BOLIDE, I might as well have 2 bites of this cherry and to your post I'll say this. Our market has never followed the US market as we are a day in front of them. We actually lead. Yes, lead. What you are referring to is that we act historically [hysterically]to what happened yesterday in the US which is or has made us fearful, directionless at times and has diluted the strong sense of belief in ourselves, our country and our engine room of "real things" production economy. I often think if you closed the trade doors on all the countries of the world Australia is the country I would choose to live in. We have moderate population, a survival climate, food, mineral resource including oil and gas,no civil wars yet, and a galvanised island spirit that is as tough as our land and an adaptable, make do barbeque mentality which would reinstate manufacturing quickly. But with all that we let other economies or manipulative ideas unhinge that sense of security and at times leave us vulnerable. What you might actually be seeing as the US slows is a changing of global thinking that says if one country is sick you dont have to be sick yourself but just that you might have to wait until they get better to go out and play again. That traslates as a pause until the capital goods,manufacturing kicks back in after the last lot wore out or had to be upgraded to new or different capacity. I think that use to be a 10 or 20 year cycle but planned obsolescence has played with that so I will just call it a 5 year pause beginning at say a year before gfc Our market is ok probably because it just is, and it is not compulsory to go down the gurgler as you refer. Overseas investors are still saying its ok even with an historically high dollar. Is there something really fundamentally wrong with our dollar being strong or have we been conditioned to that...if there is then why did we see nothing wrong with the US dollar being godlike and strong....It is strong as a reflection of its economy and sometimes strong artificially so as not to rock the global money boat captains who prefer snoozing on the bridge in comfort. Sometimes the uncontrollable sea gets rough and you need to wake up the captains to let them know we seem to be changing course. So maybe its time to adapt as the cards shuffle. Remember.....food ...shelter....love...happiness...the rest is just a game....it doesnt really matter if you win or lose just that you enjoy it, regardless of outcome
