Poor, poor manufacturing. It’s on the ten steps to doom:
1. Resources boom drives up the dollar and crushes competitiveness.
2. Canberra consensus embraces manufacturing’s destruction in the name of “adjustment” towards greater resources output.
3. Australian Industry Group (AIG) adopts a genteel approach to defending its members from annihilation.
4. Ken Henry proposes byzantine resource rent tax structure, government guts it and throws itself on its own sword when challenged by big mining.
5. A resource rent tax, the one hope of helping manufacturing, becomes political poison.
6. Carbon tax debate completely overwhelms the real needed debate about the high dollar. Manufacturing unions join the farce, complaining about the tax.
7. Australian Industry Group continues its genteel approach to defending its members from annihilation.
8. As job losses mount, manufacturing “crisis” debate at last begins, on the eve of GFC II, far too late, and when the Australian dollar is set of tumble, which will kill the debate.
9. Fed will ultimately use QE3 to revive the sliding US economy and the Australian dollar will go to new highs late in 2012.
10. Manufacturing annihilated and the AIG disbanded.
