you can start by having a look at the inflationary pressure that has been raising its ugly head. It didn't just happen after November 2007. If one were to read some threads here, an alien would think somehow inflationary pressure mysteriously materialized the day after one John Howard vacated that Kirribilli House.
No single party or economist can claim to have the instant cure for the economy when it start not to behave the way a society wishes it to. For Howard and Costello to claim that they were the receptacle of economic wisdom was insulting, to say the least. BTW, most of the economic policies that were applied in their term would have been formulated by the public servants in the Australian Public Service, the same core public servants who are not serving and providing fear-less (one would hope) options and advices to the new administration.
Like I said before, the budget next Tuesday night will give a lot of insight into the new government's philosophical and political approaches to handling and tackling the economic and social issues that our nation faces in the coming years. Yes, economic prosperity does bring its own problems, one of which is the broad social equity in the fair sharing of the wealth generated by the prosperity.
Some of the new ministers are still coming to grip with the complexity of the issues that their ministerial portfolios cover. Give them another 6 months and if they don't show improvements, it is time for Rudd to do a reshuffle.
Swan is an example. I posted this in another thread this morning. I feel he is capable to handle the treasury portfolio, but he does need to improve on his speech projection: the way one projects a message in a speech one delivers is as important as the substance of the message. I would rather see the current Finance Minister, Tanner, be the Treasurer as he seems to show a lot of confidence and toughness in his current ministry. Swan will be better suited to a portfolio that deals with social justice; I sense he has the touch for that type of social issues.
