SMH draws the battle lines

Fairfax's position on the economy is fairly clear, then. Scott Phillips says Australians need to stop whining:

"The "have a go" country has become the "have a whinge" country. "She'll be right" has become "we'll be ruined" and taking responsibility seems to have been replaced with finding someone to blame.

But rather than compound it by whinging about the whingers, here's the optimist's manifesto:

Our economy is in good shape

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics:

* Gross domestic product rose for the March quarter by 2.6 per cent compared to the prior year.

* Retail turnover for April grew by 3.2 per cent over the past year, and 0.4 per cent compared to March.

* Building approvals rose by 6.3 per cent in volume terms and 11.6 per cent in value terms in April.

* Inflation is smack-bang in the middle of the RBA's target range at 2.5 per cent.

* The unemployment rate is at very low levels compared to recent history at 5.5 per cent.

Lastly, the official cash rate set by the RBA is at an historic low of 2.75 per cent, and the current crop of mortgage holders has likely never seen rates this low."

Pascoe

And Michael Pascoe says that his optimistic views are "more valid than some of the simply bizarre recession squawking that's been heard this week."

Battle lines drawn!