Weekend Links 7th-8th Feb 2015

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Tony

Likely to be a big comment weekend given the #Libspill so , if we get to over 250 comments, I’ll kick off a second page so those on mobiles can still play along…

Italics is gunna ..

China

Asia

Europe

United Kingdom

United States

Americas

The Antipodes

Commodities

Capital Markets

Global Macro

And Furthermore

Potential Investment Ideas 

For chuckles

The one thing to make sure you read this weekend

 

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Comments

  1. The Traveling Wilbur

    I have just two words for our ‘beloved’ Prime Minister, words that all of us should keep in mind in relation to next week’s political developments within the LNP: “Shit happens.”

    I’ve waited a *very* long time to say that.

    Goodbye Tony. Do not return. Not even for entertainment value. Thank you and goodnight.

    • migtronixMEMBER

      My DumDum lies over the ocean,
      My DumDum lies over the sea,
      My DumDum came over like a boat person,
      Oh please keep that DumDum
      From me from me
      Never bring back
      Never bring back
      Dear God keep DumDum
      From me
      From me.

      Three cheers, hip hip…

      • dennis

        🙂 🙂

        I find it hard to hold a grudge long term, but Abbott has been one exception, though I can’t help but feel some sympathy for him.

        Now Morrison, that is a different question. I’ve long distrusted Abbott and a lot of other politicians (lib & lab), but I find something in Morrison deeply disturbing in his personality, the way he can hold so called Christian beliefs and yet have so little regard for the circumstances of people in dire straits. I think I’ll have a strong hate and little sympathy for him for ever.

      • Canetti

        I’d agree, too many bible bashing American influenced (neo con like) evangelical christian types on both sides of politics and media which have emerged in recent decades, and aided by the MSM e.g. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to….”.

        This is opposed to the tradition of more secular mainstream, private or personal religious influence (if at all), where policies are developed and discussed with the benefit of ‘the age of reason’ and evidence, not looking after powerful friends, or whipping up witch hunts based upon beliefs, passion and self righteousness.

        Always though sport was religion enough for Oz, but the powers that be have decided obviously not, and Australians need to be led away further from serious business of politics and involvement in civil society, leave that to the adults.

    • migtronixMEMBER

      Buddy! We shoulda been short f#kn EVERYTHING last night. WTF was that? Gold off 2%, silver off 3%

      2YR US paper UP 22%!!

      What. The. F

      • The Traveling Wilbur

        Pure speculation here re US paper increase, but there was a (relatively speaking) massive increase in labour costs in the latest employment number release, and then one of FOMC members was scheduled to speak early today (I wasn’t interested so no idea what he said). Either would have been enough to cause some volatility… personally, I think that the costs number was just wrong. It really was huge. It’ll either be adjusted down next time, or be a seasonal one-off. Reason for that being that the *pariticipation rate* actually went *up* for the first time in a while. On another (related) topic, participation rate goes up and unemployment goes up and yet the market still regards that as a positive just ’cause an absolute number of more people ‘found work’ than last time these numbers were published. Duh. No wonder there’s no such thing as a stable economist. This stuff must be what does it. (Still, I’m not complaining… went to bed happy).

        Re paper again: Either that or people are selling out of paper to buy oil. Even I’m thinking about that.

    • ceteris paribus

      I don’t know if he will be a half-term Tony or not, but I am completely over the half-truth Tony.

      Some silly examples over the last few days: 1. Standing over an obviously infuriated Julie Bishop and then coming out and implying they are bosom buddies on the spill. 2. Repeating ad nauseam that the Australian people made him Prime Minister when the voters of Warringah gave him a local seat.

      It is understandable that you might use this spin in a tight corner- but shoving it down the electorate’s throat as Gospel is stupid.

      His many broken promises, caught in writing and on tape were bad enough. But constantly contradicting that he ever broke a promise is just obstinate deception.

      I would be glad to see a person who operates like this go.

      But I do worry about Shorten and believe the spotlight will rightly be on him when the time comes. Labor can’t afford to be complacent about its leadership for much longer.

      • Revert2Mean

        I’ll say it again: in 2005, when Abbott refused to approve RU486 (the morning after pill) because of his private religious voodoo beliefs, it was already perfectly clear he was not PM material. He was abusing his office to pursue his superstition-based anti-abortion beliefs, just like he abused his office to bestow an embarrassingly absurd knighthood on a British royal (tugging the forelock).

        Abbott is completely in step with the extreme right in the US, who also oppose RU486, calling it a “baby pesticide” (it’s actually an abortifacient, preventing a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterine wall)

        This is the 21st century. We need to kick 1950s-style village idiots like Tony to the kerb. 😈

      • ceteris paribus

        I don’t know much about religious voodoo, being agnostic myself, but I do know as a fact the human organism is biologically complete and develops as the same identifiable entity throughout life from the culmination of conception.

        This factual observation, I think, is far from insignificant

      • Lighter Fluid

        While a fertilised egg has all the genetic material required to create a human being, and all extant humans have been conceived, there are many environmental and developmental factors which need to align before person-hood is guaranteed. Potentiality is not the same as actuality.

      • ceteris paribus

        Give me the biological existence anyday. in history, the wobbly concept of “personhood” has been arbitrarily used over millenia to define out “human value” with disastrous consequences- too old, too young, too black, too red, too white., too Jewish, too Romanian, too disabled, too atheist, too religious to be a person.

        I believe in material existence. a human being is a human being is a human being.

      • Lighter Fluid

        I can see where you are coming from, however surely one must distinguish between single cells and multicellullar organisms (with at least some degree of consciousness). Why insist on the rights of every single-cellular ‘human’ over other multicellular species?

        At what point does one assert the right of cancerous cells (or any other pluripotent stem-cell) over the people in which they reside?

      • drsmithyMEMBER

        I don’t know much about religious voodoo, being agnostic myself, but I do know as a fact the human organism is biologically complete and develops as the same identifiable entity throughout life from the culmination of conception.

        No it’s not.

        I believe in material existence. a human being is a human being is a human being.

        So in your view a woman with an IUD is a serial killer ?

      • ceteris paribus

        Hi Lighter Fluid,

        Distributive justice can Indeed present real dilemmas. I mean situations where the rights or concerns of two parties are competing. Sophie’s choice, as it were.

        People will inevitably make their own decisions with their own justification or reason. My concern is that human life, no matter its stage, should never be dismissed gratuitously.

        I don’t think cancerous cells or pluripotent cells (focusing on the potential rather than the actual) are good analogies.

        Anyway, that’s where I have come to after many years of thought.

      • Revert2Mean

        My concern is that human life, no matter its stage, should never be dismissed gratuitously

        What’s so special about human life, champ? You eat meat, don’t you?

      • ceteris paribus

        Dear Drsmithy,

        From our previous discussion on this matter, you know exactly what I think, without verballing me into specific statements.

        So with the extreme unlikelihood of recantation from either party, let’s call it quits for this evening and duel another day.

        Cheers
        CP

      • drsmithyMEMBER

        My concern is that human life, no matter its stage, should never be dismissed gratuitously.

        You’ll be happy to know that most people who have had abortions share the same sentiment.

      • Revert2Mean

        Anyone who says that a microscopic, insensate zygote is important merely because it has human DNA is speaking from a religious point of view, not a scientific one.

