Slightly less terrified..

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"I'm slightly less terrified today than I was on Friday," said Princeton University economist Paul Krugman, named as the winner of the Nobel prize in economics on Monday. "We're going to have a recession and perhaps a prolonged one but perhaps not a collapse."

Alright, I admit it. I read Yahoo News. I actually look at My Yahoo for a quick morning read.

Recessions have always hit Australia hard for one simple reason: Australia's economy is largely consumer spending. The consumer spending is built on easy credit, growing government payments and subsidies at all levels, and more than anything else the financially engineered housing boom.
Each spread and expanded into another to create an economy racing towards inflation.
Housing prices have gone up over 500% in the last decade under John Howard. For those who bought and sold houses, that was great news. Each dollar they borrowed or invested into a house became 5 dollars. Then they went out into the economy and distributed the wealth, which multiplied the inflationary effect across all sectors of the economy.
When the bubble got close to bursting, Howard conveniently lost the election - and a Labour government was left to deal with the consequences. Mr Howard is off wandering the world doing dinner dates.

Well that's enough for my quick provocations this morning. I have to go find some breakfast.