Aussies are the wealthiest people in the world according to this article:http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-econ ... .htmlIsn't this an example of popular misuse of accounting/economics data? If I start with a pile of gold in the ground, the national accountants say I?m poor. But if I exchange this for financial assets (ie dig it up, sell to China and put the money in the bank) then suddenly I?m wealthy. Funny thing is if i bought back the gold and stuck it in the ground again, then i should be back to where i started, but the accountants would still say i'm still wealthy.I've deliberately overlooked the public to private transfer of wealth in the above, but the GDP accounting encompasses both and still makes the same mistake of confusing balance sheet changes and income. Taking this to it's logical end point; once the world has squandered all it's resources, the GDP accountants will say we are all very rich indeed, despite being no longer able to feed ourselves.

I'm no expert, but Aus having the highest interest rates in the G8 has drawn in a lot of foreign investment, producing spending in the Aus economy. Furthermore having a bucket of resources helps too, especially when the Gillard goverment was all to keen to tax the proceeds and in doing so redistribute wealth from savers to spenders. All of this has been great for Aus economy, esp in the short to medium term.Contrast this with Japan. Low interest rates has encouraged international borrowing without spending on their own turf. Also, contrary to Aus, Japanese are 'savers'. The Japanese economy has suffered for the opposite reasons that the Australian economy has thrived.Just my 2p worth.

The reported figure is for median personal net wealth (personal assets - personal debts), not some country-level balance sheet wealth. They explicitly EXCLUDE government entitlements and public assets from the figures. If the Aussies have gotten rich on private mining of gold, it's because the private gold miners have distributed significant fractions of that wealth to at least 51% of the general population. If the mine owners or the government kept all that wealth to itself, median personal net wealth estimated in this survey would be unchanged. The biggest potential error in the figure is if Aussie housing (or the Aussie currency) is in a bubble fueled by mining.