Aust admits possible WMD breach – National – www.theage.com.au: “Australia may have ‘innocently’ exported nuclear technology to parties with weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs, Defence Minister Robert Hill said today.”

So, will America launch a pre-emptive strike?

Record blow-out in nation’s debt – National – www.theage.com.au: “Australia’s annual current account deficit has blown out to a record $50 billion as consumers suck in huge volumes of imports and the banks borrow furiously from foreigners to feed the nation’s debt boom.”

I’m no great economist however my basic understanding of this is that Australia, a country that should be thriving on our intellectual capital base, is basically a Banana Republic – a country with a limited exports based primarily on primary products.

My understanding of the cause of this is that the Howard Government is so short sighted that it has removed many of the incentives to innovation. This certainly includes business and industry but also includes tertiary education and our university system which have largely been left to the market. I also think that a rejection of US intellectual property rights would have been less of a backward step.

Why waist our intellectual resources? Short term opportunism and I’ve a feeling the bubble will pop. Of course rabid lefties like my self tend to predict these sorts of things.