Australia's supposedly-excellent financial position

As our Socialist overlordess' treasurer-henchman likes to tell us repeatedly, Australia (supposedly) has survived the GFC with one of the strongest economies in the world - thanks of course to their brilliant fiscal management (y'know, like destroying the roof insulation industry with huge subsidies both suddenly introduced and suddenly removed, leaving long-term players in the industry devastated).

Oh sorry - I got sidetracked.

So yes, this fiscal management, and behold, we're doing so well!

So well in fact that John Giaan (who runs an Australian investment email list), in one of his regular emails just yesterday said the economy's going so strong that he's leaving the sidelines and getting back in the action.

Nice, nice. Nice for him. Bla bla bla.

He mentioned the GFC II / Global Financial Meltdown by name, saying "where is it? I reckon it's not coming at all".

A bit like the guy who said "tsunami? what tsunami?" and hit the beach, just hours before the beach was hit.

Or is he right?

He, and Gillard and her team are the ones in error. (Or of course, in Gillard's case, perhaps merely propogating error without quite so strongly believing it...)

The signs are all around, and getting worse and worse as the months go by.

Lots of others have commented on the situation, and for time's sake, I'm not going to repeat information about the challenges facing our retail sector, or the geographic disparities in our nation at present. Nor will I touch on the very relevant issues of over-inflated house prices due to interest-bearing loans and government intervention.

Instead, I'm going to just focus on the evidence on the ground all around me personally.

For years I've been in business, and hardly ever has a client had a hard time paying.

But over the last 12 months, it's been escalating. And escalating. Clients who appreciate my work, but have been unable to even pull together a mere $1k or $2k when it comes time to pay. When some years ago, they could easily pull together $10k and $20k deposits and milestone payments.

The economy isn't just "tight" - it's strangling. Two businesses close to mine have recently become behind on, or are just about to be behind on, employee payroll - when normally they're going strong.

Another client still owes us from over six months ago - and he's not disputing the invoice or anything, in fact he's even made at least one part-payment towards his debt and keeps reaffirming his intention to pay in full - but he just can't.

This isn't retail. These are companies from diverse industries. Dying. Insolvent or borderline insolvent. And newly so. And oftentimes businesses that have been around for many years or even some decades.

So I add my comment : Australia's economy, despite our national treasurer's boastful comments otherwise, is in tatters. Oh sure, we'll find "a way" through, whatever that means, even if half the businesses across this nation end up closing or some other widespread change affects us all.

But don't let them kid you : we're dead and dying. Not everyone of us. But enough for me to confidently say : it's a mirage - Australia is NOT in good shape economically - it's in a period of catastrophic financial turmoil, and I doubt we'll pass the next two years without extreme and difficult changes.

And based on what I'm seeing at the moment, a lot of that pain will hit long before two years from now.