In a moment we’ll show you why $100 billion isn’t as much money as it seems. In fact, by our estimate, it’s only enough to last about two days.

More on that in a moment. First…

On 26 August, Slipstream Trader Murray Dawes wrote the following note to his traders: Continue Reading

Did you do it?

Were you unable to resist temptation and switch on for the budget… in high definition?

For all the talk of ‘razor gangs’ and ‘tough decisions’, the 2009-10 federal budget is still going to rip $290 billion from your pockets. At a time when we’ve been led to believe that ‘revenues’ have collapsed, that’s only $13 billion less than the final outcome for 2007-08.

That’s less than a 5% drop, which wouldn’t even count as a correction in the stock market, let alone a collapse.

And that $290 billion doesn’t even include the $200-plus billion the government is borrowing to pay for its hare-brained schemes.

As for expenses, well, true to form, it’s up-up-up… for 2007-08 the federal government spent a whopping $280 billion. For 2009-10 it’s forecast to be an even whoppinger $338 billion. An increase of over 20%.

Continue Reading