        Champ, you may think you are “agnostic”, but you are informed by religious values. You need to examine your thinking carefully to identify the true underpinnings of your opinions. Human exceptionalism is at heart an unscientific, religiously-derived and essentially indefensible farago of beliefs.

  2. Ortega

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/06/stop-squeezing-syriza-europe-greece-eurozone-crisis

    “While Greece’s failures are widely recognised, including by Syriza itself, it is time to concede that the eurozone has also failed Greece and its citizens. Without a mea culpa acknowledging that Greece’s rescue was actually a rescue of European banks and the programme poorly designed, German and Greek citizens would never see eye-to-eye. They deserve to be told the truth.

    Syriza, more than anyone else, is being honest about what went wrong. Choking them would only catalyse anti-European sentiment and would be the last, potentially fatal, wrong turn for the eurozone. Choosing wisely means a compromise, no matter what the short-term political cost.”

    • LordDudley

      Well said. The counterparty to many of Greece’s transactions are all too often ignored. As is the benefit to Germany of a low Mark (sorry, Euro, Freudian slip).

  3. tonydd

    From Caixin

    english.caixin.com/2015-02-06/100782249.html

    Chinese property (declared ?) investment, Oz seems to rank number one.

      • C.M.BurnsMEMBER

        As a Sydney-sider I’d say that is grossly understating the actual numbers.

        Entire high density blocks (’00s of apartments) are being sold directly to Chinese nationals, in Chinese only marketing and auctions.

        Each block would be several hundred million in total contact value I reckon.

    • Pfh007MEMBER

      Very nice graphic and fits in with that story above about how the Chinese are not likely to sit by as other countries engage in a bit of currency warfare. After all they have been pretty good at it themselves.

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/11391211/Devaluation-by-China-is-the-next-great-risk-for-a-deflationary-world.html

      I know I make this point from to time 🙂 but when are people going to understand that you CANNOT be a victim of currency war unless you are stupid enough to allow unproductive capital inflows which are key to that form of warfare.

      The Chinese govt does not have $4T in US treasuries because they cannot think of anything useful to do with the money at home. The US govt could quite easily end the game by restricting who is permitted to purchase and hold US government securities. But Wall Street would hate it of course so it will not happen.

      They hold them for one purpose and that is to keep their currency lower than it would otherwise be.

      That is also why Japan capital investment in Australia is $80B more than our investment in Japan. Even though the trade balance for 2013/14 involved Australian exporting $50B and only importing $18B.

      A classic sign of a currency war is when we have the trade surplus but our trading partner is doing all the capital investment or simply shoving as much as possible into the $AUS by whatever transaction works.

      http://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/resources/Pages/trade-and-economic-fact-sheets-for-countries-and-regions.aspx

      The only way this out break of currency warfare will end is when some countries start to wise up and careful regulate capital transactions to ensure their trading partners cannot use capital flows to manipulate their currency.

      Once some counties start to do it others will/must follow as they find they become one of the dwindling number of options as targets of currency war capital exports looking for a home.

      Unfortunately, down in the dim land downunder we managed to build an entire economy structure dependent on cheap capital inflows and we are shit scared to start the hard work of weaning the economy off the drugs.

      Even the most well informed and sensible still cannot let go of the belief that there is some magic about letting capital slosh around the world at a great rate and at the click of a few keys.

      Instead of going straight to the heart of the problem (regulating the worst and most unproductive capital flow transactions) most recommend that we try to hide from the predatory capital flows behind a very small interest rate rock – even to the point where the rock is a negative number and the process of doing so ignite assets bubbles and malinvestment right through the economy.

      Productive capital inflows are much less of a problem and sure at the margins it gets hard to identify them, but the really obvious transactions that are about nothing more than currency manipulation, can be identified easily and the process of winding them down can start immediately.

      It is not as though this is optional.

      The currency wars are not sustainable and will end by hook or by crook.

      There is no alternative to putting capital back on the leash.

      • Lighter Fluid

        Is it fair to label others as engaging in deliberate currency warfare when one can equally well attribute the outcome to the exploitation of economic ignorance?

        Surely a war requires two adversaries – the rest, as they say, is just business.

    • StatSailor

      Hard to take a graphic seriously where the total USA figure is less than the sum of the US cities it presents ($4.0bn).

      Also, it’s worth singling out Australia as a nation with $3.0bn, but the UK isn’t worth singling out with $4.0bn minimum?

      What is their purpose in deliberately misrepresenting Australia as number 1 rather than, on their own data, number 3?

      • tonydd

        @Stats. what it that figure represented a figure before it became leveraged locally as the story is oft told here of Oz banks financing so called ‘high wealth individuals’ from Asia.

        10% down = multiply the figure by 10, yes closer to the mark.

      • StatSailor

        That’s a different thing and applies anywhere the money goes. I am talking about the American cities being added incorrectly

  4. coolnik

    And that is just declared. Imagine the scale of it when you include the ones bought by local agents for them.

    Those saying Chinese investment has no influence on oz property, pay attention!

    • migtronixMEMBER

      Don’t worry, if it ever gets really bad I’m sure they’ll give us a leadership spill or some such political contrivance to take our minds off it….

      Oh… wait

    • migtronixMEMBER

      Sterling aggregation. So much noise about defending EURDKK hmmmmm.

      The Chinabot by 2017 story echos China-Bobs many tales over the last couple of years.

      “They want to help BHP, they want to help Rio Tinto, they want to help that lady over there,Gina whatever,” Goncalves said

      That just needed to be repeated.

      And on Abenomics hurting the poor & elderly? Say it ain’t so! I thought MMT was all about helping those groups in particular…

      • China-Bob

        From what I seen this story distorts the picture (with market share at 60% japan, 25% China) Its probably correct from a dollar perspective but think about what this means for unit volume if Chinese robots are available at 1/4 the price point of the Japanese bots. That’d be closer to the truth if you asked me….however I dont have good visibility into the automotive industry (I also suspect a lot of the automotive industry is importing complete production solutions, as in Japanese factory copied in China, so it would make sense that Japanese hardware has such a dominate market presence).

        In electronics and clothing the solutions I’m seeing are either developed in Taiwan or China for these markets its function over specification as in it does not need to lift a tonne but the robotic arms do need 5 to 7 degrees of freedom. Interestingly from what I’ve heard adding degrees of freedom simplifies real life programming of the task.

      • China-Bob

        One last point wrt cheap bots.
        As I see it we are at a real turning point in automation, we have a situation like existed when cheap PC running MS took market share from large mainframes from companies like IBM. If you just focused on the $TAM for each sector IBM still looked healthy even though the unit volume shift had already occurred. With this came a big shift in the number of cheap PC’s vs expansive mainframes similarly with robotics its the software (very much locked to mainframe hardware) where the real $ are made. Cheap robotics hardware is creating a whole new industry for what are in effect “drivers” code fragments that translate hardware specific control sequences into macro functions. Within the Japanese automation industry these programs are all very hardware specific and very expensive.

