Australia is on roll -- the kind of which crisis-wracked Europe,
employment-challenged America and deflation-plagued Japan can
only dream.  Steering around the worst of the post-Lehman
Brothers crash was impressive enough. Returning Australia's
national budget to surplus, as Prime Minister Julia Gillard says
will happen within a few months, is nothing less than jaw-
dropping in a world awash in credit downgrades and market
turmoil.  Yet for all the great news, one factoid is costing
some sleepless nights for Gillard and her economic team: the 44
percent surge in the Australian dollar since the end of 2008.
That's the biggest gain among more than 150 currencies tracked
by Bloomberg. Fueling it is voracious demand from China, India
and other developing-nation powerhouses for coal and iron ore.
So is the perception that Australia's economic challenges are
enviable ones in today's global environment, one that bestows a
"safe haven" label on the nation of 22 million people.  The
trouble is, the dollar's ascent is