With the Rudd government’s first Budget almost upon us, how will it approach the inflation situation now confronting it? Much time since Labor’s victory last November has been devoted to charges and counter-charges about the economic inheritance bequeathed to it by the Howard government. On the economy overall there is really not much room for argument. The new government clearly inherited an economy surging ahead on almost all fronts. Non-farm gross domestic product grew by 4.0 per cent during calendar 2007, and business fixed investment by a huge 11.9 per cent. The number in jobs leapt by a remarkable 261,000…