        The second effect that comes with increased volume is a dramatic expansion of the experienced programmer base. Within the PC space we’ve seen this spawn a whole industry of network admins and support programmers that somehow transform MS crapware into a usable business computing platform. Same thing is happening with robotics, lots of support functions (think of things like Video tracking of pick’n’place over WiFi) today this is available as an integrate-able driver suitable for use in a real-time environment. What’s interesting is the combining of the real-time environments with the non-real time world of normal internet focused computing. Most dedicated real-time communications systems end up having fixed time slots and minimum gain / signal quality requirements that guarantee data transmission within the allotted timeslot. Of course this style of hardware is fundamentally incompatible with the best effort random back off Ethernet spec which underlies cheap consumer network equipment and the whole internet. Its great to see solutions evolving that work in this hybrid real-time / non real time environment and effectively create a synthetic real-time control slot with low latency. This emerging robotics market is so exciting, everything is in transition meaning this is the time when new standards will get locked into IEEE agreed protocols. As we’ve seen with PC’s/ Internet real long term economic value lies in owning (patenting) these emerging standards

  6. rich42

    Has there ever been a more out of touch government?

    This mob of idiots can’t even self preserve.

    Their advice has been woeful. Absolutely stunningly woeful.

    Hey if politicians need adviser. Why not cut the morons in suits out of it and just have advisers running the place?

    • StomperMEMBER

      With the quality of the advice being provided by Treasury and the RBA you have to feel a bit sorry for them.

  7. The Lorax

    One curious observation about #libspill. Abbott has near unanimous support amongst two groups:

    1. The extreme right of the LNP (aka the loon pond)
    2. The entire membership of the ALP.

    Only one of those groups is acting in its best interests.

    • The Lorax

      From Laurie Oakes:

      A Turnbull prime ministership is certainly not what Labor’s strategists wanted. His popularity scares the hell out of them.

      Exactly.

      What are these stupid Libs thinking? The last thing the ALP wants is a Shorten vs Turnbull matchup.

      You have to wonder about the intelligence (and survival instincts) of the loon pond. GSM would you like to explain yourself?

      • migtronixMEMBER

        Abbott can pull through, he just needs to remind his party room what the Australian people will put up with. He’ll do that by pointing at Pyne. Everyone will nod…

      • C.M.BurnsMEMBER

        Pyne is a characterchure and accepted by the media and voting public as the govt jester.

        Ppl laugh at him, most ppl ignore him and for whomever is effected by his current ministry, he is a lightning rod for discontent.

      • felixthecat

        The gods make mad those they are about to destroy. They will return Abbot and we will have an ongoing implosion and train wreck for the rest of the term of this govt
        Or if turn bull gets in watch the destabilisation a la k.rudd and ongoing implosion as above
        As far as I am concerned I can’t lose 🙂 … Until shorten becomes PM that is 🙁

    • The Lorax

      Peter van Onselen 38 minutes ago

      It’s a pretty simple equation. If MBT runs he wins (close), if he doesn’t the spill fails but wounds PM for a bigger MBT win down the track.

    • The Lorax

      There is one senior Liberal who is desperately hoping for a Turnbull victory:

      Michael Bruce Baird.

      • Cornflakes

        Not Hockey. He is a child in an adults body.

        He will be worse for the Liberals than Rudd was for Labor. He has zero chance of a comeback and only has his bitterness left. Rudd knew he had a chance of a comeback and didn’t leak against anyone but Gillard.

      • 3d1k

        Hockey should’ve been dumped already. Heard talk Abbott supporters may sacrifice Hockey and appoint Turnbull in an attempt to salvage Abbott’s leadership.

        Turnbull would be a far better communicator on economic issues than Hockey and better placed to engage with media and the electorate.

        My personal preference remains Bishop PM, Turnbull Treasurer, ensuring Morrison is kept in difficult key portfolios. He has promise.

      • LordDudley

        3D1k’s fantasy of Abbott for PM and Turnbull for treasurer is epic.

        Seriously, 3d, when life is getting me down and I feel put upon, can I have some of whatever you’re having?

        I bloody well hope it isn’t addictive.

      • Wing Nut

        Makes sense 3d to dump Hockey for Turnbull for those reasons but we still have Abbott and the associated problems that surround him problem. Keep your friends close and enemies closer? Turnbull and Bishop will get the shits supporting and defending the most hated PM in modern history.

    • aj.

      You must have loved the headline pic on the Aus Lorax. I’m just guessing here but mudoch doesn’t like MT?

      • migtronixMEMBER

        Why could that possibly be? Turnbull owns a Nolan Rups has always had his eye on? Has to be some blue blood sh#t like that I reckon….

  8. migtronixMEMBER

    2014 also saw a 57% increase in the volume of bitcoin trading but a 149% increase in the number of active bitcoin wallets, revealing that the number of bitcoin users is increasing faster than the amount being traded.

    “Bitcoin is now moving in to its second phase,” Sonny Singh, chief commercial officer at BitPay, told IBTimes UK. “The first phase was merchant adoption and I think this is pretty much done now.

    “The second phase is exploring bitcoin’s use cases. For example, one area where companies could see huge benefits from bitcoin is in international payments. This could save them a lot of money.”

    I did try to tell you lot.

    http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/bitcoin-now-accepted-by-100000-merchants-worldwide-1486613

    • Lighter Fluid

      Surely this is evidence that those who have held bitcoins (and have been burned), are no longer hoping for capital gains and are opting to spend them instead?

      • migtronixMEMBER

        Or, you know, it was always about rolling out use cases for it other than the ominous “dark net” (ooohhhh) — the media narrative has been about the price but those who jumped on to mining, they know is application that will make their trade valuable, not some ponzi-scheme rubbish everyone parrots.

        Watch Greece though, last there was a banking crises in that part the world (think Cyprus), BTC shot up from $20/40 to $250 or something. If the same were to happen now it would from $230 to $2300….

      • Lighter Fluid

        Totally behind the medium as a means of circumventing the banks in currency transactions, and I’ve no doubt of the value of alternative, local currencies for those who use them on their communities, however I just can’t help a little skepticism when those ‘in the know’ herald the next great leap forward.
        If shtf courtesy of Greece, I’m sure many assets will make 10-fold or greater moves, not just btc.

      • migtronixMEMBER

        Yes and no, the value of BTC is being able to move it – in that “use case” – so there’s a bank holiday because someone is thinking of bringing the Drachma back, EURBTC will sky rocket more than anything else because of all the people trying to get out bank accounts all at once.

      • Lighter Fluid

        I just seem to recall the same dire warnings and local minimums occurring around the same time of the year in 2012 and ’13 in the midst of inventory de-stocks, US-shutdown fears, and now commodity price declines. It just seems that massive declines occur around this time of the year, and lift after CNY, so record lows, if they are going to happen, would be around this season…

      • migtronixMEMBER

        Yeah I got you, and yes I think CNY is a factor in global trade that it never was, but that BDI has been collapsing for 18-24 months is the real issue.

    • migtronixMEMBER

      Cmon Stephen the whole thing is a galaxy sized ponzi anyway. Didn’t you use to be a merchant banker?

  11. The Patrician

    From the always good Idiot Tax on the bubble-pumping stupidity of the RBA refilling the punch bowl

    “And without a real sniff of controlling the flow of money to investors, except for more of this prick teasing nonsense from the RBA:
    “The Bank is working with other regulators to assess and contain economic risks that may arise from the housing market “……

  12. rich42

    Turnbull. A guy that wasted an entire term distracting Australia with a republic.

    A man that thinks $10k is pocket money.

    Couldn’t be a worse choice.

    Australia. Land of the idiot.

