3rd July 2009. Nearly choked on my cappuccino when I read that Local Government was boycotting the new state planning authority because it was ‘undemocratic’. Remember democracy at the local government level ? It used to be about electing your local butcher , baker , candelstick maker to represent your community views, not about either pseudo independents aligning themselves with major political parties , or major political parties using local government for a training ground for their apparatchiks. In both cases extinguishing the last vestiges of democracy from the local government democratic process.
Oh and by the way to brighten up your day on an otherwise totally unrelated subject – the way the US is printing money ( graph below ) the dollar will be cheaper than wallpaper soon.
26th June 2009. Whilst other countries such as Spain and Germany are succeeding with almost base load solar power developments, our political ditherers, state and federal have all nigh killed the Australian Solar Power industry. Having driven the last manufacturer of photovoltaic cells from our shore and killed the last federal incentive scheme for domestic solar our state government insults our intelligence by announcing with much fanfare a ‘Nett’ payback scheme. Ain’t no domestic installation of 1.5-2 Kilowatts ever going to be in a nett position.
‘When I was young I was told that anybody could become a politician; now I’m beginning to believe it’
24th June 2009. On the news yesterday an 11 year old boy had an apprehended violence order (AVO) issued against him for a minor altercation with a school mate on the way home from school. It wasnt clear if it was a bullying issue or not, suffice to say there has to be many ways to solve issues such as this without dragging an 11 year old into the court system.
‘A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer’
3rd June 2009. Maybe a function of getting old, but the intrusion of noise into our society is getting beyond a joke. Councils that allow developers to mine through our solid sandstone for weeks has always been a pet hate, but the increasing frequency of every retail business, airline,phone services etc, thinking that they must give you front row at a rock concert is beyond a joke. Jet skis, speedboats, aircraft, car alarms, house alarms,cars with mega decibel speakers, the destruction of urban peace and quiet is complete.
Not quite sure if people do not notice, do not care, or just dont speak out – well I have just spoken out.
‘Honk if you hate noise pollution’
5th May 09. At the risk of offending some sensitivities, the decision to unearth some 100 of our World War 1 diggers lying together with their mates in a mass grave in Fromelles in France, and then spend millions on forensic identificaton to re bury them in marked graves seems a totally unwarranted and costly exercise, particularly considering that no one remains alive that personally knew them.
” Requiescat in pace”
29th April 2009. Well, if some front page articles in todays papers are to be believed, finally, since the inception of compulsory super, the government is about to legislate out the rampant abuses of the financial planning ‘industry’ , in particular the commission rorts that have been going on in this sector. Rorts that have been reducing retirees payouts by an estimated $80,000 for the average worker.
One executive of the industry was quoted as saying ‘many lower income people would not be able to afford top quality advice’ if the changes were made. What dungeon has he been in for the last 12 months ?
21st April 2009. So the NSW State government is fumbling with the idea of a city metro. Another indication of how our transport planners are blinkered with the 15 square kilometers that is the Central Business District. Most major roads and railways lead to the centre, but what is at the center , mostly offices , and what is the only function that can be done in an office – exchange information. One can surmise that with the future advent of a decent communication network that most of these ‘Office Functions’ can and will be carried out, outside the CBD, leading to markedly different transport requirements than our city centric planners can grasp.
‘If you drink dont park accidents cause people’
10th April 2009. Newspapers report that our defence minister has revealed hereto unknown gifts and free trips from a Chinese national business woman – who’s company is bankrolled by the Bank of China, which is an agent of the Chinese Government.
His position untenable – I reckon so – seems to be a hari kari moment.
‘Ichigon wo izureba shiba mo oi gatashi’
1st April 2009.It just wouldnt seem right without a post on April Fools Day. In this article I am not sure who is the biggest fool. Santos dropped the environmental impact statement for a proposed gas plant in Queensland on the Governments desk the other day. It came to 13,500 pages or 27 reams of paper.
The biggest fool – I guess we are !
