I came across this incredible little-publicized fact while doing some recent business research, and couldn't resist digging into just how they pulled this off in the our debt-based world economy. There is an answer to it, albeit a complex one with many twists, which is always the case with world economic success stories. We do know from past history, that all around the world any country who manages to pull off this virtual magician's trick has done so by jumping in bed with the world bank (IMF.) Many would call it "making a deal with the devil."

 

Former chief economist and senior VP for the world bank Joseph Stiglitz [1] resigned in shock when he read IMF internal documents. Stiglitz learned that the IMF will forgive a country's debt, but only if that country's leaders agree to allow the IMF blow out that country's economy, starve people to death if required and allow installation of an IMF puppet government. If they don't agree to the globalist takeover, they will suffer the same fate as Argentina did with chaos erupting in the streets. In many ways, this just a bigger and slightly more aggressive version of the plan venture capitalists use on small companies.

 

We do not know (and may never know) are what back-room deals may have been made with the IMF to give Australia the unheard of ability to have a positive trade in a deficit-based world. For now, this doesn't appear to be the case behind their economic recovery.

 

Let's explore some history of where Australia has been, and how it arrived at where it is now.

 

 

AUSTRALIA'S PLAN TO ECONOMIC FREEDOM IN 1999

 

In a bold speech about Australia striving for this goal, in 1999 MP Peter Costello delivered a speech on this matter. [2] He credited many factors to reach a debt-free status including no increases in corporate, petrol excise, income or wholesale sales tax for the fourth year in a row.

 

After Costello proclaimed Australia's great success in economic and other areas he then stated:

 

"...But we would fool ourselves to think our problems are now all over. Our region is still in trouble. The world economy is still weak. Next year [referring to the year 2000] the Government forecasts economic growth at 3 per cent -- this is faster than most of the major economies of the world -- but a little slower than the very high growth of 4 per cent this year. Our current account deficit -- widened by weak export prices and a strong consumer demand for imports -- is forecast at 5 per cent of GDP. This is a little better than this year. But it means we cannot afford to be complacent..."

 

He later concluded with "Our next Budget will begin the story of the 21st century. By then we should have a new tax system -- A New Tax System for the new century. A new tax system will fund and sustain our hopes and aspirations in health care, in education, in care for the old, and care for the young."

 

Translation of Costello's statement above - a HIGHER tax system since he states all the programs it will be funding. Now let's time travel to the present and see what miracle has happened. To begin with, income taxes in Australia are now second only to the United States [3]:

 

Table 1: Tax burden on Average Production Worker (APW) wages

 

 

 

Source: OECD Tax Database, Table 1.2. Average personal income tax and social security contributions on gross Exchanges rates Afternoon 29 August 2005 *APW is Average Production Worker Wages.

 

Table 1 above shows that while the average tax burden on Australian wages is high, it is not the highest in the world. That title is still held by the USA.

 

Indeed, now a new tax system is in place. People who live there are now heavily taxed on both income and purchases. Actual sales taxes vary depending on WHAT is being purchased. For example, there are value added taxes [6] which are excessive by any standards, which are typically 10% for most items which may be added to other taxes. One resident living in Perth about two years ago, told this author that his taxes on buying a heavy appliance was about 20%, and clothing about 14%. Heaven help anyone who's washing machine dies.

 

At the same time, they dismantled clothing, auto and wool tariffs. Taxes paid by the citizen helped to pick up that lost revenue. But there is even more to this story of prosperity the deeper you dig.

 

In the past few years a trade imbalance hit Australia with a trade deficit like that suffered by the USA, as illustrated by this chart issued just one year ago:

 Today, surging exports to China have greatly reduced their deficit from 2.48 billion dollars(AU) in January down to just 427 million dollars(AU) in April 2006. [4] Australia is the world's largest exporter of coal and iron ore, both of which are used to make steel. What's curious about the above chart is the sinusoidal curve. We will explore the role that wheat has played in this chart. This is not something we see with America's exports, as it continues to plunge more negative every month as a result of using China as it's source of manufacturing. It's also clear that the US government is doing absolutely nothing to stop the monetary bleeding, as America's economy grows redder each day. Those that believe the party line about "how prosperous America is" obviously are not part of the unemployed millions out looking for a job, and finding no job that one can live on exists anymore.

 

But globalism IS at work in Australia, as boldly stated by bank economist John Edwards:

"Globalization does have winners and losers, but mostly we're a winner," says Edwards, chief economist with HSBC Bank Australia Ltd. in Sydney. "When farmers in Korea protest against globalization, or miners in Germany protest globalization, they're protesting against us." [5]

 

What do all the proud globalists always leave out of their boasting? That police-state style control always comes along for the ride. Globalists always state that such control is "for the good of the people." Perhaps this is what globalists make themselves believe. Edwards arrogantly looks down on the hard working masses of other countries by referring to "miners and farmers" in a negative light. These workers are among the hardest working people in society - not a stuffed shirt doodling on a desk in a plush carpeted office, who lives off the interest of debts incurred by those less fortunate. This is all textbook style globalism at it's finest - wealth built upon those less fortunate. The classic "the rich are getting richer, and the poor are becoming poorer."