  13. migtronixMEMBER

    Beautiful morning for breakfast in Melbourne, cranes everywhere are a bit of pain but we’ll let that slide.

  15. Bullion Baron

    Criticism of the RBA’s form in relation to auditing our Gold reserves (self plug):

    http://www.bullionbaron.com/2015/02/reserve-bank-of-australia-missing-bar.html

    Also some other interesting Gold links (sorry for any dupes):

    Aussie Gold miner index looking to breakout

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153023106990390

    Bull market developing in Gold

    http://capitalistexploits.at/2015/02/a-stealth-bull-market-developing-in-gold/

    Artificial Gold demand?

    http://blog.financial.thomsonreuters.com/china-gold-imports-2014-important-q4-distortions-explained/

    7.85kg Gold nugget found by goat herder in China

    http://english.sina.com/china/p/2015/0205/780341.html

    & for anyone who missed them a couple of weeks ago these were an interesting look ingot Gold stored at the FRBNY

    https://www.bullionstar.com/blog/ronan-manly/keys-gold-vaults-new-york-fed-part-1/

    https://www.bullionstar.com/blog/ronan-manly/keys-gold-vaults-new-york-fed-part-2-auxiliary-vault/

      • Bullion Baron

        Sure, I still think a breakout is very possible within the next couple of months. 1 day doesn’t mean all that much in the grand scheme of things.

        $A price of Gold has risen recently from low $1300s to high $1500s (recently mid $1600s), for some of the marginal Gold miners in Australia this will result in a doubling or better of profit per ounce.

  16. nomoba

    We are with Greece and Europe

    Three hundred economists and academics from all continents, James Galbraith, Stephany Griffith-Jones, Jacques Sapir, Dominique Meda, call on European governments and international institutions to “respect the decision of the Greek people” and to “initiate negotiations good faith with the new Greek government to resolve the debt issue.”

    http://x2t.com/GREU

  17. skippy

    Per the L.A. Times link on Ayn Rand.

    Just goes to show how powerful a stimulant driven narrative can be in formatting young minds, completely contrary more rigorous disciplines of observation.

    Belief trumping all things due only to the fervent desire its parishioners hold as a universal truism.

    Just hope the same does not hold true for Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” – people read – treat it as a religious article of faith.

    See – http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/02/thomas-piketty-larry-summers-dont-tell-income-inequality.html

    Skippy… lemming syndrome…

      • skippy

        Ihole,

        I wonder if preteens will have the same problems that many had with predatory charges, games, apps, et al that are psychologically modified and walls of conflicting legaleze allowing billing theft.

        Skippy… they ended up reimbursing me a few thousand in the end and there was that class action if memory serves. But… but… it was a billing algo glitch…

      • skippy

        Yes Mig-i derivatives is Big Finance, its use of complexity to mask risk, and how most if not all of the growth of credit in advanced economies was largely about rent-seeking and not about facilitating growth.

        I completely agree and have held this position from pre GFC, e.g. I always point out Born to you, if you remember. Along with the ever growing… cough…. cannibalism of the non financial sectors of the economy, by pure finance.

  18. Yxoc

    I read the must read link about the oil crash and I note that several economies plan to get through the crisis by spending their USD reserves. Is this significant enough to curb the USD rise of recent months. That plus decreasing liklihood of a US rate rise, could the USD bull market reverse?

    I ask as someone who is long USD atm.

    • LordDudley

      This is actually a pretty tricky question. There are many factors in play.

      If there’s a race to the bottom currency war, and the US has spare capacity, then other countries selling their USD could result in nothing more than a US stimulus and reduced CAD.

      • migtronixMEMBER

        What are you on about?

        If I’m Russia or Iran or whoever and I start off loading USD reserves it won’t be to buy from the US it will be to buy from Europe or China, who don’t need any USD. So USD will come home to the US and no extra business comes from it, how on Earth is that a US stimulus and reduced CAD?

        Of course they’re only dumping USD while its so high, so they won’t do it in a way that crashes it, defeats the whole purpose of getting out at the top….

      • LordDudley

        Buy what from Europe and China? Food? The US is the largest producer. Oil? Ditto. I guess they could buy stuffed toys and perfume; there’s 2 things the US don’t produce much of.

        Oh, and it’s interesting that Russia and Iran are your examples. Both are complete basket cases. I can totally see the next Google/Tesla/Space X/Vanguard/Boeing/Starbucks coming out of those countries… Not!

      • migtronixMEMBER

        Why would Russia or Iran buy oil? Also…. Ever heard of Holland?

        Errrr they’re my examples because it’s them who’ll be selling USD to get through the oil crisis? You’re an idiot sometimes

    • Gunnamatta

      Well given that the Torynuffs ran Sophie Mirabella in that seat and had her knocked off by an independent, one can only assume that pissing off the locals through running a deranged ex QLD premier is the logical next step.

      ie. They may not actually be capable of learning

      But potentially have a strong suite in ‘If at first you dont succeed then try, try again…’

      Is there anything as thoroughly morale sapping as tenacious and persistent stupidity?

      • migtronixMEMBER


        Is there anything as thoroughly morale sapping as tenacious and persistent stupidity.

        Abbott? 3d? Oh. I see what you mean now…

      • DT

        You have to admire their commitment and total belief in themselves. They are totally undeterred by their incompetence and lack of intelligence.

      • Wing Nut

        But potentially have a strong suite in ‘If at first you dont succeed then try, try again…’ More like the definition of madness: repeating the same mistake and expecting a different result.

      • LordDudley

        It’s not morale sapping. It’s laugh inducing. It always gets to lie in its bed, sooner or later.

        Stupid is as stupid does!

  20. The Patrician

    Some highlights of the CJ RBA takedown

    “The mistake the RBA made this week was falling for the myopic central banking clap-trap that perpetually cheap money is a panacea for growth. By printing trillions of dollars and bidding up privately traded assets in concert with setting short-term rates below core inflation, policymakers are massively distorting savings and investment decisions. Rather than letting freely functioning markets signal where our money (capital) and time (labour) should be invested, governments think they know better than the collective wisdom of markets.

    Inflating equities, bonds, housing and other leveraged assets miles above their “market-clearing” prices leads individuals and institutions to allocate scarce resources to the wrong places, which lowers productivity and long-term growth.Bad businesses are not allowed to fail and better firms encouraged to rise in their stead. Capitalism is cannibalising itself by preventing “creative destruction”.

    Put differently, the RBA is driving a huge transfer of wealth from prudent savers and business owners to banks, borrowers and speculators punting on leveraged capital gains.

    We have interest rates lower than global financial crisis levels. Yet housing and business credit growth have expanded at 2.7 times and 1.8 times wages over the last year. Australian house prices and share prices have leapt 21 per cent and 24 per cent, respectively, over the past 24 months. The household debt-to-income ratio and the house price-to-income ratio are both climbing above their all-time peaks.

    The current exchange rate, and the core inflation and economic growth rates over the last year, are statistically indistinguishable from their two decade trends, while the jobless rate is half a percentage point below its average since 1993.”

    Bingo

    • Janet

      Adapted from 3d below!

      “CJ is acting as if someone slipped tranquillizers into their drink 18 months ago. (make that a bit longer ago, actually!) They’ve just woken up and they’re looking [at] the world around them and they’re only gradually belatedly coming to terms with what they can see,”

      But much better late, than never……CJ now continues to advocate the blindingly obvious….

