Miraz
I'm backing your thiunking. Those graphs should be reading for all Australians - except 90% wouldn't comprehend.
Had a beer at the Aero club Fri night with an Aussie Home loans guy who had just been to consolidate debt for a guy who purchased a Harley, all up $54K, on his credit cards - because he had to have one (but could not pay the house mortgage).
A poll on the interest rate reduction last week showed - 45.5% were NOT going to use the cut to pay off their mortgage.
If you'd put up the Balance of Trade also there might have been even more shivering.
Two major crises in the pipeline:
1. The Australian sub-prime crisis. Look at the current trend in bankruptcy and repossession and remember there has to be $ out there to purchase the repos. (Rightly or wrongly a lot of that $ went into super under the Howard changes and is now suffering also). Unfortunately the USA probably won't even know about ours.
2. The lunacy of the carbon trading / global warming action Oz proposes that will add costs to everything further sucking away the household income and simultaneously making us even less competitive with the nations who already supply much of our goods.
The false spending boom of recent years propped up by loans and three years interest free must come home to roost sooner rather than later, or the crash worsens.