re: current account deficit??? does it matter
take MIM it was "our" asset i.e. predominantly Australian ownership, the profits stayed in Australia. The company is taken over by Xstrata, a Swiss giant.
Sure the MIM workers still get paid, infrastructure built by Australians, all well and good. But MIM's profits flow to Swiss owners, a case of selling the farm. Now if we do this again, and again, and again ad nauseum (which is how we finance our current account deficit - through asset sales, or borrowing) we are eroding our future income.
The commodity boom is great but compare the proportion of profits still flowing to Australian shareholders cf, say, 15 years ago.
You are dead right it is a global economy, but we are dissaving and sooner or later there must be consequences.