      • 2big2fail

        Another quote from the video that 3d posted:

        “We know that the Aussie housing market, frankly, is on a different kind of drug not tranquilizers, very much the opposite,” said Every. “They (policymakers) have to ring fence the housing market… and they’ve taken a tentative step towards that direction,” he added, referring to the guidelines revealed by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority last month to cool the real estate sector.”

    • jimbo

      ‘governments think they know better than the collective wisdom of markets.’

      Really? I thought the independent RBA made that call on Tuesday. No wonder Glenn’s more than just a fly on the wall at Cabinet these days.

      • MattMEMBER

        the RBA is independent ?? Well blow me down, I always thought they were only supposed to look independent.

    • China-Bob

      for me the biggest mystery for the whole post GFC period is that Asset creation has not been in over drive given the extremely low cost of capital.

      from what I can tell China is one of the few countries that are investing in real hard assets most other countries are simply pissing their QE’s up against the wall. Not t say that China’s RE and Roads and Bridges are good investments but at least they are durable goods that should provide some utility.

      By asset creation I’m not just talking RE and roads actually I mean absolutely any business with positive cash flow and good margins., in my days positive cash flow was the way we defined an asset (as distinct from a liability which typically has negative cash flow) which is probably why Aussie RE investing makes so little sense to me.

      Getting back to the point: Are new assets being created? Sure there are some but at today’s capital costs the whole world should be borrowing to fund their dreams and that’s certainly not happening.. This conundrum suggests that we may have reached the logical limit of “productivity gains” If the pie cant grow then logically its a zero sum game, my business gains come at your loss…but even if this is true its not a reason to not fund new businesses….Frankly I have no answer to this problem, I suspect at some time soon the tide will change and those with newly minted assets to sell will be handsomely rewarded.

      • Revert2Mean

        If you like Shedlock (I don’t; he is a climate denier, Tory, and can’t understand inflation/deflation properly) you can listen to him stuttering away here (recorded this week):

        Download/listen

      • China-Bob

        @Cee Interesting point that Mike raises is that cheap FED money sends a false signal about the real world availability of savings (debt). This is to say, IF everyone tries to borrow and build assets then the Fed’s cheap cash line will dry up very quickly. This was true 2 to 3 years ago in the US when interest rates were very low and lots of cheap foreclosed RE was available yet few could qualify (there was a sort of self imposed MP from the mortgage sector) so you needed a large existing capital base before you could borrow, and buy the bargains.

  21. 3d1k

    Australia’s record low interest rates are about to head way lower, analysts tell CNBC, as the country’s central bank scrambles to play catch up in the race to the bottom for borrowing costs.

    “The RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia) is acting as if someone slipped tranquilizers into their drink 18 months ago. They’ve just woken up and they’re looking [at] the world around them and they’re only gradually coming to terms with what they can see,” said Michael Every, head of Asia-Pacific markets research at Rabobank.

    http://www.cnbc.com/id/102403164

      • aj.

        Fiat is a transactional tool with tremendous risk. Ie if you are using it for valuation or saving then you have kinda missed the obvious.

      • migtronixMEMBER

        The part I like best about fiat is the one where the government gets to tell me deflation is bad for me but devaluing my savings is just the cost of civilization….

        …. good luck selling that much longer …

      • skippy

        @Ortega,

        Well it has been as such for thousands of years, it was the impetus for currency in antiquity. The days of gain silos run by the priest class or feudal kings, storing perishable consumables to support society’s activity’s became a hindrance and not a beneficial system. Now if one wants to debate the savagery city and nation states imposed on each other, that’s a huge scope littered with all manner of ideological wankery.

        “Money is (increasingly) worth nothing.” – Ortega

        To this I would note that money is not a commodity, it might represent the price of a commodity or service at a given point in time, but its not intrinsic in value all by its self. At the end of the day laws dictate sovereign money, where as personal relationships dictate private forms of credit i.e. bar tabs et al.

        I would recommend reading a bit of Money as a Creature of the State – Abba P. Lerner

        https://esepuba.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/lerner.pdf

        @mig-i,

        The tax issue was not a big problem post WWII till some metaphysically informed [more like a smoke screen] well capitalized wankers decided to go the full retard. Which now allows a two tiered legal system and off shoring of massive profits accrued by the ability of the public sectors carrying capacity.

        Skippy… that place in Chile sounds like it should suit you just fine, off you go, send a post card back about utopia… OK.

    • migtronixMEMBER

      ROFL!

      Ring ring

      It’s the British East India Company calling, we want our Opium War back.

  24. migtronixMEMBER

    A man who was caught driving at 186 kilometres per hour in Melbourne’s west has told police he was in a hurry to get a burger.

    Victoria Police said the 28-year-old from Tarneit was pulled over on the Princes Freeway in Laverton just after 2:00am.

    2am in Laverton on Princes? WTF would you stop him? Just let him get his burger FFS.

  25. GeordieMEMBER

    re: A Brief History of the Oil Crash

    So a shock event beings the oil crash. This is my fear with the iron ore market. Sure, prices have fallen, but from unsustainable back into the realms of believability.

    What, if any, shock could trigger a sudden collapse of the weakened iron ore price? Or have we past some unseen level of fragility now, and shocks will only be ripples, not a tsunami?

  27. 2big2fail

    Unbelievable die hard spruiking from SMH:
    “Make a property plan, then jump in”
    http://www.smh.com.au/money/borrowing/make-a-property-plan-then-jump-in-20150205-136n83.html
    Indeed, god forbid you’re thinking about doing something useful in your life that’s going to benefit you and others. All you have to do in this lucky country of ours is just head to the bank, make a plan and jump in as the article says.
    Well, it has worked for some so far, but what we fail to ask is at what cost? That’s the question we should be asking. The cost is becoming clearer day by day

    • rich42

      No one cares what the cost is, because it’s not ours. Fuck the future we all say. Every one of us We vote for the same people all the time that gautantee we sell our own kids out. Fucking disgusting. .

  28. DarkMatter

    Seeing there is no Technology section this week ….

    First to post on MB from a $35 Raspberry Pi 2 computer with its quad core A7s and 1G of memory using a huge 3 watts of power from a phone charger. They sold 150,000 on first couple of days which is pretty amazing.

    Actually usable as a general purpose desktop – even manages to plough through this huge MB mass of html. They make quite a decent little server as well.

    It will be hard to see how governments can clamp down on the net when the cost of entry is so low.

      • flyingfox

        Here comes my next XBMC “machine”

        Me too. Although the intel stick computers look pretty good as well.

    • ceeMEMBER

      Well done DM.

      Was actually looking at the Raspbery Pi onion router project the other day. Im sure a lot of people will get up to a whole lot of fun and mischief with these puppies.

    • DarkMatter

      It really is quite amazing how much difference the 4 cores make – and so far it is still using the old arm11 binaries.

      A lot of things should be even better when compiled for the A7. These A7 cores have NEON SIMD extensions which will help with codecs and graphics libraries.

    • drsmithyMEMBER

      It will be hard to see how governments can clamp down on the net when the cost of entry is so low.

      Because eventually you will want to connect to a backbone network.

      • DarkMatter

        “Because eventually you will want to connect to a backbone network.”

