Supplier welcomes feedback from our readers. The magazine shouldn’t be just a medium for advertising, news and information. It should invite discussion and feedback on important and topical issues. The biggest issue this year is arguably the US Presidential election so I’ll start with that.

The fate of the free World is sealed. With Trump as the President-elect; it’s very likely that the next four years will either be the most interesting or disastrous in recorded history. We already have our own problems with Forbes claiming Australia is one of seven countries “Most likely to suffer a debt crisis in the next 1-3 years.” An article in the Sydney Morning Herald shows Australia owes $1 trillion to foreign countries; the highest level of debt ever and that Australia’s household debt of 190% of disposable income means that for every dollar saved, the average Australian owes three dollars. A quarter of the trillion dollars is owed by the public sector while the rest is owed by the private sector, mostly banks and large corporations.

So what if interest rates were to rise suddenly; let’s say in the case of an unstable US Government? In such a scenario we could be exposed to higher interest rates and the value of Australia’s superannuation investments would be affected. And let’s imagine the President creates unrest by building long walls and making the USA more insular. This could lend legitimacy to fringe groups like Reclaim Australia and bring more unrest to this country. On the other hand if Trump were to impose huge tariffs on imported products as has been promised; Countries like China might want to dump those unsold products in other Countries, like Australia. And if the destabilisation in the South China Sea were to worsen with the Trump administration reducing American military in the region; our trade routes with Asia could be threatened. Tim Harcourt of the University Of NSW School Of Business Economics told AAP that “The damage (Trump) would do in a trade war with China would be immeasurable.”

The Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Hartcher says “The intelligent contingency plan for Australia is to cut our debt and concentrate on the World’s thriving economies.” It’s a good thing that some of these are in our own region. It’s going to be an interesting four years (or maybe less).  What do you think?