‘The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of an expanding bureaucracy’
20th March 2009. Everybody else has had their say about the topic of bank bonus – so I guess I might as well throw in my two cents worth. Does the airline pilot get a bonus for every safe landing, after all its his job. Does the doctor get a bonus for every life saved. Bonus appear to be an invention largely of the big end of town , who, in the good times, use it as a tool to get their snouts in the trough As we know, the good times are usually only a result of unique economic circumstances not individual effort.
The last six months have seen where individual effort has taken us in the financial industry, in particular we have seen that the real criminals, those who have damaged society so much recently, lurk in the financial pages.
’ A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove you dont need it’
27th February 2009. Now lets see! – To maintain jobs, our government is borrowing money from overseas to give to our citizens to spend, a significant proportion of this money will buy overseas products. So we end up with the product and the debt, and overseas ends up with the jobs and the credit Mmmm!!
Seems to me that if we have too much debt we should be trying to reduce it – not increase it
“Choose which bridges to cross, or which bridges to burn”
4th February 2009. Towards the end of WW11 Major Parkinson, an administrative officer is engulfed by a flood of paperwork. Disaster strikes his three superiors are temporarily gone, Major Parkinson is left to soldier on alone. An odd thing happens the paper flood ceases, the war goes on regardless. “There had never been anything to do we had just been making work for each other” – sound familiar !
Parkinsons Law – “Work expands to fill time” – Is this happening in a bureaucracy near you ?
2nd January 2009. Well dont have to go too far into 2009 to find a nannystate issue. A large expensive recall announcement in a national paper,yesterday, placed by an importer of elastic straps (bungees). They had forgotten to attach the safety warning to the straps to the effect that if you stretched them too tight they could flick back and cause injury, or if they were worn or frayed they could also do the same – What Claptrap !!!
‘There’s no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you’
11th December 2008. It is said that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys, but in the financial world it is apparent that if you pay millions you also get monkeys. It is also apparent that, ‘surprise’, financial advisors, merchant banks and their ilk can not tell the future despite purporting to be able to do so. Cold comfort for the many thousands around the world currently losing their jobs.
Birds still chirp, waves still glisten, and leaves still rustle and there are much more satisfying things in life than the trajectory of the Dow Jones Index, and if your reading this , we did make it nearly to the end of 2008 , so things aint all bad.
‘When the economic tide goes out, you get to see who’s been swimming naked ‘
13th November 2008. The bankrupt NSW Government ( Morally and Financially ) this week imposed the Countries first congestion tax, doubled parking levies, and increased the price of vehicle insurance. Their draconian transport demerit system ensures that 110 drivers a day lose their licence for traffic and parking offences to the extent that 23 percent of businesses in NSW report that they have had staff lose their licence.
Frantic workers reliant on their vehicle see their livelihoods go down the drain for minor traffic and speeding offences.
The cynical aspect of this situation is that the cash scrapped government found funds for 200 new speeding cameras.
A protest group has been organized – call cliff on 0412508860
3rd October 2008.
CEO – Chief embezzlement officer
BULL MARKET – a random market movement causing investors to mistake themselves for financial geniuses
FINANCIAL PLANNER – A person whose phone has been cut off
STANDARD AND POOR – An investors life in a nutshell
18th September 2008. Not many posts this month, as gobsmacked, I witness – one of our state parliamentarians admitting to dancing in his underwear in our parliament – greedy financial cretins causing meltdown in the world financial system – some other cretins continually trying to spam this site….. I could be led to believe that the human race is indeed a failed experiment, if it were not for the wonderful everyday people I meet – full of generosity, good spirit and compassion.
26th August 2008. A school in Townsville has instructed playground supervisors to stop school children doing cartwheels in the playground less they hurt themselves, resulting in the school being sued.