        Well that is a black and white view. Maybe, but perhaps it will not be that simple.

        Did you ever see that show “The Wire”? It introduced the idea of the ‘Burner”. A mobile phone that was so cheap that the gangs bought them and destroyed them after a few days – so they couldn’t be traced. Once technology becomes very cheap people start thinking of lateral solutions.

        Mobile phones are being churned out at about 2 billion a year. Every one of those can be repurposed to a WiFi server. That means you can make ad hoc networks (and backbones). Suppose that you have hundreds of thousands of “burners” planted all over a city. How hard would it be to find them all and close them down? What about if they were mobile? People carrying a server hub in their handbag?

        Look at it this way. How do you reign in the lawyers? It’s their home turf. Laws to stop financial fraud, predatory lending, 30% of the economy – its futile because most of the FIRE sector are lawyers or employ them. They win.

        So ….. if you want to win a financial matter and put a lawyer against an engineer … the lawyer wins.

        However, if you want to send some data packets around the world and put a lawyer against an engineer … the engineer wins.

        Here is the real nature of the next cold war. Its not talked about very much, but it is real. Every financial guru, Hedgie, Banker, Politician and HFTrader is dependent on turning his computer on and expecting it to work. Engineers can turn that off at will.

        If you doubt that this is a real issue, consider the case of Aaron Schwartz. He was a programmer, hacker and public intellectual. Not only was he harmless, but he gave a number of public lectures where he spoke about the future of our society and the implications of technology. He addressed the issues that we would hope our elected politicians would address!

        Was Aaron Schwartz recognized for this? No. He was facing 30-40 years in gaol for stealing public research papers. As far as the financial elite were concerned he was Public Enemy No 1.

        You can be sure that the dependence on technology is very much in the minds of the people who control the economy. They would like to own and control it. Unfortunately, if technology becomes very cheap, you can’t close it down by poverty. Next you have to send in the police. If the police don’t understand it, they cant’t police it.

        Do you see the problem here? Putting up George Brandis to collect meta data is not the fix.

      • drsmithyMEMBER

        Did you ever see that show “The Wire”? It introduced the idea of the ‘Burner”. A mobile phone that was so cheap that the gangs bought them and destroyed them after a few days – so they couldn’t be traced. Once technology becomes very cheap people start thinking of lateral solutions.

        Your burn phone needs a SIM to connect to a cellular network to transfer data.

        Ostensibly, you need to provide ID to buy a SIM (which is registered and tracked – buy too many SIMs and you will be noticed) and get connected to a network. Now, today this is pretty trivial to avoid; just steal one from a supermarket (they usually have bins of them out) or grab one from a phone store when they’re busy (they’ll usually just wave at you to take it since they’re basically valueless), then activate online with a fake name and address, top up your credit using a voucher you bought with cash and you’re good to go – “untraceable” internet connectivity.

        But this is obviously quite easy to crack down on – at the SIM point of sale, at its registration, at the purchasing of credit and at the consumption of credit.

        Suddenly your burn phone becomes a lot riskier to acquire (and consequently more valuable and less disposable).

        Mobile phones are being churned out at about 2 billion a year. Every one of those can be repurposed to a WiFi server. That means you can make ad hoc networks (and backbones). Suppose that you have hundreds of thousands of “burners” planted all over a city. How hard would it be to find them all and close them down? What about if they were mobile? People carrying a server hub in their handbag?

        So a (relatively) small group of people can communicate amongst themselves, but they can’t communicate to anyone outside their clique ? Like walkie-talkies or CB radio ?

        Again, I make the point: at some point you’re going to want to connect to an internet backbone. Ie: escape the bubble of people you already know and communicate with the rest of the world. That’s the whole idea of the internet, after all.

        This is the point at which the squiddies come and find you.

        However, if you want to send some data packets around the world and put a lawyer against an engineer … the engineer wins.

        Sure, right up until the point the lawyer calls the cops and the Engineer gets put in gaol, then goes and talks to his own Engineer.

        Stephen Morris has talked about this previously. The Elite only need a relatively small number of “Royal Guard” technically capable people to keep their systems working.

        Do you see the problem here? Putting up George Brandis to collect meta data is not the fix.

        Do not think for a second that I support the authoritarian police state Brandis and Co. are busily building.

        I am simply answering the question posed: “It will be hard to see how governments can clamp down on the net when the cost of entry is so low.”

        Government clamps down at the bottleneck – where you need to communicate with the outside world, because that is the part they can control. All the cheap rasberry pis in the world aren’t much use if they can’t communicate with the rest of the world.

      • DarkMatter

        What you are saying is it is a guerrilla war.

        You seem to be assuming that the powers that be will always win because they have the divine right to rule.

        At the moment that is true because everyone has a job and a mortgage and life is easy. Everyone pays their bills and if you don’t pay up you get smacked down. True enough.

        That is why the whole financial fraud system is working tickety-boo.

        What you are not addressing is that the whole system is unstable. The presumption that you can just hire another engineer to replace the one you threw in gaol is not a good long term plan. It is the epitome of arrogance to say that the power to buy and sell other people is superior to all human achievement.

        You seem to have given up. The Political Bullies, the Bankers, the Corporate criminals have power and you are just like the guy in Aliens 2 — “Game over man! Game over!”

        It ain’t over till the Fat Lady sings and that hasn’t happened yet.

      • drsmithyMEMBER

        Not hard to spoof a MAC address.

        Cool. So all you need now is a known working MAC (since all MACs will need to be registered at a central authority to be allowed on the network).

        Another interesting concept is a mesh or proximity network as used in the Honk Kong protests:

        Sure, that’s exactly what’s being described. But, again, at some point you are almost certainly going to want to communicate with people outside your mesh.

      • drsmithyMEMBER

        You seem to be assuming that the powers that be will always win because they have the divine right to rule.

        I am saying nothing of the sort.

        I am pointing out the flaws in your statements regarding technology and history.

        What you are not addressing is that the whole system is unstable. The presumption that you can just hire another engineer to replace the one you threw in gaol is not a good long term plan.

        The historical record disagrees.

        When have “the powers that be” *ever* had a problem recruiting capable people to their side ?

        There are plenty of people like 3d1k who can’t wait to take their 30 pieces of silver.

        Once they’ve burnt through those, there’s the unwilling participants. Most individuals, when faced with an ultimatum like: “help us or your family will be fed feet-first into this bark chipper” will decide to help (understandably so).

        Their *worst case scenario* is that they have to train people up from children rather than just recruit from the general populace.

        It is the epitome of arrogance to say that the power to buy and sell other people is superior to all human achievement.

        Please don’t lie about opinions I’ve never even sugested I hold, let alone explicitly stated.

        You seem to have given up.

        I simply don’t hold any illusions that a bunch of poor computer geeks with cheap computers are going to achieve much on a global scale if shit gets real.

        As Mr Morris says, fight the only fight worth winning: fix the system of Government. Anything else is, at best, buying time.

      • DarkMatter

        “I simply don’t hold any illusions that a bunch of poor computer geeks with cheap computers are going to achieve much on a global scale if shit gets real.”

        And there you have it. “poor” people can’t win .. “poor creative people” can’t win. You have just expressed the most depressing, defeatist position that is at all possible.

