Asia - where it will start a new premium airline that will not bear the iconic Qantas name - and Westpac is cutting costs by out sourcing backroom jobs from Australia to Asia. Then - to cap it all off - the Federal government is making evasive noises on that promise to bring the budget into surplus by 2012/13. The " promise " has been downgraded to " an objective " !
It all seems to hinge on the relationship between the $A and the $ US - and two factors far beyond our control will determine how that scenario plays out !
The Australian dollar is presently trading at about $ 1.04 against the US Dollar - and some economists fear that in the months ahead that gap may widen to as much as $ 1.25. If that happens, it will deal a death blow to our remaining Australian exports - and further crimp the tourist industry on which so much of our economy rides.
This rising Australian dollar reflects a comparison with the grim tidings in the United States, where Congress has shown itself incapable of making the hard decisions necessary to reign in debt and stabilise the balance between income and outgoings.
Then there is Europe ! The pessimists see no hope of the European Union fighting it's way out of insolvency - and if the Euro crashes the European states will probably degenerate into a dog eat dog scramble of national currencies - overwhelmingly dominated by Germany and France.
That leaves the broad sweep of Asia - with super power China cashed up and fast developing a military might with unknown intentions.
The future looks grim, but at least this country has the ability to feed itself - and most of the rest of the world - because we are primarily an agrarian state with a huge, as yet untapped potential for further food production.
Perhaps we are " the lucky country " for more than one reason. Tucked out of the way " down under " - well clear of the coming zones of conflict in the more populous parts of this crazy world !
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