Bernard Keane in Friday’s Crikey daily email, calling bullsh*t on more contrary-to-the-facts business lobby whinging about every difficulty they face being the fault of the government:

We need a name for this — we’re calling it Whinger Whack-A-Mole. Business leader after business leader sticks their head up to blame Julia Gillard for all their own failings and says that investors were turning away from Australia. We at Crikey whack them with facts. Rinse, repeat. Well, someone has to do it, because the rest of the media don’t appear interested in doing it.

It’s an excellent article, as Crikey subscribers will have already seen, but I’d like to highlight Bernard’s prediction of this week’s reporting on the ABS figures. I wouldn’t want to put any money against it:

Next week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics will produce the March quarter private investment figures. There will no doubt be some changes on the downside, especially in manufacturing, as the strong dollar’s impact continues. A flattening, or easing in the growth in resource investments is also expected by some in the market. That will be greeted with “the boom is over” headlines, but what many will ignore is that investment is holding up, unlike in China, where foreign investment has been falling for much of the past six or so months, or Europe.

Bah, China! Bah, Europe! Context is the tool of the devil.

Anyone want to bet against Keane being right on this week’s coverage?