        Jesus Christ … can’t win
        Aaron Schwartz .. can’t win
        Martin Luther King .. can’t win

        Human history is an a struggle between the good and bad. We mustn’t ever give up. We can’t seem to get rid of the evil, but we have a long history of pulling the rug from under them.

        The good things people do are at least interesting. The evil is so mundane. Don’t just give up and pay the mortgage.

      • drsmithyMEMBER

        And there you have it. “poor” people can’t win .. “poor creative people” can’t win.

        That’s the second time in as many posts you’ve grossly misrepresented what I wrote.

        Clearly you’re just looking for straw men to rant against. I’ll leave you to it.

      • China-Bob

        @DM In support of what you’re saying there’a an interesting Bluetooth app that was developed in Egypt and basically creates an end point mesh network out of available mobile phones (as far as I know its only an sms equivalent) from what I understand the packets for local to local transmission never get to the main network backbone they’re resolved locally. I know some of the engineers involved and they are super paranoid so I’m guessing it actually maintains anonymity not just for message contents but more importantly for the connectivity and end point metadata. meaning the authorities dont have the who’s talking to whom data to fall back on….very important because Egypt is well known for the efficiency of their rubber-hose cryptanalysis methods.

    • Janet

      (Sigh)…
      “But the economy is also far from crisis…Within five months ….Australia will have officially completed 24 years of straight economic growth….. NSW and Victoria, and perhaps even Tasmania, are now on the cusp of a meaningful upswing. Much of that has been driven by a rebound in property markets….”

  30. UptownFunk

    Sadly – for all current and future Australians – Tony will prevail, together with his executive team.

    What damage has he, Joe Hockey and Mathias Cormann, especially, done to the economic budget debate over the last 12 months !!! Most of their LNP preferred choices have been shown to be completely unacceptable – to the extent that even they themselves now are dumping key elements in recognition of their very unwise choices.

    As for all of his others who also supported the dumping of the Carbon Tax and the Mining Tax , and the down-playing of the need to encourage renewable energy at the expense of coal , climate change denial impacts …. One just can’t believe even they themselves really believe in what they are doing in this regard.

    Equally sadly is Labour’s credentials in terms of absence of credible policies, very bleak historical record (that does not foster confidence in their management abilities) and absence of inspiring candidates.

    So, we are not looking too good either, or any, way.

    • Wing Nut

      I’m starting to think he will too. Apparently Abbott has been making the “more consultative, listening, change” statement since he was in opposition, apparently about 20 odd times and nothings happened. What will happen over the next 6 months is just reinforce at the next spill why the fuck didn’t we do this the first time!

      • Jake Gittes

        @WN More than likely that Abbott will succeed as its a backbench rebellion without much focus BUT the record on these things is that the party is irredeemably wounded. It goes on like an open sore for months and the media pick at it like a scab reminding voters of the problem. Whether Tone or Mal, some other Tory bloke, or Jules – as the economic and political narrative deteriorates it’s curtains as voters try the other lot to keep the exceptionalism fantasy alive.

        • Gunnamatta

          Lets just workshop that shall we……..

          May budget (after not getting up last years through senate) involving the cuts they didnt get to impose last year or budget return to surplus some time in late 2020s ……..’So Mr Backbencher, do you think that Prime Minister Abbot has turned his communications with the Australian people around?’

          Ford Closure in May and impending closure of car industry – ……..’So Mr Backbencher, do you think that Prime Minister Abbot has turned his communications with the Australian people around?’

          Rising unemployment later this year with no apparent traction from monetary policy stimulating retail or services demand ……..’So Mr Backbencher, do you think that Prime Minister Abbot has turned his communications with the Australian people around?’

          LNG Plants opening for export creating higher gas and electricity prices on east Coast ……..’So Mr Backbencher, do you think that Prime Minister Abbot has turned his communications with the Australian people around?’

          Rising tradable inflation as declining AUD kicks in ……..’So Mr Backbencher, do you think that Prime Minister Abbot has turned his communications with the Australian people around?’

          …and thats just the known knowns….

    • The Lorax

      Nonsense! He’s toast. He was toast the moment he announced Sir Prince Phil.

      He might not get rolled on Tuesday, but a few more months of disastrous polls, and leadership tensions and the LNP party room will be literally begging for Malcolm.

  32. 3d1k

    ‘Six decades ago, an agreement to cancel half of postwar Germany’s debt helped foster a prolonged period of prosperity in the war-torn continent. The new government in Athens says Greece – and Europe – now need a similar deal.’

    Something for a China to consider too?

    http://www.france24.com/en/20150129-london-agreement-1953-debt-write-germany-economic-miracle-greece-austerity/

    Difficulty lies in the complexities of counterparty positions and the interwoven interdependent nature of modern financial instruments.

    • Peter Fraser

      True – Germany was a serial defaulter in the 20th century but now as a creditor nation completely refuses to extend the same assistance it received from the USA and other European nations.

      Germany remains as a major aggressor in Europe.

  33. Janet

    WHEN this all goes wrong, globally, let’s remember…. it was all the RBA’s fault!

    ” China may be feeling increased urgency as it looks around the Asia-Pacific region. On Feb. 3, Australia surprised markets with a 25 basis-point rate cut, a step that Christy Tan at National Australia Bank says “stoked speculation of a currency war.” That move, she says, might have been what prompted the PBOC to suggest that it’s “preparing possible responses” to shifting financial dynamics.

    http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-02-06/is-china-preparing-for-currency-war-

    • 3d1k

      $30 oil, currency wars

      “If China decides to play the same game, it will be a disaster because commodity prices are going to crash because China consumes 40 percent of the world’s basic commodities,” Woo said. “And then you’re going to trigger a competitive devaluation around the world. The 10-year yield is going to go to 1.25 percent if China wants to devalue [its currency] 10 percent.”

      http://www.cnbc.com/id/102399810

  36. skippy

    Wellie its seems the whole Adani’s Australian coal mine project has that special smell about it…

    Adani’s Australian coal mine project hit by ownership controversy

    “The report said “it appears that Gautam Adani does not ultimately control many of the companies associated with his company’s Australian coal developments. Instead his eldest brother Vinod Shantilal Adani holds pivotal positions.”

    The report said Vinod has been named in an Indian criminal investigation into the alleged siphoning of 1 billion dillar from Indian shareholders in three Adani companies into offshore accounts.

    “Whatever the truth of the untested allegations, a trail of documents appears to tie Vinod Shantilal Adani to the ownership of the Abbot Point lease. One of the difficulties in following Adani’s corporate trail is conflicting paperwork,” the report said.

    “Company documents, including annual reports filed in?India, say Adani Enterprises ? the Bombay Stock Exchange-listed parent company for a network of related Adani entities ? had divested, or sold, its interest in Abbot Point Port in 2013 for 235 million dollars to a private company in?Singapore?called Abbot Point Port Holdings,” it said.

    “A company record lodged in?Singapore?names Abbot Point Port Holdings’ sole director as Vinod Shantilal Adani, the report said adding that?records at Australian Securities and Investments Commission, and annual reports for Adani’s registered Australian companies, were in the name a publicly listed Indian company, Adani?Ports?and Special Economic Zone, as the ultimate shareholder for the port,” the report said.

    It said the company that interacted with Queensland and federal governments has been another subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, Adani Mining Pty Ltd.

