The Australian yesterday carried – apparently without any irony – the following “cut and paste editorial” from the Asian Wall Street Journal – truly a masterpiece for how many mistakes a besotted editor can get wrong in just a few pars:

      When he [Howard] entered office in 1996, unemployment was 9 per cent, interest rates hovered around 20 per cent, the budget deficit was $10 billion and the national debt was a gigantic $100 billion … The country had a reputation for being a Labor-controlled laggard that would never change. Today, unemployment is 5 per cent, the key interest rate is 5.5 per cent, there’s a surplus and the debt is a puny $4 billion. Partially privatising the giant telecom Telstra (a process that began in 1997 and is still ongoing) helped some. But it was cutting expenditure that effectively got rid of the debt. And that has gone a long way towards creating what some people dub “the strong man of Asia”. It also explains why people seem so happy …

    OK, now for some facts:

    • Unemployment in 1996 was actually 8.5% (not 9%)
    • Foreign debt was actually $180 billion (not $100 billion)
    • Interest rates for housing were 8% and the cash rate about 7% (not 20%)

    Neither the foreign debt nor the budget deficit today is a “puny $4 billion” – foreign debt is actually $430 billion while the budget is in surplus.

    As for the claim that in 1996 Australia was a “Labor controlled laggard that would never change,” not even John Howard makes that claim. Only the most fanatically right wing incompetent reporter could say this with a straight face.

    The question remains – did Howard Government staffers tell the writer these lies, or did the Asian Wall Street Journal just make them up? And this is meant to be the most respected financial daily in the world.