Unfortunately, the political climate in Australia is so utterly deplorable that it can’t help but have an impact on the economy, and therefore the stock market.
Successive governments have created a system that results in an excessive amount of capital flowing into the property sector. Investors have been rewarded by speculating on land, rather than investing in longer-term productive enterprises. Commodity-based income underwrites this national pastime, which is why the commodity/housing nexus is so important to ongoing growth.
But it has left us with a foreign debt of $1 trillion, and the continued selling off of assets to fund our property obsession. As a result, we have a chronic current account deficit. In the year to 30 June 2018, the deficit was around $50 billion.
Instead of facing these issues, Australian politics is tearing the country apart. One of the chief culprits is climate change. Climate change and what to do about it has been a key destabiliser of national politics since it increasingly became a political issue from around 2007.
The Rum Rebellion is a libertarian voice. While we think all governments are corrupt and self-serving, out of principle we particularly abhor the ‘government knows best’ views emanating from the left of centre.
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