    Adani spokesperson insisted there was nothing untoward about this arrangement.

    “Ownership structures of the companies reflect the required level of ring-fencing and financial governance architecture required for a mine, rail and port project, and T1 (Abbot Point) port operations.

    “The above is also layered to meet the various regulatory and funding regimes that apply to these assets,” Adani’s spokesman said.

    Any suggestion of irregularities or non-compliance was “fanciful”, he said adding it was unnecessary to respond to allegations about Vinod Shantilal Adani.

    “The claims about ownership structures that are based on this premise, having been shown to be incorrect, don’t follow,” he said.

    “This is unfortunate. Having emphatically rejected the premise of these falsehoods, it is self-evidently unnecessary to rebut supplementary falsehoods.”

    The latest report has come after Adani Mining stated that the Queensland poll results would have no influence on its Carmichael Coal Mining project.”

    http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report-adani-s-australian-coal-mine-project-hit-by-ownership-controversy-2058901

    skippy….all the mean while India, china and others are saying their going to massively expand solar, Buffet 15 billion [Yep renewable credits do have a part to play in it].

    • StatSailor

      A lot of the year I miss living 100m from Victoria street, Abbotsford. This weekend I don’t.

      • Gunnamatta

        I once lived in that knick of the woods in the mid 90s – great place to live with all the Viets, and just around the corner was the pub they used to to do the Sullivans in (which did good meals then) and the Abbotsford did good meals then too, and they still played games at Vic park back then too. I had a mate (from up country) get out of the train at Collingwood station one day and walk straight into the Laird ‘O Cockpen (which we used to refer to as the Leather Cockateel) and in the midst of a phone call from the bar to work out where i lived spot a large papier mache penis suspended from the roof above the pool table (he didnt realise the pub was for a select clientele when he went in) – he was still in a state of considerable shock when he got to our place 5 minutes later. There was still industry about there then – I have no idea if there is now.

    • StatSailor

      There’s self-storage on the same street as the Laird. We lived close enough to walk overlflow items around there, which we did once on a public holiday – interesting sight seeing people changing into Laird appropriate attire in the cars and in the street.(that public holiday seemed to be a major festival for bears).

      Still some small factories, of course many now apartments, and it continues.

      Melbourne’s most valuable real estate per square foot, incidentally.

    • ErmingtonPlumbingMEMBER

      From above link

      ” Today, many of the premises of civilised life in Britain are being dismantled in order to pay back a fraudulent debt – the debt of crooks. The “austerity” cuts are said to be £83 billion. That’s almost exactly the amount of tax avoided by the same banks and by corporations like Amazon and Murdoch’s News UK. Moreover, the crooked banks are given an annual subsidy of £100bn in free insurance and guarantees – a figure that would fund the entire National Health Service.

      The economic crisis is pure propaganda. Extreme policies now rule Britain, the United States, much of Europe, Canada and Australia. Who is standing up for the majority? Who is telling their story? Who’s keeping record straight? Isn’t that what journalists are meant to do?”

      Obedient workers doing their job.

  39. rich42

    Now they’re finally turning against Hockey.

    The problem’s not Abbott, Hockey or Turnbull.

    It’s the whole stinking LNP philosophy and ethos. Get rid of them.

  40. rich42

    Senator Ian Macdonald says Tony “knows what’s good for Australia”.

    Selling our assets and populating is good for Australia?

    How fucking ridiculous.

    • 8millMEMBER

      Bought on behalf of my client who is based in china?…hello!
      The issue we have is the state gov in particular is more concerned about to 5% stamp duty bonus, then the long term effect this is having on our, let me say that again, our, society.
      This quasi Political correct rubbish, I’m done with it. It’s time to step on a few Chinese fingers for the good of our society.

      • drsmithyMEMBER

        This quasi Political correct rubbish, I’m done with it. It’s time to step on a few Chinese fingers for the good of our society.

        What ? It has nothing to do with politically correct anything, it’s slavish adherence to a market ideology that dictates anyone who has the money should be able to buy whatever they want, wherever they want [because they’ve “earnt” it].

    • V

      The smugness by all concearned in that video!

      So if a 0.25% rate cut = +$35000 bid on a property then cutting by say another 8 x 0.25% will result in say the $600,000 property now being ‘worth’ $880,000.

      I know thats domain.com.au economics but that should scare the bejesus out of anyone.

  46. V

    Question for the readership.
    If the policy proposal in the next LNP budget was *BOOM* Negative gearing abolished.

    Would you vote for the LNP if Labor took the line “It’s an attack on hardworking home owners”?.

    • Gunnamatta

      Yes.

      The Torynuffs absolutely appall me (As do the ALParatchiks). But I will swallow my wider thoughts and reservations about my fellow travellers for the first party which begins the process of winding back the politico housing complex. I dont think removing NG will do it all (or even all that much in the first instance) but I would consider it a start and would vote on that basis.

      I also think the housing rort lobby knows that it is a fine balance with everything in its favour that keeps the lobby where it is, and that the removal of one thing in its favour simply means it is a matter of time for the rest.

    • drsmithyMEMBER

      Couldn’t bring myself to vote for the gargoyles in the LNP over a single issue.

      The Greens generally support sane policies like that from either side anyway, and would probably end up with the balance of power.

    • migtronixMEMBER

      Proposal? Pffft no!

      If they had been trying for 18months to do something about it, with bills in place that had been rejected by Labor many times. Then yes. But until then its just more empty words like “no surprises government”

  47. China-Bob

    @Mig and others
    I want to get some cheap “burner” / travel laptops and was wondering if anyone has directly installed Mint on a Chromebook looks possible based on a quick check but no idea which hardware is most supported. I dont trust Google so I’m not happy with a Cinnamon loaded via Crouton I also want to maintain LiveUSB capability.

    Any ideas?

  48. Ortega

    PAY BACK THE DEBT MERKEL

    WWII reparations – Greece’s other dispute with Germany

    http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite6_1_07/02/2015_547019

    “Greece’s occupation by the Nazis from 1941 was one of the most bloody in Europe, with Hitler’s forces rampaging, pillaging and shooting, and encountering a nation that fiercely resisted.

    The Nazi regime ended up bleeding Greece dry. The Third Reich forced the Greek central bank to loan it 476 million Reichsmarks which has never been reimbursed.”

    A German Bundestag lower house of parliament report in 2012 put the value of the loan at $8.25 billion.
    Albrecht Ritschl, a professor of economic history, said in an interview with Germany’s Spiegel news weekly in 2011 that “Germany has been the 20th century’s worst payer of debts”.

  49. Ortega

    PAY BACK THE DEBT MERKEL!!

    WWII reparations – Greece’s other dispute with Germany

    http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite6_1_07/02/2015_547019

    “Greece’s occupation by the Nazis from 1941 was one of the most bloody in Europe, with Hitler’s forces rampaging, pillaging and shooting, and encountering a nation that fiercely resisted.

    The Nazi regime ended up bleeding Greece dry. The Third Reich forced the Greek central bank to loan it 476 million Reichsmarks which has never been reimbursed.”

    A German Bundestag lower house of parliament report in 2012 put the value of the loan at $8.25 billion.
    Albrecht Ritschl, a professor of economic history, said in an interview with Germany’s Spiegel news weekly in 2011 that “Germany has been the 20th century’s worst payer of debts”.