Chapter 14 : Funding on a Macro Level
Initially, to fund this terraforming of Australia, public money will be required for research grants. But more importantly, the Government must show vision and leadership by announcing that they will be actively investigating this with serious interest as a long-term strategy for our country. They will be reporting any progress made to attract interest from possible investors (including overseas Governments interested in our progress) but also from our own superfunds and insurance companies. As the case studies develop, our Government should underwrite a few initial test projects to fast-track progress. If this works, then I believe Australia would be unrecognisable in 50 years. And the initial investment to get the ball rolling is nothing compared to the final potential result. Whether any politician or investor cares about 50 years from now is up for discussion. But the profits will start flowing within a short enough time after successful small-scale test projects occur. Then, fund managers will be able to justify their investments.
Think about it. Australian superfunds have invested about $640 billion in the US market. If the US keeps heading down the road towards fascism, the rule of law may not protect those investments. Bring that money back to Australia with a scheme that is big enough to handle it. The reason why that money went overseas was that the pool of money outgrew the investment opportunities available here. If that money comes back, watch our GDP grow substantially. Infact, it's already happening. Due to Donald Trump's lunatic tariff policies, both the stock market and the bond market leaked at the same time. That means capital is leaving the USA for safer shores.
The superfund and insurance, and banking industries as a whole need to express their willingness to invest in these new projects. The Government must find data and case studies proving that it is viable. Help the superfunds justify financial decisions they need to put to their stakeholders. Over the next 10 years, those Australian superfunds are on track to invest up to one trillion dollars in the US. What happens to that money if in four years America does not have free and fair elections?
If there are no free and fair elections in the USA, everyone will know their money is not safe. The US dollar is dropping now. If free and fair elections don't happen then the US dollar will drop much further. When you pull your investment back out of the US to pay dividends the ROI will be terrible. Investors will all be looking for places where the rule of law will protect their rights and their investments. If we can provide a massive, viable plan, we will attract massive funding because a major competitor for those funds just stupidly took themselves out of the game. Do you think the Norwegians with their $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund will want to stick around and see what Trump does next? No way!
If the US persists with it's ill-conceived economic plans the world will head towards a major downturn long before Trump is due to leave office. Add to that the fact that China is in a deflationary spiral despite their stimulatory efforts and we know trouble is coming. We need to set our own economic plan which can insulate us from the economic storms which are brewing.
Australia needs to stop trying to build and manufacture what everyone else in the world can do better, cheaper, and faster than we can. We need to stop investing in Ponzi real estate models. Only we can improve the productivity of our land. For the next 50 or so years, that needs to be the cornerstone of our growth model and our focus. Let’s not go back to trying to manufacture cars here. Senator Button had an idea, but it didn't work. We gave that up for a reason. Do we have to relive that reason with some other product?
Our banks are at the limit of their growth because they have over funded our residential real estate market. If they had a new massive proven wealth creating market to lend into, it would unleash huge amounts of viable credit in our own banks. This would help us ride out the coming economic and political storms which are to come. It would also set us up to be the "go to" economy for the next century.
If you think I am kidding about Australia and other countries being an alternative for business other than China and USA then let me explain. The backbone of trade is trust. When you have a president who is famous for constantly changing his mind and lying constantly, why would you invest in the USA. As for China, Kyle Bass says they already have a debt bomb of 350% which is about twice America's debt bomb and they are keeping less statistics, not more. And those statistics were notoriously unreliable as well. How crazy is that!
I know that agricultural products are the most protected of any global goods. But if we transport those goods along with green energy in the form of green hydrogen (as described earlier in this blog), all barriers should just melt away. The efficiencies and value we would provide would be too great to resist. Plus, our stable political system makes us a reliable trading partner.
China has over produced the world demand for solar panels by a factor of two. Because their factories are semi government owned, they are not allowed to go bankrupt. It's their way of fudging the GDP numbers. That should make solar power incredibly cheap. If ever there was a time to cash in on the prevailing circumstances presented before Australia, it would be now. This is a unique time in history for Australia to change it's history. The pity is that our Parlaiment is populated with small thinkers. The fact that fossil fuel producers not only polute the atmosphere, they also polute our Australian politics doesn't help either.
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