Periods of economic turmoil have a habit of exposing weaknesses in policy, whether it is through inexperience, a lack of understanding, or a combination of these.

Only a short twelve months ago, a newly elected Rudd government was warning of the effects of an overheated domestic economy. In February 2008, the Treasurer Wayne Swan said ‘the inflation genie is out of the bottle', and the government brayed about the problems of sourcing skilled labour and materials to keep the economy chugging along at record levels.