The PM is at APEC, telling George Bush how to win the war in Iraq, with perhaps just a bit of advice on how to fix climate change..

The Treasurer is co-hosting (with RBA Governor Glenn Stevens) the G20 talkfest that is causing Melbourne’s commuters to tear their hair out.

Former Australian Rupert Murdoch exhorts us not to give Americans too hard a time.

Ireland thinks the Wallabies are the smartest Rugby team around.

Is there no end to our national achievements?

And then there is the economy. Spewing greenhouse gases, to be sure, but the CSIRO are right onto burying CO2 and she’ll eventually be right, mate.

Growth keeps on surprising the numbers men on the upside and inflation is seemingly under control despite labour shortages just about everywhere one looks in this wide brown land.

Yesterday’s Melbourne Institute index of inflationary expectations however has some not so good news. David Uren writes:

The Reserve Bank will not, however, be pleased by the latest survey of inflationary expectations conducted by the Melbourne Institute. Only 14.5 per cent of consumers expect that inflation will be within the Reserve Bank’s 2-3% range over the next year, down from 19% a month ago.

The average increase in expected inflation is 4%, up from 3.4% a month ago.

It’s great for our dear leaders to be having such an impact of the rest of the world, but one sincerely hopes it is not at the cost of keeping the Aussie economy under firm control.

Read more at Henry Thornton.