America's economy is approaching a big milestone.
If it keeps humming until
July 2019, it will be
the longest expansion in
U.S. history. It would
be exactly one decade and
one month old by then.
But there's another country with an
even more impressive run
It's even called 
the 'lucky country'
Three big lessons from
Australia. Be smart.
Be organized. Be lucky. So if I've got any advice
for other countries, it's try
and be as lucky as Australia
That luck has to
do with Australia's treasure
trove of natural resources.
You know Australia is on
the other side of the
world and sitting
on tremendously valuable
minerals right at the
point where the Chinese
economy is just around
the corner and exploding.
Australia and all its
natural resources were in
the right geographic
neighborhood just as the
Chinese economy started
to take off.
And it just so happens
that China did a big fiscal
stimulus in 2008 and spent
a great deal of money
building new cities. So
all of those resources
were drawn from places
like Australia. So that
also served as a huge
tailwind at a time when
developed markets were in
a whole lot of trouble.
The year 2008 was a 
time of economic turmoil
The Global Financial Crisis hit
and markets crumbled
around the world.
But as it turns out this was
also a year for Australia's
economic management 
to really show off
At the time the government
had a very helpful and
very low level of debt.
One reason?
Pension reform
in the 1990s.
Australia set up a compulsory
retirement system called the
superannuation system. It
requires employers put
money into its employees' 
retirement savings
Since companies and 
citizens have to build up
retirement savings, some
of the financial burden
to pay off pensions was taken
off of Australia's government
As other economies
reeled in the wake
of the 2008 crisis, the 
Australian Government was
then able to put money directly
into people's bank accounts
This boosted consumer spending 
in order to stimulate growth
In 2008, the Australian 
Government unlike some
other developed
market governments actually
jumped in very quickly
with fiscal stimulus, so
that helped to kind of minimize
the effect of the crisis
The country's numbers
continued to look sluggish
after the financial crisis.
But they never quite
dipped low enough or for
long enough to meet the definition of a recession.
It takes two quarters of negative
growth to fall into a recession.
Australia's economy did
post a few negative
quarters since 2008,
but no country's perfect.
Overall Australia's economy
has been managed
pretty well in recent
years partly because of a
strong and
stable central bank.
Australia has an independent
central bank and it's
a very well-run central
bank. It also has a
floating exchange rate
and the exchange rate
helped it adjust
to international shocks.
Australia's economic reforms
gave it flexibility in times
of hardship. For example,
floating the Australian dollar
In 1983, Australia's government
moved the dollar onto
a floating exchange rate
This meant that the
dollar would be valued by
supply and demand instead
of being subject to
influence from its
government or its central bank
It allows the economy to
react to shocks as well
Typically when an economy is
hit by some sort of
negative shock. The currency
will adjust. It will
depreciate and that helps
promote exports.
So it really serves
as a buffer.
Another reason behind
Australia's economic track
record lies in its
immigration policy
Since the late 1990s, Australia
has seen growth in
temporary migration, many
arriving to the country
on student or temporary
work visas
The number of temporary 
migrants peaked in the year 2000
However a recent change
to immigration law in 2018
gave visa applicants
more hurdles to get
through if they wanted
to come to the country
Even when our
GDP per capita
average incomes aren't rising
by much because the
number of people continues
to rise that means the total
GDP continues to
rise at even more rapid pace
Part of that's underpinned by much faster population growth
Most experts think
Australia's economy remains
strong in 2019, but
it's not without risks
Australia's suffering at
the moment from pretty
weak wage growth. That's
worrying a lot of
people. There's a lot
of fear right now that
China is hitting a wall.
That will hit demand for
Australian products. The good
news is to the
extent that the Chinese 
are buying commodities
hopefully will find buyers
from overseas for many
of those commodities if
the Chinese are not there
The bad news is
the rest of the world
economy is not doing
that well.
For Australia to
do really well
the rest of the world 
has to do well
