By Erik Norland
The Reserve Bank of Australia ((RBA)) and the Australian national government have much to be proud of. For the past 28 years, they have presided over one of the longest continuous economic expansions in recorded history (Figure 1). No developed economy has matched this track record over the same period and only a few emerging market nations, like China, can claim to have had longer expansions. What's even more impressive about Australia's expansion is that it occurred in the context of an economy that relies heavily on commodities with extremely volatile prices