Still under valued, page-8

I'm less concerned about the Philippines government's debt as I am about Australian government (and the economy's) financial position. Today this was reported:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-04/wa-gold-industry-vows-to-fight-future-royalty-threats/6671000

Sovereign risk occurs most where economies are mismanaged (of course most investors tend to have a home bias - ie believe their country is safer relative to other countries).

I find that governments are more prone to doing naughty things when times are tough (not when times are good) given their monopoly on power, tendency to operate in self interest and their delusions of grandeur as to the value they provide to the economy.

It's the same reason why they are pump priming the country for tax increases (15% GST) and concession removals (capital gain discounts, negative gearing and super).

When the property bubble pops in Australia governments will scramble for what they can get their hands on (my bet is gold mining royalties will be amongst them).

(read: property taxes are about 50% of revenue for state and local governments and when property crashes it will dry up in a HUGE way because both prices fall and more importantly transactions slow to a crawl)

I'm not saying that the Philippines doesn't have sovereign risk, but I think Australian aren't as safe from its sovereign risk from their own government as many believe.