An optimist reassessed

It has been very interesting to read the changes in tone from respected Ross Gittins in his publications in the Sydney Morning Herald.  Gittins is a respected economist and long term contributor to the Herald and often takes an alternative viewpoint on issues.

So it was not surprising that as recently as June Gittins was still in the boom times camp (or boom times are coming again camp):

In other words, it's wrong to imagine the boom's about to leave us high and dry. Mining production and exports have a lot further to grow in coming years. Even the fall in imports (which constitutes a reduction in their negative contribution to growth) is linked to the boom: reduced investment in new mines means reduced imports of capital equipment (here)

An observer looking globally would conclude that in fact the boom is about to leave and right now is leaving all emerging economies high and dry as has been seen by the plunging currencies and poor statistics of high growth favourites like South Africa, India, Mongolia and Brazil being reported recently.

What a change then a couple of months makes:

Stevens warned that, in our efforts to get economic growth back to its trend rate of about 3 per cent a year - which is necessary to stop unemployment continuing to worsen - ''the challenges ahead are substantial''. What's more, those challenges will continue for ''the next few years''.

His speech explained those challenges. You know the basic problem: ensuring the rest of the economy takes up the slack as the stimulus from the mining investment boom tails off...

It turns out that, in our present circumstances, low interest rates don't pack the punch they used to, so we're not going to get as much increase in activity as usual.
Why not? Because, Stevens reminds us, we're not just coping with the aftermath of one boom, but two. The other is the end of the ''credit boom''.
… we should not expect a return to the sorts of growth seen in the 1995 to 2007 period' (here).

Now that's a turnaround!  If the Australian economy could rebound to such a degree (in the opposite direction), it would...oh no it won't!