THE Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, conceded yesterday that his alternative plan for an economic stimulus package would still require government borrowing of up to $177 billion, compared with the Federal Government's proposal to borrow up to $200 billion.

Mr Turnbull has argued that the Government's $42 billion plan would saddle taxpayers with an unsustainable level of government debt and has proposed a scaled-back package.

Asked yesterday how much less debt would be incurred under his proposal compared with the Government's, he said: "It would involve somewhere between $22 billion and $27 billion less debt."

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Gus: but who knows.... The Turnbull plan might be less effective and eventually demand another 50 to 75 billions to patch the bigger hole? No-one knows, no-one can know. As mentioned before, since most business gurus have no idea where the bottom of this thing is, Gus has calculated the world credit deficit is likely to be 15 trillions US per year for at least 15 years, despite all the offsets from "stimulus" packages... unless... I could be totally wrong on this economic front but...

Unless we devalue, revalue, regulate and start to take into account the massive truck of global warming coming our way. WE need to reduce our expenditure of energy. The world economies in unison need to tax products such as car and air conditioning at least 120 percent on top of their values. We need to double the price of electricity and that of oil via taxes, levies etc, while plunging a deft hand into the big oil profit bags. We need to change the entire rules of the game. Call it cooperation rather than competition... We need to dis-engage the now obsolete link between inflation and interest rates. "free markets"? No more as we've known them. We need to give massive incentive to become green. Saving the planet can't be done should we carry on burning as much as we have in all forms of energy, so far.

For example some people think that an air conditioning system (or a fridge) manufactures "cold". It doesn't. These machines remove the heat from one place and transfer it somewhere else. Thus one side of the machine gets "colder" while the other side warms up. A fan is used to dissipate this warming up into the atmosphere... Not only that, the process of extracting cold and dissipating the heat is energy consuming, thus contributing to global warming. Generally our house insulation is crap, non-existent so to speak. But insulation needs smart ventilation, to stop the air from becoming stale and saturated with CO2 from our breath... 

Despite the deny-ers of global warming, indices and empirical observations should tell us the earth's atmosphere is warming up, FAST. And our expenditure of energy is contributing massively to it. As more and more people come to acquire the comforts of life, as more and more people populate the earth, reducing our consumption without reducing our living standards is the real challenge faced by humanity.

Free markets cannot achieve this goal, end of story.

When I saw Moir's cartoon the other day in the SMH, I though "blast... why didn't I think of that" instead of doing the toon above... Having a Malcolm in top-hat telling Rudd who was firefighting a huge blaze "to save water", was brilliant but on reflection quite off the mark. In the end I prefer my world-leaders pouring money down sinkholes while Malcolm pontificates... It removes the controversial righteousness value of rescue packages...

Just wanted to let you know...

'This is the worst recession for over 100 years'

Ed Balls, the PM's closest ally, warns that downturn is ferocious and says impact will last 15 years.

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Obviously I have a crystal ball, really I  mean it, I truly have one on my desk... I paid 20 bux for the solid glass sphere... It works?... who knows...

That picture shows negative effect of higher officials of different country. Instead to help each countrymen to regain our economy, they merely focus on their own interests. How pathetic are we. Nowadays, we repair our credit if we have the chance.  Hopefully, you'll never have to repair your credit, but chances are that you'll have to at one point or another.   You don't want to make minimum payments unless you absolutely have to, as you want to pay things off as quickly as possible.  Your creditors won't like it, but it's not as if they can punish you from saving money later in life.  If you fall short, you can always use quick payday loans if necessary.  It's better to dig your own way out as soon as possible than need debt relief while trying to repair your credit.