Thanks, guys. I think I'll just go kill myself now, seeing as I have consistently been on the losing end of every major departure from financial normality over the last fifteen years, i.e. housing market in Australia is always, always, always flat, and I sell a valuable property just before the whole thing goes insane and I could have made the killing that (would have) saved me from near-bankruptcy; I always lose on the FX moves, and so on ... oh, forget it. Where did I put the cyanide? The heavens have spoken, via the invisible hand of the markets ... die, loser, die ...)

Seriously though. Jerome is of course right as regards the trend for the moment. I should buy AUD before the damn thing goes even higher. (Which means pain for me. Now, where did I put the cyanide again? ...)

But, if the USD tanks badly enough, then there is no 'consumer of last resort', and the Chinese economy tanks, and then the AUD is, presumably, worth nothing, because no one is buying any of the raw materials my home country is so eager to flog for pennies on the dollar in the interests of a decade or two of 'prosperity' ... in that event, which may yet come to pass, it would have been nice to have been able to afford some euros :(

OK, so I am a child amongst giants speaking the obvious and ought to be quiet. (It's beer night.)

Actually this raises another thing, OT but I would like to mention it. Howard has now been, I think, the longest serving PM in Australian history. And those pig bastards the Liberals will always be going on about what a great job they did with the economy.

But, of course, it isn't anything to do with them and never has been. The whole thing is to do with the voracious appetite of the Chinese economy for Australian raw materials. A blind dog on kidney dialysis and attended to by a team of drunk and negligent veterinarians could run the country with exactly the same results. Hey, even Australia's Labor Party could do it :)... as they were gearing up to do before a stupid electorate voted for a moral and indeed literal MIDGET named John Howard.

And interestingly, history actually gives us proof. In the 1970s, during the Liberal Fraser government, John Howard (the very same!) was TREASURER - the second-most important post in the land ... and the economy was, of course, utter crap. Or as my father put it (and he is a die-hard anti-communist Liberal voter who literally keeps a copy of 'Mein Kampf' by his bed): 'The bastard never did anything before (in the 70s), so I don't see why any bastard should vote for him now.'

But no. History will record 'the wonderful economic management of the Howard years' or somesuch.

In these days of globalization, it is worth remembering (for Australians, anyway) that saps who make their money on the backs of primary industry have always had their fates determined by international markets. Their governments have meant little, at least in terms of economic policy.

Anyway, again I ask your forgiveness for this. It's late, there has been beer, and I face the uncomfortable prospect of (yes, like I said above) again being screwed over by FX fate ...

But thank you for your patience and graciousness.