Everything in Australia's economic favour, but our property markets still hurt by lack of confidence: Terry Ryder

We’re the world’s wealthiest people, but we suffer from a poverty of optimism.

We remain a nation with its hands thrust in its pockets, neither spending nor investing. And I think I know why.

In simple terms, Australia has lost its mojo. We’re no longer the brash young over-achievers who confidently went out into the world and took on all comers.

If ever an event presented a microcosm of a nation’s demeanour and performance, it was the London Olympics. Australia, which had been a rising force in world sport at previous events, slipped back among the also-rans.

Ditto our cricket team, once feared but no longer the benchmark –smashed by the West Indies in the World Twenty20 semi-final.

We’re seeing the same loss of self-belief among mining magnates. The one thing that distinguished the big mining companies in the past was their ability to keep their focus on long-term goals and shrug off short-term aberrations like the recent dip in prices for coal and iron ore.

Many of the projects that have been earning mega export dollars recently were conceived and/or advanced in the shadows of the GFC. If their proponents had allowed short-termism to sway them, those projects might not have been started, let alone completed.

But confidence has evaporated. BHP Billiton’s recent performance resembles a colossal dummy spit, while the message from Rio Tinto vacillates in tune with short-term fluctuations in iron ore prices.

The latest survey by Credit Suisse named Australia as the wealthiest of 216 nations surveyed. Our median wealth per adult is $US193,653 and our proportion of individuals with wealth above $100,000 is eight times the world average.

You’d never know it watching average Australians going about their lives, saving, not investing, talking, not doing, following, not leading.