I'm standing behind the most powerful man in the world. It's a long queue, but it's almost as good as having a hand on The
most powerful handgun in the world. Ya feelin' lucky, Punch?

From the ABC

I won't be stampeded, Howard says
Prime Minister John Howard says he will not be stampeded into making a decision about his future despite continuing uncertainty over the leadership.

Mr Howard is under pressure from within his own party to reveal whether he will contest the next election.

But he has told Southern Cross Radio the public leadership stoush with Treasurer Peter Costello will not force him into making an immediate announcement.

"I'm not obviously going to be pressured or stampeded into taking some decision," he said.

Mr Howard says he did not expect this week's leadership tensions, and he is still ambitious and stimulated by his job.

Mr Costello says he is waiting to hear what Mr Howard has to say about his future before commenting further on his own leadership aspirations.

Mr Costello, who has called for a smooth leadership transition, now insists there is nothing more he can say on the issue.

"The world moves on," he said. "You don't go over the same ground day after day after day."

It has been suggested Mr Howard will make an announcement within weeks but Mr Costello says that is a matter for the Prime Minister.

"When we know what that is, then it will be an appropriate time to respond," he said.

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We saw this spat same time last year, designed as a side-show to divert our attention from the appalling IR laws that many bosses are using to turn the clock back to upstairs-downstairs style of working conditions... Slavery is back with the promise of a few extra crumbs, the loaf is taken away from the mouths of workers... See Punch and Judy at top of this line of blogs and note the date...

From Al Jazeera

Japan ends zero interest rates

Friday 14 July 2006, 17:45 Makka Time, 14:45 GMT

Japan's central bank has raised interest rates for the first time in six years, increasing its key rate from 0% to 0.25%.

The move puts Japan in step with the world's other major economies.

In June, Europe's central bank raised its key interest rate to 2.75%, while in the US, the Federal Reserve has lifted the fed funds rate 17 times in a row to now stand at 5.25%.

Read more at Al Jazeera

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Japan "in step"? Ye must be kiddin', Mr Al Jaz...
Meanwhile in Aussieland...

From the reserve bank of Australia 3 May 2006 +0.25 5.75%

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Then from Forbes

DATAWATCH - Australia's widening trade deficit adds to case for rate hike
07.14.2006, 12:31 AM

- SYDNEY (XFN-ASIA) - Australia's trade deficit widened in May, adding to the case for the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to raise official interest rates by 25 basis points in August, market economists said.

They said the RBA will view a further interest rate hike as a potential weapon against surging import demand, with only a subdued consumer inflation report, due on July 26, the last hurdle to act.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) earlier released data showing the nation's trade deficit for goods and services in May jumped to 2.266 bln on a seasonally adjusted basis, well up from the slightly revised 1.115 bln aud deficit in April.

The result was well above the market consensus of a 1.30 bln aud deficit.

The deficit in May is the 50th consecutive trade deficit for Australia, surpassing the previous record set in the 49-month period from February 1981 to February 1985.

'We are supposed to be in the middle of a resources boom so it seems inconceivable that Australia has just notched up a record number of consecutive trade deficits,' CommSec equities economist Andrew Mitchell said in a market note.

Read more of this at Forbes
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Gus navel-gazes his dwindling dollars: Obviously while this Howard-Costello cacophony of who said what in regard to who should be steering this ship towards the resources-boom rocks, we are breaking records of bad business by the truck load... But since the Liberal always do things better, faster, watch your pay packet dwindle at a rate of knots while your CEO's reward doubles... Obviously the Howard-Costello magnificent budgets have done nothing more than scuttle your comfortable deck chairs so you can't sit for five while CEOs leather lounges have been equipped with call-buttons for the "help" to serve them whiskies on the rocks that are scrapping the bot of this boat...

Yes, this magnificent duo of buffoons have removed all sense of social justice in this country and flogged it to the god-botherers for a song on the hill... while the illusion of wealth for your hard work is but nothing more than the ability to buy a cheap TV made in China so you can watch the Punch and Judy show in full digital colour...

And yes, there is a worldwide conspiracy to change media laws too... The new "Coonan" media laws are but a mere repeat/implementation of what is happening in the western world — a convergence of entertainment/news from different local content so that the same slant can appear more blancmange than ever before...

May their long-withered pantomime souls find peace in Punch and Judy-land.

From ninemsn

Ian McLachlan has dismissed doubts about the agreement between Prime Minister John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello on the Liberal leadership in 1994, declaring "make no mistake: it was an absolute, cast-iron, concrete contract".

The former defence minister dismissed speculation he was acting at the behest of Mr Costello or his supporters last weekend when he confirmed details of the agreement, The Age reports.

Mr McLachlan said when he retired in 1998, he reminded Mr Howard of the agreement.

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The rodent would have been laughing all the way to the leadership knowing full well such cast-iron agreements meant bugger-all in the scheme of things, because they cannot be made... Young St Pete bought the dummy and is spitting it now... oi, Mr St Pete, go to Hillsong and pray for an attack of gout to hit the PM, unless Johnnee can see the big economic rocks of the last trade balance coming at him and resign... but then he might cleverly push the damned rocks towards you and the State Premiers... gloating of His economic record, thus if something bad happens, it's someone else's fault. Yours, St Pete.

see the Punch and Judy show at beginning of this line of blogs...