Michael Pascoe had a great article published today (What Campbell can’t do) that begins with a fascinating story and contains an observation about the resources boom that I fully agree with:
In suburban Brisbane last week the world’s largest industrial auctioneer conducted its biggest ever single-day auction of heavy equipment.
More than $52 million was paid for more than a 1,000 items ranging from used forklifts to a brand new Caterpillar D9T bulldozer, a snip at $1.02 million.
The auction by Canadian-owned Ritchie Bros Auctioneers was on behalf of more than 140 sellers with the equipment sourced locally and from overseas. Much of it had been imported by traders from Europe – there’s plenty of excess capital equipment there at present and a shortage here, as demonstrated by auction prices beating Ritchie’s expectations…
…The auction was a small indication of the extent of a resources and capital investment boom that most Australians still don’t quite comprehend – a boom that is still building and is yet to fully filter through to other parts of the economy.
Queensland Economy Watch 
There is no doubt that too little is known about the extent of the resources boom. Some suggestions about this are in ‘Do Blind Spots Cloud the RBA’s ‘Lucky Country’ Vision?”
http://cpds.apana.org.au/Teams/Articles/Productivity_Bigger_picture.htm#RBA_vision
The latter suggests that there is a need for much better understanding of the risks as well as of the potential rewards.
Thanks John. I’ll have a read.