‘Namby Pampy State, offspring of Nannystate’
15th August 2008. Governments of all persuasions within Australia seem keen to ‘pave paradise and put up a parking lot’ , no more so, than our own state government with its new developer friendly heritage law changes. They would be well advised to take notice of a CSIRO estimate that the energy embodied in the countries existing building stock is equivalent to 10 years total energy consumption, and that every new hill you dig up for new bricks , is going to cost dearly in energy consumption.
Demolishing buildings should be a last resort
30th July 2008. So in a few days a lot of people are going to get themselves in a lather about whether someone taller,shorter,bigger, smaller, stronger, weaker, more doped up, genetically modified, can get under,over,at,on,into, a wall, ribbon, goal, hoop, mat, pool,faster,slower,better,more elegantly than someone else, so a multitude of commercial interests can enrichen themselves.
‘If winning isnt everything why doesnt everyone go for the bronze’
21st July 2008. Section 165.55 of the Tax Act.
“For the purposes of making a declaration under this subdivision, the Commissioner may treat a particular event that actually happened as not having happened, and treat a particular event that did not actually happen as having happened and if appropriate treat the event as; having happened at a particular time and having involved particular action by a particular entity; and treat a particular event that actually happened as having happened at a time different from the time it actually happened; or having involved particular action by a particular entity(whether or not the event actually involved any action by that entity
17th July 2008. Extracts from a letter to the London Times
Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. He will be remembered for having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
Knowing when to come in out of the rain; why the early bird gets the worm; Life isn’t always fair; and maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.
Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I’m A Victim.”
4th July 2008. So anybody that has driven through the Yallourn Valley in Victoria with smarting eyes from the brown coal power stations, will indeed wonder at the Victorian Governments decision to build a new brown coal power station. Dont be alarmed – with much aplomb the Victorian Government has announced that new ( so far unproven technology ) will allow the emissions to be reduced to that of a black coal power station – WOW !
‘Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.’
1st July 2008. So in the spirit of global warming our earstwhile NSW police and Main Roads Authority have deemed that an electric powered bicycle of 200 Watts power ( 2 lightglobes ) is a road vehicle and has to be registered
Sigh ….................................!
20th June 2008. Listening on the radio yesterday to the founder of our excellent 1980’s neighbourhood watch scheme. He indicated that this scheme cut the crime rate by 50% at the time. In the 90’s for reasons unknown, nefarious or otherwise, this scheme was allowed to die by the State Government At the same time the excellent ‘Safety House’ scheme was also killed off.
In view of some of the many disturbing things happening in the community , think its about time somebody acted to reintroduce these excellent concepts.
’ Society prepares the crime, the criminal commits it’
18th June 2008. The country has severe drought, the world is in a banking crisis,recessions are around the corner in a number of countries, war pestilence and famine, which of these grave topics have our media been concentrating on – none. During the last two weeks the story dominating the front page has been the reporting on two politicians getting into an argument with a restaurant waiter.Have to reserve one of my favourite words for this – pathetic !!
‘No news is good news. No journalists is even better’
11th June 2008. After sitting in a doctors surgery for one and a half hours after the scheduled appointment time with my sick mother , I feel prompted to give this profession a blast. What in fact makes them think their time is more valuable than their patients. Attending the sick – I think not, avarice I could believe. My technique to deal with this is to invoice the Doctor at my hourly charge out rate for the time wasted in his surgery waiting room. Try it, certainly makes you feel better
;The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease’
3rd June 2008. An interesting article on the current danger to the banking system caused by the unrestricted growth of credit . Author Martin Hutchinson Exploding Innovations
The current bank CDS credit system is a system whereby a bank who can’t pay gets another bank who can’t pay to guarantee that it can pay.
Nice work if you can get it
23rd May 2008. Seems to be a lot of talk lately about how China and India’s increased oil consumption is pushing up the price. The graph below of todays consumption figures is a salutory reminder of the identity of the real culprit.
‘If inflation continues to soar, you’re going to have to work like a dog just to live like one’
15th may 2008. Well our new federal government bought in its first budget, and while I applaud many of the proactive rather than reactive measures, the decision to means test the government grant of $8000 for the fitment of domestic solar panels defies imagination. The initial concept of this subsidy was to help reduce global warming, the actual result of this recent measure, as witnessed by millions of dollars of cancelled orders for solar panels, is quite the reverse.
