Australia is demonstrating at the moment the monumental bind that neo-liberal (Monetarist) thinking has reached with respect to macroeconomic policy. By extolling the virtues of monetary policy as the only viable counter-stabilisation tool and eschewing the use of fiscal policy (biasing it towards austerity and the falsely virtued goal of fiscal surpluses), the policy making environment has created an economy that is susceptible to asset price inflation (particularly housing) and stagnant growth with rising unemployment. This experience is common across other economies and to break out of the destructive malaise, there will have to be a major shift in policy awareness – away from the exclusive use of monetary policy to work against the private spending cycle and towards fiscal policy as the only effective counter-stabilisation tool the government has available. The global financial crisis was caused by the elevation of monetary policy and the stagnation that has followed continues the problem.