Summary: Interview with Dean Williams, managing director of Williams 3D which provides 3D printing services, also known as additive manufacturing, to Australian business Interview with economist Nicholas Gruen on the ecology of innovation Leon and Garry look at issues including: · US Senate leaders in both parties putting the finishing touches on an agreement to temporarily raise the nation's debt ceiling and fully reopen the government as lawmakers raced to resolve their budget stalemate and calm anxious financial markets. The expected Senate deal avoids a potential US debt default, but it would only set new deadlines for lawmakers to make decisions about the long-term course of fiscal policy. It still has to be passed by Congress before October 17 because the US Treasury says that on that day it will exhaust its emergency borrowing powers and be left with only about $30 billion to pay the nation's bills, enough to last for a week or two but there are promising signs. · Billionaire investor Warren Buffett likening the budget impasse in Congress over raising the government’s debt ceiling to a “political weapon of mass destruction” that should not be used and Fitch Ratings Agency placing the United States' AAA on Rating Watch Negative because of uncertainties, even if there is a breakthrough. This is because the crisis will be a long time ending because it was a long time starting. The crisis did not start 15 days ago. And it won’t be ended by a back-room deal. · Tony Abbott ramping up the pressure on the Labor Party, releasing draft laws to axe the carbon tax with a warning to the Opposition to "repent" of its support for the measure. · Under the draft laws, businesses will still be liable to pay all their carbon liabilities up until June next year, when the impost could be scrapped. The government claims it will save households $550 a year through lower electricity and gas bills. · Labor and the Australian Greens together having the numbers in the Senate to stymie any repeal legislation before a likely more compliant upper house operates from July 2014. But Tony Abbott says that Bill Shorten is enough of a pragmatist to back the coalition's plan to repeal the carbon tax and seems to be backing away from calling a double dissolution if it doesn’t get through this year. · Clive Palmer saying his party’s policy is to not only abolish the carbon tax but to refund those who had paid the tax since its introduction in July last year. That would be in exchange for his party's crucial Senate support in a move that would enable the businessman to escape a $6.2 million disputed charge for emissions. · And while Australia is getting rid of its carbon tax, China is planning to put a price on carbon by the end of the decade.\ · Meanwhile, the Bureau of Meteorology is warning that Australians can expect more intense droughts during El Nino years due to climate change. That will disrupt ecosystems and agriculture.
