meanwhile, in the world outside julia's

I wonder if Swanee & Julia have noticed a seismic move in our resource market today, possibly pre-empting a bad GDP number from China tomorrow?

Its pretty serious stuff, and investor confidence will be damaged for a bit longer. Once again, whatever the reason, the numnbers are bad, and represent a huge downgrading of Australia's resource base. BHP is at a new three plus year low. Julia said today that we are the envy of the world, again. There will not be many people believing her.

If she would just climb down and admit that all is not rosy, she might gain a bit of respect. A collapsing resource stock market cannot be politically waved away.