 

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO BOOST THE BOTTOM LINE

 

Oddly enough it may have been a windfall from Iraq that pushed the export curve positive. An excerpt from an excellent corpwatch article written by Marc Moncrief states the following about the scandal-ridden "Oil for Food" program:

 

"But while U.S. French, Russian, and African politicians, businessmen and companies benefited from Saddam's profiteering, the program's worst corruptor was the Australian Wheat Board (AWB), the largest importer of food into Iraq under Oil-for-Food...Among the profiteers was the Australian Wheat Board, a former state-owned monopoly, which funneled $A290 million (U.S. $208,887,000) into Saddam's coffers even as the "Coalition of the Willing" was preparing for invasion."[7]

 

Marc states that "investigations have rocked the government." But everyone knows that in the end, nothing will really be done about it. What's done is done. The 290 million dollars was insignificant compared to the wheat sales that it guaranteed.

 

Marc also states, "Even as George Bush, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and British Prime Minister Tony Blair prepared their three peoples for war, AWB funneled $A290 million (U.S. $208,887,000) worth of bribes into Saddam Hussein's coffers. The graft, which continued until just months before the invasion, bought Australia access to the Iraqi wheat market and functioned to exclude the United States, Australia's most virile rival in the global wheat industry."

 

He continues,"...But while U.S. French, Russian, and African politicians, businessmen and companies benefited from Saddam's profiteering, the program's worst corruptor was the Australian Wheat Board (AWB), the largest importer of food INTO Iraq under Oil-for-Food." [Capitals added for emphasis.]

 

So it all comes together - Mr. Howard's Australian government privatized its former monopolistic wheat export agency in 1999, right at the same time MP Costello delivered his infamous prosperity speech described earlier. So what was the Howard government doing investing in Iraq to secure the wheat business, AFTER it was privatized several years before? Did they also bribe other countries to secure their business, too? We will never know about all the back room deals. Australia, Canada and United States are the biggest wheat producers on the planet. As a commodity, wheat is a staple much like oil and will always be in demand. Considering that Iraq is largely a desert, it's unlikely wheat to manufacture bread and other foods will be growing in Iraq anytime soon.

 

An important fact is visible here that can help America - you can outsource the manufacture of cars, trucks, computers, appliances and thousands of other household items to China. But you can't outsource FARMLAND and farms! Farmland with expansive, irrigated Plaines like we have in the mid-west are very scarce in China. A considerable part of that country's land is desert. Even thought the family farm is disappearing in America - this may be where our future really is. The biggest problem with farming today isn't about crop diseases, irrigation, planting or harvesting. The biggest problem is simply turning a decent profit for the American farmer to live on.

 

What the Australian government did when buying their way into the Iraq wheat market was to cut out the United States, which was a major market. So much for the US being a good Aussie ally. (The entire Australian wheat scam is too lengthy to cover here. See [7] for more details.)

 

In conclusion we know that as a minimum that iron ore, coal and wheat are in great demand. In fact, the largest wheat producing nation on the opposite side of the planet from the United States IS Australia. Considering skyrocketing oil costs, overseas shipping costs are now increasing on a daily basis. It would make sense for any country near Australia to buy these staple products from them. Unlike the United States, Australia has easy access to the Asian and Far East markets with products in great demand.

 

In this author's research, other articles were found written in Australia are warning that "UK style surveillance" is already coming to their land and New Zealand. Though Australian laws currently only permit watching video and not listening to audio, allowing audio is only a matter of time. Video is bad enough, as it allows computer tracking of vehicle license plates. With a police state will come relentless higher taxes to support it that will be proclaimed "It's for the good of the people." Now where have we heard that before? All police states require debt to keep the masses busy working like slaves, and synthetic terror to maintain fear.

 

Australians had better bask in the light of their prosperity all that they can, before globalism's real agenda snuffs it out. It's only a matter of time before the sinusoidal export curve swings negative again.

 

Ted Twietmeyer

www.data4science.net

 

 

 

REFERENCES

 

[1] Joseph Stiglitz, former World Bank Senior Vice President and Chief Economist.

http://www.rense.com/general19/eco.htm

 

[2] Minister of Parliament speech -

http://www.budget.gov.au/1999-00/speech/speech.html

 

[3] "Tax Comparisons - Australia and Selected Countries" http://www.aph.gov.au/library/Pubs/RN/2005-06/06rn18.pdf

 

[4] Surging exports to China -

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/03/bloomberg/sxoz.php

 

[5] Australia at the crossroads -

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0307/p01s03-wogi.html

 

[6] Value added tax:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-added_tax

 

[7] Marc Moncrief is a journalist with The Age newspaper in Melbourne, Australia. His

article is posted at

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13453

 

 

 

Comment

Teresa

 

I read your article on Jeff Rense.

 

I do not believe for one minute that Australia is out of debt. I note with some alarm how fast we american-ised after Bush and C. Rice visited us in Canberra.

 

The prices, work conditions, and even products are now steadily flushing down the toilet. And the quality of products, services and attitudes has gone the same way.

 

Whether we like it or not, we are "the 51st state" and it can only go downhill from here.