Firstly, I don't know if Australia or New Zealand have borrowed from the IMF or even that most of our debt might be in US Dollars. Certainly Australian government bonds are debts denominated in Australian dollars, and are owed to whoever holds the bonds. Individuals or institutions. Someone like David Hillary would be much better qualified to answer that, but regardless, your argument does not apply in this case.
It is acknowledged that lenders, be they banks or international institutions like the IMF effectively stand to gain "the world, plus ten percent", although I don't see them doing anything constructive with Africa and other regions that the Jubilee lobby wanted the 'west' to forgive of their debt at the turn of the millennium. However, this can never preclude any number of individual borrowers from actually paying off their debt. Just because in principle the banks get the world plus interest does not prove that you or I cannot live debt free. The national government is no different, except that they, including every massively indebted national in the western world have innumerable opportunities to get out of debt, if they so choose. I think it is sheer greed for money and power that keeps many politicians retaining big spending government departments, big spending quasi-government organisations and businesses that are in governments' pocket, and the governments' money supply processes. Transfusing blood from one arm to another, while spilling it on the way, remains profitable to those whose only skill is bureaucracy and control. All credit to David Hillary for the detailed account of New Zealand's moves toward fiscal responsibility beginning in the 1980s, and I acknowledge that it was New Zealand's example that preceded (by a few years) Australia's actions in the same manner. Ironically, it was Labor governments (usually in spite of their supporters' condemnation of "economic rationalist" policies) that made the initial moves to surplus budgets and economic rationalism that . Indeed, today I heard former Prime Minister Paul Keating, a man not known for his humility (see www.keating.org.au the web site of a man who has not been Prime Minister for seven years), (on TV) giving a speech where he boasted that "I innoculated a generation of treasurers with the surplus needle and none of them have yet found an antidote." Backing another of my earlier messages expressing scepticism over the depth of commitment of the Labor Party to actually pay of the national debt (remember they are the current opposition and this man is their retired former leader), Mr Keating completes the same paragraph with the following. "They (meaning the current government) always want to run budgets in surplus, regardless of economic conditions or economic needs, whereas they should be providing public infrastructure to lift our productivity performance. And government debt has never been cheaper. A lot of this investment cannot be done in the private sector. Public investment has to keep up." I should remind people that when USA had low inflation and low unemployment in the 1980s, Mr Keating was in power as firstly Treasurer and then Prime Minister. Australia's unemployment exceeded 10 percent and interest rates exceeded 18 percent. Achieving a budget surplus was not something that a 'socialist' government naturally gravitated to. It was more a matter of survival and went against the instinctive lobbying of labor party members and unionists. Interest rates have been low for several years now (of (nominally classical) Liberal Party government), and the Labor Party's heartfelt desire is to spend other people's money, because it is not so costly now. Regards, Ian Green > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, 15 October 2003 4:37 PM > To: e-gold Discussion > Subject: [e-gold-list] Re: Income tax <SNIP> > If any government that borrows from the IMF or some other lender fiat > currency and has to repay the principle and pay interest on the amount > borrowed they can never get out of debt to the IMF because > the interest was > never put into circulation with the principle. <SNIP> > If you are suggesting that it is possible for the Australian > or New Zealand > Government to get out of debt, then sir you are telling me they the > Governments mentioned are printing USD as they need them to > pay the interest > owing. Remember the IMF wants back what it loaned plus the > interest which > it didn't loan. <SNIP> --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Use e-gold's Secure Randomized Keyboard (SRK) when accessing your e-gold account(s) via the web and shopping cart interfaces to help thwart keystroke loggers and common viruses.
