They say a trillion dollar debt would place Australia in the “same economic garbage dump as some crisi-riddled European nations – except that, as those nations have belatedly adopted austerity measures, they would likely be outperforming Australia by mid-century.

Their editorial points to debt-deniers who are, they say, standing in opposition to basic mathematics, pointing out that we spend $30 million a day paying interest on our loans.

Prof. Steve Keen, head of the School of Economics, Politics and History at Kingston University London. says the Tele seems to be getting basic mathematics confused with economics.