Liberal ideology tends to delude its supporters they live under a laissez-faire economy. We don’t. If we did Herr Howard would not have been silly enough to pretend, before the last election, he had some control over interest rates and inflation. Now he’s claiming such matters are out of his control. Does the Liberal Party actually believe we live under a fully free-enterprise system or not? These are fundamental questions that no amount of machiavellian side-stepping can avoid. 
Ayn Rand is rolling in her grave!

There are two balloons I would love to see explode…...

Perhaps an economist could help me here ... I was under the impression that giving everyone $8 ++ a week in tax put upward pressure on inflation - meaning that individuals had that much more to spend $31-34 billion. The supermarket cartel could raise prices on meat, regardless of the low price given to drought stricken farmers forced to sell off….

Whereas, if the $31 billion were put into the provision of services - such as solar to grid for all, hospital equipment, medical training, eco-research, ...  whatever, that this would not be inflationary because it was backed by real assets or “growth”.

If I am right, there should be four balloons!
NC