’ A mind is like a parachute, it functions only when open’
20th April 2008. So now we have thousands of soldiers and security people from all over the globe, guarding a gas burner – wierd !
18th April 2008. A few days ago all the state environmental ministers and the federal environmental minister, Peter Garret, met to discuss the phase out of plastic shopping bags. Any logical person would think that there where only three alternatives – get rid of the damn things altogether , the best solution, or maybe charge shoppers for their use, or reward them for use of environmentally friendly bags, perhaps lessor solutions but all the above having great community support —What did they do -- ‘sweet F A’.
Maybe Garret should go back to singing – from memory even that wasnt too hot.
14th April 2008. Employers would be able to read their staff’s emails under proposed new national security laws being considered by the Federal Government.
7th April 2008. There have been millions of words written about the latest financial meltdown, so I will not bore you excessively with too many more. It seems to me, however, that many of the latest Australian problems have been due to directors buying shares in their own company on margin calls.
Our Securities monitoring organizations will chase Joe Ordinary to the end of the earth for insider trading over a comment on an obscure website, but turn a blind eye to these directors actively trading their own company shares by the millions.
I guess though I am naive to think the sharemarket has anything to do with investing, or that the current problems had anything to do with a severe lack of ethics amongst superannuation fund managers, share repositories,margin lenders, bankers and stockbroking firms.
And as usual Banks are keen to privatise their profits and nationalise their losses
‘Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy you the kind of misery you prefer’
26th March 2008 Bit of a gloomy picture lately as the banking system implodes and all the pundits discover their crystal ball is just a bubble,just like the markets they are trying to predict , and It looks like, once again, taxpayers and homeowners, are going to be footing the bill for the ‘greed is good’ years of the grey suit brigade.
Locally here in Sydney an all pervasive gloom settles over me at the thought of another 3 years of a most incompetent state government ,in which, it appears that all the good men have been replaced by apparatchiks whose ability falls far short of their portfolio requirements. If there was a reasonable opposition I wouldn’t be so gloomy , but the current mob is infiltrated with the religious looney right, and is so involved with playing faction games they are worse than useless.
The good news – the sun is out on one of those crisp days that signal the coming of autumn.
6th March 2008. It makes me increasingly sad every time I try and buy a newspaper at a newsagent in this state, to line up behind a long line of mostly pensioners buying lotto, scratch tickets, and lottery tickets, peddled by the dream merchants and endorsed by the state. The glossy signs behind the counter are very full of words like ‘win’, ‘fortune’, and ‘luck’, but nary a sign of ‘lose’, ‘next to no chance’,or ‘ever been had’.
‘Luck never gives it only lends’
1st March 2008. The nature of political donations to politicians is unfolding in our daily newspapers with the enquiry into a massive scandal involving developers, local councillors and state parliamentarians. Our State Premier Morris Iemma has made a token gesture to limit donations, but come on Morris – we all know this cancer on democracy will only be eradicated by the drastic surgery of outlawing donations completely.
‘Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them’
14th february 2008, Now after being bombarded continuously by our media on the US election saga, and I’m not even a US citizen, I figure it gives me the right to make a comment.
A recent trip into the US revealed a country that to me appeared just tired – tired infrastructure and crumbling cities, and people at the poor end of town sucked dry by the military adventures and voodoo economics of the appalling Bush presidencies.
The US is a country in need of rebirth and its certainly not going to be given that chance with a president over 60 from the establishment.
Its Obama that gets my vote (if I was a voter)
“you need a president who is at least fluent in one language”
27th January 2008. Financial innovation and an enthusiasm for risk taking generate rapid increases in credit, which drives up asset prices thereby justifying still more credit expansion and yet higher asset prices. Asset prices reach unsustainable levels, panic selling, credit freeze, insolvency , recession.
