Financial experts are warning us that Australia’s economic future looks bleak. We may indeed face a recession next year and people may lose their jobs. Not an illustrious beginning for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his treasurer, Wayne Swan.

Isn’t it amazing that when the miracle worker came to power last November he was so quick to point out that Australia is suffering from inflation. The treasurer talked down the economy so successfully that we are now in trouble. Is this the recession we have to have just as it was in another Labor Prime Minister’s term? I always felt that when Wayne Swan (at Rudd’s command) told us that bad times is a comin’ it would be a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s like pointing the bone.

I find it hard to believe that Swan can now show his face in public and tell us that others are responsible for depressing the economy. Yes, there was a problem in the U.S with subprime loans and yes, some of the institutions took a blow, but Swan should have emphasised that Australia was in a good position. He should have done a Winston Churchill and offered encouragement rather than gloom. In finance it’s very often a matter of perception, as it is with many things in life.

We seem to have gone from sunshine to doom and gloom in the space of six months. Paradise is lost for the time being while Rudd swans around at the Olympics. No doubt he will offer some more advice to the Chinese in robust Mandarin. I know I’m impressed.

The Prime Minister certainly collects thousands of frequent flyer points, doesn’t he? Too bad he believes the world stage is more important than our little country. He will probably take the credit for getting rid of the smog in Beijing as well. But then, perhaps we are better off when he is out of the country.

I wish he would take the Honourable Treasurer with him on his Grand Tours. Perhaps to Zimbabwe which, I hear, has a bit of an inflation problem too.

So here we are in Melbourne after a long car trip from Brisbane.

I’m surrounded by cartons which are slowly being unpacked.

The internet is up, but the email is still not working. Have you noticed how the name Telstra and Horror rhyme perfectly? Telstra only supports Microsoft Outlook apparently, so we are stuck.

We had the phone connected but had no phone books which is very weird because the technician should have carried phone books in his van with him. But instead, we had to phone Sensis and do the usual talking to a computer for half an hour only to be informed that we had to place an order for phone books which would take three days to come.

As it turned out, that information was incorrect. The phone books were waiting for us at the door the next day, but had we not gone outside and tripped over them they would still be there. It’s amazing how often Sensis gets it wrong and yet Telstra tells us that Sensis is the best thing that they have achieved. This could very well be true, of course, since Telstra is one lousy monopoly and has no reason to improve its service.

We need good competition between service providers and this arrangement that Telstra has cannot benefit the customer. As we waited for a human being to answer our call to Sensis we were assured by the friendly computer voice that it sincerely regrets the delay and that my call is important. It’s certainly comforting to hear that the recording cares but I would have liked it to end with “Have a nice day” and then I could have replied “No worries.”