yes we held up pretty ok but that doesn't mean it was because of the stimulus ... politicians just like to claim credit when they do something and everything is ok even though without it it might have been great
although at the rate we are spending i would be cautious to say we are out of the woods since if there is another shock via china or via some these inflationary boom that the government has created then we are now in a worse shape to absorb these shocks ... although the fed is somewhat offsetting it by raising interest rates (unlike america's fed who is clueless)
"It might again be worth pointing out that the Australian economy went into a mild recession, unemployment did go up and we now have debt to deal with where none had existed before. The Government inherited a robust economy from its predecessors, our banking system had a small proportion of toxic assets to work its way through and most importantly, the Chinese economy’s own stimulus created the momentum for growth here.
And given that our own stimulus soaked up the equivalent of four percent of GDP, all of which needs to be found again which means tremendous sacrifices for years to come, we shall see whether the panic reaction to the mildest of recessions will have made all that much sense in the larger scheme of things. And all we have to show for it are a series of poorly constructed and vastly overpriced school facilities and some insulation that is now an actual threat to many of the homes in which they were installed.
The notion that Government debt on forms of expenditure that cannot earn a return on funds expended is similar to business investments which are intended to pay their own way through added productivity shows a chasm between Keynesian thought and a more market approach. I might note that there is no other economy in the world where the economics profession would even contemplate putting such stuff before the public."
Steve Kates
http://catallaxyfiles.com/2010/08/04/an-open-letter-on-the-stimulus/
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